Blair Lazar, owner of Blair’s Sauces & Snacks, based in Highlands, has turned extremely hot sauces into a hot commodity. HIGHLANDS – – It was closing time, 2 a.m. in a bar on the Jersey Shore in 1989, and Blair Lazar was ready to pack up and go home for the night after a night of slinging drinks. There was only one problem – a few bar patrons don’t want the party to end. The solution to that problem turned Lazar’s career and life upside down.
Lazar simply made a deal with those pesky customers. If they could eat four wings with his special hot sauce, they could stay in the bar for the rest of the night. Nobody was able to do it, and Blair’s Sauces & Snacks was born.
What started with only $550 in bar tips has now turned into a global corporation that has put Lazar in the Guinness Book of World Records for the hottest chili sauce commercially available in the world, which Lazar says is his proudest accomplishment. Originally from the Jersey Shore, Lazar was told that a Jersey boy didn’t know anything about hot sauce, but he has proved his critics wrong.
“I would always hear, ‘Oh, what does a Jersey boy know about hot sauce?’” said Lazar, whose business is based in the Highlands. “And today I can proudly say I’m in the Guinness Book of World Records for knowing about hot sauce, so I guess a Jersey boy does know something about hot sauce.”
One particular flavor, Jersey Death, gives a nod to his local roots. Lazar uses Jersey tomato puree in this sauce to bring a little taste of the Garden State to the rest of the world. Other sauce flavors have names like Mega Death, Beyond Death, Muerte, Possible Side Effects and Sudden Death.
Although Lazar has become extremely successful with his goal of making people “feel alive” throughout the years, he maintains that he is the least corporate person that you will ever meet. Lazar said he has not and never will write a business plan; he just simply has fun with the products he makes. His product taps into the ethos of an extreme society he believes we live in, but this was not his intention in the beginning.
“We are an extreme society in every which way, and I am just another example of how extreme we are,” Lazar said. “Why do we sell over a million bags of chips a month? Why do we sell thousands of bottles of hot sauce? It’s because obviously we are in an extreme world, and people want extreme everything, and I’m gonna give it to you.”
Since its inception, Lazar’s product line has expanded far past his famous Death Sauce. He also sells Blair’s Heat, which is a line of barbecue sauces, along with a series of flavored potato chips, which have become very successful. Lazar said he gets thousands of e-mails from customers saying they love the sauce and would like to find where they can get it around them.
“Still today, at 37 years old, I feel like it’s just beginning,” Lazar said. “I’m not one to say, look what I’ve done. I say, look what I’m going to do. I’m proud of where we are, but there’s so much more to do.”
At the heart of it, Lazar’s product brings out the daredevil in his customers. He feels that his product will liven up any party within seconds. That’s something he has always strived to do, and will continue to do as long as customers continue to put their taste buds to the test.
“I offer fun food; it’s food that makes a party fun,” Lazar said. “I can get a party going really quick. I can liven up any party – fact. I will make you feel alive and I will make people smile and laugh and have a good time. That’s the appeal right there, it’s fun.”
For more information on Blair’s Sauces & Snacks, visit www.extremefood.com.