You can take the boy out of Cajun country, but you can’t take the Cajun taste buds out of the boy. Sartain is a French name, and Jim’s family on both sides lives in the area where Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee come together. With a sweeping gesture Jim says, “Mom’s family has these cemeteries, and Dad’s family has these cemeteries.”
When his dad wanted to get out of Mississippi, he came to California. Jim was born in San Francisco and has stayed in this area, but his folks got homesick and recently moved back to Mississippi.
Jim and his partner Rebecca Lee have been making The Sauce for 20 years. The original inspiration came from a chipotle paste that came from Mexico, to which Jim “added this and that.”
At the end of the workday, Jim would sometimes go for a beer at the Rancho Nicasio in western Marin. The ketchup served with the chicken wings, poppers and fries wasn’t too exciting, so Jim started bringing his own sauce. Somebody would want to try it, so he’d send it down the bar. Next thing you know, he was going through a bottle of sauce every time he went, and everybody was nagging him to bottle it and sell it.
He and Rebecca took business classes at the local college and then took almost a year to get the recipe for a large quantity to match the results of a recipe for a small quantity. They couldn’t compromise on the ingredients: Jim had always used Cuervo Gold Tequila, so that had to stay the same. And of course, the recipe still uses chipotle paste from Mexico.
The product had been called simply “The Sauce” for so long that the name stuck. Jim loves to make fajitas, so next he added The Marinade.”
The only problem is that people like The Sauce so much that they steal the bottles.
Jim has gotten emails from people who confess to having stolen a bottle from McNear’s Restaurant in Petaluma, and now they want to know where they can buy more. Jim laughs, “We chastise them for stealing from McNear's and then send them some more.”
The Sauce can be used on and in everything. Next up? A barbecue sauce. Jim made one that was perfect, but he got wrapped up in what he was doing and forgot to write down the recipe, so he needs to start again.
The goal: “The day will come when every table in America will have a bottle of The Sauce on the table along with the salt and pepper.”
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