Staff Writer
The sauce that has drawn customers to a local barbecue restaurant for nearly 20 years is now on the shelves of a local retailer, and restaurant owners hope to have the sauce available nationwide.
Jerome Brown’s BBQ and Wings grew from one location on Edgewood Avenue about 18 years ago to another on North Main Street about three years ago, and now retail sales of its original sauce will grow from those two locations to the three Sam’s Club stores in Jacksonville.
“It’s a wonderful chance to get our brand out there,” said Jerome Brown, creator of the sauce. “We’ve earned it by creating a product that the public enjoys and we plan to do well with the opportunity.”
Brown classifies the sauce as a southern-style mustard sauce. It was available to sample Friday at the Busch Drive location. Jerome, wife Joanne and daughter Katrina dished out samples of the sauce with chicken and pork for most of the afternoon. The half gallon jugs of “Jerome Brown’s Original Bar-B-Q Sauce” will be available at the Busch Drive, Youngerman Circle and Beach Boulevard locations.
Brown wasn’t actively approaching stores about stocking his sauce, but he was invited to a business expo consisting of Sam’s Club members and decided to take advantage of the opportunity.
They are held to allow Sam’s Club members to see what business services are available to them through the store, said Kristina Johnson, marketing manager for the Busch Drive store.
“Some of our buyers and marketing team tasted the sauce during the expo and decided bring the sauce into our stores,” said Johnson. “(The Browns’) giving spirit and all they do
for the community, along with the great taste of the sauce, helped us to decide to give them an opportunity in our stores.”
The store will monitor sales of the sauce and, if it sells well, the sauce could be picked up nationally throughout the chain.
356-2466