I am quite the BBQ sauce addict, so I jumped at the opportunity to review a couple of bottles from Famous Dave's. To get a real appreciation for the sauce, I got the plainest tasting thing I could think of: a plain corn tortilla (also, I have about 1000 of 'em leftover in my refrigerator from a party last week). I wanted to see which sauce or sauce combination was the best. I poured the three sauces onto plate, and mixed them into the seven possible combinations:
- Wilbur's Revenge Hot Sauce
- Devil's Spit
- Georgia Mustard
- Wilbur's + Devil's
- Wilbur's + Georgia
- Devil's + Georgia
- Wilbur's + Devil's + Georgia
First up: Wilbur's Revenge.
I was the most excited about this one, because I really love spicy things. The packaging comes with a warning label: "Caution: Hot," but that's for people who think they like hot stuff. So, I gave my tortilla a healthy dip and chowed-down. This is where the fun started. I started hiccuping and my mouth was burning way more than expected. Holy cow, this was actually packing some heat. Unfortunately, the flavor of the sauce leave something to be desired. The sauce lists high fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient and it really comes through as an overly-sweet flavor. Would I eat it again? Sure, when I find the bottle in the back of my 'fridge. Am I going to go out and buy more bottles? Nope.
Next up: the others
I had to abort the taste test that night, and try again later. It turns out that the other flavors by themselves were pretty boring, and not worth mentioning.
Finally
I will say that one of the combos ended up being good: Wilbur's Revenge + Georgia Mustard. The sharp tang and garlic flavor of the Georgia Mustard really help cut down on the cloying sweetness of the Wilbur's. It also helped manage the heat. No hiccups this time.
I think Dave has some iterations on his sauce lineup before he's nailed it. But, they've got a solid base, and it'll be interesting to see where they go.
Appendix
A couple of interesting side notes I found while researching this post.
- The founder of Famous Dave's, Dave Anderson, served in the U.S. Federal Government as the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs as part of the Department of the Interior.
- The restaurant is a publicly traded company. You can own your own little slice of Famous Dave's for just $32.10 (as of 6/2/2014)
Editorial disclosure: Famous Dave's sent us bottles of their sauces for our honest review. Foodista was not monetarily compensated.
