Shaggy’s Salsa

Shaggy’s Salsa™ started with me, a 21-year-old waiter in a white-tablecloth Mexican restaurant—black slacks, pressed tux shirt, bow tie—yup, a bow tie. I fell in love with the food and the kitchen. But after leaving that gig, every salsa I bought tasted like bland tomato soup, so I started making my own.

Fast-forward 19 years to 2009. I’m a stay-at-home dad in Northwest Arkansas with a two-year-old son and a brand-new baby girl. My wife enters my salsa in a contest at her work. It wins. People tell me I should sell it. Soon I’m at the Bentonville Farmers Market, then on shelves at Ozark Natural Foods, local groceries, and even Whole Foods in Little Rock. By 2012, I’m in 14 stores.

Life pulled us to Connecticut, and the salsa business hit pause. Now we’re back in Arkansas. Our son’s a freshman in college, our daughter’s a junior in high school, and my family finally talked me into bringing Shaggy’s Salsa™ back. Same recipe. Zero bow ties. Definitely grayer.