There’s a citrus-y, sweetness to this tangy, tomato-based sauce, followed by a kick! It’s a refreshing take on your regular, grocery store barbecue sauce. Aptly named, “Sweet and Tangy,” it’s the first barbecue sauce created by Father and Son’s Kitchen, a company founded in 2019 by Norwood resident, Luis Rivera Jr.

 

Like all entrepreneurs, Rivera knew the first year of his start-up would be a gamble but hoped that by working hard and staying focused, things would get easier in his second year of business. Little did he know things were about to get a whole lot crazier in 2020.

 

Father and Son’s Kitchen is an artisan, gourmet food company that also provides personalized culinary services. Rivera has a passion for American barbecue sauce and produces a range of different flavors at Bronx Cook Space, located at 50E. 168^th Street, a few blocks from the Grand Concourse.

 

He also offers a consultation-based, personal chef service for up to fifteen people (in compliance with COVID-19 guidelines) where he cooks and creates a restaurant-style atmosphere in his clients’ homes.

 

Rivera said he draws inspiration for his sauces from Piedmont-style, Carolina barbecue sauce. A piedmont dip is a tomato, vinegar and pepper sauce, traditionally eaten as a dip with shredded whole hog in North Carolina.

 

When Rivera’s son Mason was just three, the little boy was eager to help his father in the kitchen, which is how Father and Son’s Kitchen got its name. “I would teach him how to use the measuring cups and spoons, and how to set everything up in order,” he said.

 

Though Mason is now 13, and no longer stands on a stool to test his father’s dishes, he’s become quite the steak person, according to his dad. Mason’s favorite dish, made by his father, is a ribeye steak with a pinot noir sauce, made with shallots, garlic, thyme, rosemary and beef stock. Rivera serves this dish with red potatoes roasted in bacon fat and sautéed green beans.

 

Rivera’s culinary journey began at Citi Field. He can’t remember who played the Mets that day in 2009, but he does recall where he stood while he ate the pulled pork sandwich with a Memphis-style sauce that piqued his interest in American barbecue. Memphis-style sauce is akin to the Piedmont dip he tells the Norwood News, but slightly sweeter and smokier.

 

In the nineties, after high school, Rivera went straight into the workforce, but in 2010, he left his position as an inventory control coordinator at Tiffany & Co. to study culinary arts at Monroe College. “I got accepted, and thus started the journey of working a full-time job, and going to school at night,” he said.

 

During his studies, he entered a barbecue sauce competition. To his surprise, he won! The school funded the production of his winning sauce for two semesters, and he sold it at the New Rochelle farmer’s market.

 

After graduating, he hopped between a variety of seasonal gigs, had a dry spell, worked at the Roxy Hotel in Manhattan, and later as a food service manager at the City’s education department. He said though his colleagues were talented and hard-working, the bureaucracy there discouraged him. He said he believed it caused the food quality and service delivery to suffer.

 

“I sold my culinary soul to work at, arguably, one of the most questionable food service operations in the country,” he chuckled. Later, while working as an executive chef at Sunrise Senior Living in 2019, he hurt his back.

With nothing but time on his hands, Rivera fumbled through some old USB drives and found his cost spreadsheet for his winning barbecue sauce at Monroe College. He decided to take the plunge, got his processing license, wrote out recipes, got them tested, built up his inventory, and then…the pandemic hit.

 

Rivera said it’s been a challenging time. “Most of the support, in the beginning, came from either family, friends, people in my life and immediate network,” he said. Because his business had not been in operation that long, and he doesn’t have a payroll, he was not eligible for paycheck or debt relief.

 

After the initial shock in March, he said they got a little bit of a rush going through April and June. “In June, I ran a Father’s Day package that came with a barbecue grilling kit,” he said, but then the rush died down. “I said, ‘Okay, we got to give these people something new’.”

 

Rivera came up with a sauce sub-brand called, “Mi Gente, Mi Tierra,” (My People, My Land). Inspired by the flavors of the Caribbean, the sauce range includes two new varieties: Passionfruit and Spicy Guayaba.

 

The product packaging is based on the Taino people – the indigenous people of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, The Bahamas, and the northern Lesser Antilles. “It’s generally accepted within the barbecue community, that the word ‘barbecue’ is actually derived from the Taino word ‘barbacoa’,” Rivera explained.

 

He said his Passion Fruit sauce is inspired by trips to Puerto Rico, where his grandmother would make fresh passion fruit juice from the trees in the backyard. He recommends it on grilled shrimp skewers with peppers and pineapple chunks, saying it’s sweeter than his Sweet and Tangy sauce but has more fruit-y and citrus-y notes.

 

Meanwhile, Spicy Guayaba is a salivating mesh of guava with a subtle spiciness, which he recommends as a glaze on fried or smoked wings. His favorite, Sweet and Tangy, he likes drizzled over a classic pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw.

 

Rivera said he definitely took a hit with the pandemic. The plan had been to roll out his website once he presented his first sauce at pop-ups and farmers’ markets, but with the shutdown, this was no longer an option. He didn’t feel alone in this.

 

While the city allowed restaurants to expand with outdoor seating, there were not many extra provisions made for small food vendors. “I would have liked to see more done for the smaller entrepreneur you know?” he said. “Like, the hot dog guy on the corner or the small batch baker.”

 

Despite the set-back, Rivera remains optimistic. Though he sometimes wishes he had discovered his calling sooner, he has no regrets. “Over time, I have come to realize and accept that my journey played out just as it should have.”