A&B American Style was founded by two life-long friends—Brian Ballan and Ariel Fliman–in New York City. The two came about the idea when they realized that many people around them were making terrible food choices, and they wanted to create products that would allow people to make the most out of their food. Today, A&B American Style pepper sauce has grown to become one of the most loved pepper sauce companies in America. If you are curious about the story behind A&B American Style pepper sauce or would like to learn how to make A&B American Style pepper sauce, this article is for you.
How A&B Started
In 2010, Brian Ballan resigned from his bank job to follow his passion for making great food, while Ariel Fliman quit his job as a lawyer in New York to venture into pepper sauce. Ballan joined Buddakan, in New York City, as a line cook in order to develop his culinary skills. At roughly the same time Ballan got into the cooking career, Ariel Fliman was creating hot pepper sauces and was starting to get really good at it, all while doing it from the comfort of his kitchen. Due to their shared passion for creating delicious food, Brian and Ariel decided to partner up and launch their own unique pepper sauce. Soon after they came to an agreement, they launched their pepper sauce and started marketing it around New York. Since then, they have increased the number of products and flavors they offer and have diversified from their local specialty shops to grocery stores all around America. A&B American sauce became quite successful after it’s launch and was featured in Bon Appetit and Serious Eats.
Ballan and Fliman have been chile pepper lovers for as long as they can remember. As children, the two would often compete to determine who could consume the spiciest pepper, and unsurprisingly they would both lose most of the time. However, the more they participated in the competitions, the more they started to appreciate pepper’s nuanced flavors. When the two became of age, they developed a desire to bring their pepper appreciation to the world, and it was then that A&B American Style Pepper Sauce was born.
According to Ballan and Fliman, when it comes to making a delicious pepper sauce, minimalism is key. Although they only incorporate simple ingredients into their pepper sauce, they do a mighty fine job capturing the chiles’ flavors. A&B American style does a special annual edition of their New York city rooftop pepper sauce. These are named after the fact that the chiles used to make the pepper sauce are actually grown at a rooftop a couple of blocks away from their kitchen. People from around New York City really love this pepper sauce. The most interesting thing about this is that the only difference between this pepper sauce and the original pepper sauce is where the chiles are grown. The fact that the two chiles are grown in different places and in different seasons makes the flavors quite different. You would be surprised at how distinct the two flavors are if you taste them one after the other.