BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Saw's barbecue sauce, a staple in Birmingham since 2009, got a plug Sunday in The New York Times Magazine courtesy a New York chef with Alabama ties.
Saw's Sauce, already a hit in Birmingham, got a plug in New York. (File)
The magazine asked 11 top New York chefs to open their home refrigerators and discuss what was inside. Kyle Knall, chef at the Manhattan restaurant Maysville, had a bottle of the sauce on his top shelf.
“The Saw’s Sauce is just incredible,” Knall told the Times. “My brother-in-law sells it in Birmingham, so whenever I go visit, I always take some back to New York. It’s a reminder of home.”
Mike Wilson, who owns Saw's BBQ in Homewood and is a co-owner of Saw's Soul Kitchen in Avondale and Saw's Juke Joint in Crestline, said he doesn't know Knall personally, but that the chef has lots of Alabama ties and is a regular in the Homewood restaurant when he's in town.
Knall's brother-in-law owns Birmingham's V. Richards market, which carries the sauce and sells it mail-order, Wilson said.
The plug in the magazine has already resulted in a bump in sales, he said.
“You can’t buy that. It’s huge,” he said of the publicity.
Wilson, who used to work for Cooking Light magazine, launched Saw's in 2009.
The sauce has uses beyond barbecue. Wilson said it's sometimes used on raw oysters, as a marinade, as a fried chicken dipping sauce and as an ingredient in Bloody Marys.