Outer Limits was born in a Bayonne kitchen when Ed Martin decided to try his hand at making hot sauce. He was frustrated because the sauces on the market were weak and vinegary. Martin used homegrown peppers from his garden to make the sauce. He and his father had grown habaneros together since his childhood, and Martin wanted to capture the fiery taste they loved. A lifelong fan of spicy food, Martin got in trouble as a kid for bringing chilis to school with his lunch. “On more than one occasion someone would try to prove they were tougher than me and eat one whole and end up in horrible pain,” Martin laughs. “Then I would get called to the office and told not to bring them in again, but I inevitably would anyway.”
Like a chemist or wizard, he mixed up various versions, homing in on the pure flavor he wanted. The result was a sauce that was loaded with the intense heat of Hot Paper Lantern Habanero, blowing away everything on store shelves.
“The first thing you smell and taste is the habaneros,” Martin says of the original recipe. “It has a bold, peppery taste, with just a hint of garlic.”
In 2011, making hot sauce was a hobby that Martin shared with his father, Edward Martin III. They perfected the Habanero Hot Sauce and created the Jalapeno Lime flavor, with a citrusy punch and lower heat level. Through trial and error, the Martins worked until they got the consistency and taste up to their standards.
Going Pro
Friends frequently asked when they would start selling their famous concoction, but limited space and supplies, as well as work responsibilities, kept Martin from focusing fully on his spicy creations.
He spent years working in the music industry, managing the PR campaigns of bands like Slipknot, Lamb of God, and Opeth. He made a career change when he got the opportunity to work as head of U.S. sales for an international concert ticketing startup. Less than a year after he took the position, the company closed down, leaving Martin jobless.
Then Hurricane Irene tore through New Jersey, causing damage to Ed Martin III’s Long Branch property. A large shade tree in his backyard fell down, tearing up the garden where his peppers grew. What could have seemed like double disasters led to an exciting venture. Martin’s father’s yard gained light and space to grow a bigger garden. Martin was able to devote more time to his hot sauce, holding tasting parties for friends, tweaking the recipes, and testing them on the road.
He handed out samples in the parking lots outside of concerts of jam bands like Phish. Concert goers congregate around venues before and after shows, buying merchandise ranging from T-shirts to burritos in a makeshift, fan-run market known as Shakedown Street. Martin was thrilled to find that strangers loved his tasty concoctions as much as his friends did.
Inspired by the successful road test, Martin invested in industrial-size pots and an immersion blender “the size of a boat propeller.”
Duty Calls
Happy as he was with this endeavor, Martin was still looking for a job. Growing up with a family business had turned him into a self-proclaimed workaholic. Since age 12, he’d worked at his father’s ski shop, Outer Limits.
Meanwhile, Martin used his PR background to build a following for the hot sauce brand that would carry the name of his father’s old business. Then his longtime girlfriend was diagnosed with stage-three colon cancer. Putting everything else on hold, he supported her through treatment.
“Ed came with me to every appointment, doctor visit, chemo treatment, everything,” says Chelsea Kolakowski, “He slept in a chair next to my hospital bed after my surgery, every night.”
Martin’s most important role in Kolakowski’s recovery was to stay positive.
“I have immense trust in Ed, so when he told me that everything was going to be OK, I had to believe it would be,” Kolakowski says.
Martin was right; Kolakowski has been healthy for over a year. The couple plans to marry in 2015.
Boss of the Hot Sauce
Kolakowski persuaded Martin to forget the job hunt and make hot sauce his priority. She knew he was happiest being his own boss.
“I spent countless hours online figuring out what it would take to make the company a reality, and the more I learned the more doable it seemed,” Martin says. “Even if it doesn’t succeed you will know you did all you can and won’t have to worry about those what-ifs in the future. Better to try and fail and have a good time in the process than regret and wonder.”
In 2013, at his fiancée’s urging, Martin decided to crowd-source funds via Kickstarter. Using his social media savvy, he got friends and former clients like Slipknot to help raise money by mentioning his campaign on social media sites.
Martin III, unfamiliar with crowd-funding, was skeptical. Outer Limits set a goal of $10,000; Martin wasn’t sure that hot sauce fans would donate to a fledgling company. But donations rolled in, and the Martins quickly surpassed their goal, bagging $11,000 and pre-selling more than 300 bottles.
The money helped the Martins take Outer Limits to the next level, filing for trademark protection and investing in design work for the labels.
“Long before we were ready to sell the sauce we knew we’d need to have a logo that was eye-catching to help differentiate us from all the other hot sauce companies out there.” Martin says.
Music industry experience put edgy visual artists like David Cook on Martin’s radar. “I gave him a super crude sketch of what I had in mind,” Martin says. “He took it and ran with it and the logo came out better than I could have imagined.”
Martin has also worked with artist and concert promoter, Rich Hall, and a Boston area artist who goes by the name of Tofu Squirrel.
If You Can Stand the Heat…
Outer Limits Hot Sauce is available online and in many retail spots. Visit outerlimitshotsauce.com. You can also get it at the Bayonne Farmers’ Market. Lauren Halecky Dellabella, who runs the market, says that Martin is driven and entrepreneurial; Outer Limits has been one of the hottest (pun intended) sellers of the season. “Sampling products is always helpful, and Outer Limits has samples at every market,” she says.
The Martins whip up test batches right here in town. Committed to making an all-natural product, their test-batch peppers are grown in Bayonne and Long Branch. The newest flavor is Serrano Cilantro, herbaceous cilantro and sweet onion that pair well with the kick of serrano peppers.
But the real stuff is now made in a certified processing facility in Reading, Pa. “Making 10 gallons of Habanero Hot Sauce in a two-bedroom apartment with no ventilation is absolutely brutal,” Martin says. “I would say it’s comparable to setting pepper spray off in your kitchen.” —BLP
Photos by Maxim Ryazansky