Southern California in the late 1940’s was a much different place then it is today. Much of the area now teeming with people was then acres of citrus orchards and open space. The post war mood of the country was on an upswing full with potential. Locally, land was changing hands and fortunes were there to be made. A young man could almost taste opportunity in the air.
It was in this atmosphere that Chris Pelonis sought to fulfill his dream to open a bar-b-q restaurant. He was able to borrow $2000 from his father and began to search for a suitable location to set up shop. While traveling down Tweedy Boulevard in Lynwood, he came across an empty space that had been a dry cleaning shop. Within a short time and some sweat equity, Chris and his partner Morris Pittman opened the doors to the first Chris’ & Pitt’s Bar-B-Q Restaurant.
The interior décor wasn’t much, sawdust on the floor and wooden benches yet the customers flocked in night after night. His homemade recipe for the bar-b-q sauce had something special. He spent his days in the restaurant kitchen and nights in his own kitchen tending to batches of sauce, tweaking the recipe until he had it perfected. News spread quickly and a barbeque sensation was born.
Soon the one location became many and Chris’ & Pitt’s Bar-B-Q became the standard for Southern California barbeque flavor. The demand for the flavorful sauce was so strong it became obvious a bottled version would be a success. Not only was the sauce a success, over the years Chris’ & Pitt’s Bar-B-Q Sauce went on to become the best selling barbeque sauce in the west.
As time past and fads and brands with less quality ingredients and taste came and went Chris’ & Pitt’s Bar-B-Q Sauce remained as a Southern California standard. Recently, when First Street Food Group, LLC, long time fans of the brand, saw the potential to capture the renown quality and taste developed back in 1949, they jumped at the chance to re-energize the sauce and return it to its place as leader in the barbeque genre.
Painstakingly, the recipe was enhanced with high quality ingredients, careful to compliment and accent the distinctive classic flavor the brand has always represented. Our new label design reflects our vision to celebrate the original flavor and goodness begun in 1949 while announcing the melding of traditional quality with modern overtones for the 21st century.
Currently, we’re presenting three varieties of the Bar-B-Q Sauce:
- Classic Original - We started the process by taking the flavor and goodness of this Southern California Bar-B-Q Sauce icon and enhanced the flavor with quality ingredients to accentuate the flavor profile.
- Mesquite - Accents the sauce flavor with a silhouette of clear forest mesquite wood.
- Spicy Southwestern - Uses a blend of spices that reflects the taste and flavors of the southwest with a Southern California sensibility.
We invite you to acquaint yourself, or perhaps reacquaint yourself with the delicious flavor Chris’ & Pitt’s Sauces brings to your table. We see this website as a forum to inform and share recipes, events and even just stories where we can all share the Southern California Barbeque lifestyle that Chris’ & Pitt’s epitomizes. We welcome you to our community and would enjoy your participation!
