About Hot Sauce Williams

Meet a reality TV darling...

Hot Sauce Williams may sit in an unpretentious storefront, but its hot sauce-doused fried chicken, rib dinners, and perch by the bucketful have a national profile; the restaurant has appeared on Man vs. Food and No Reservations.

...with humble beginnings...

The Williams family, led by the five Williams brothers, first opened the spot in 1964. Not only did they have no experience in the restaurant industry, they also had no official hot sauce recipe, and no name for their new business. Lemaud Williams joked that hot sauce-making was an instinct that ran in the family. The moniker "Hot Sauce Williams" only materialized when customers decided they had to call the sign-less eatery something.

...and not-at-all humble hot sauce.

That spiced condiment remains the restaurant's signature, a zesty blend that's not so dangerously hot that geckos who eat it become dragons. Try it as Man vs. Food's Adam Richman did—on a kielbasa sausage heaped with fries, slaw, and a generous dousing of sauce.