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Chicago Lemon Pepper and Mild Sauce

 
Subject: Where To Find J & J Fish / Harold's / Shark's Lemon Pepper and Mild Sauce
From: Jim
Date: 11/29/2019, 12:15 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

On 11/28/2019 11:17 PM, Jim Jones wrote:

Where To Find That J&J Fish / Harold's / Shark's Lemon Pepper and Mild Sauce

Do you know where I can find the lemon pepper they use in all the Chicago restaurants - 
(JJ Fish & Chicken, Harolds, Shark's, Uncle Remus, Whales, Island Fish & Chicken)?

Also the mild sauce. Anywhere I can buy it by the gallon?

I've read some older posts on here and there was no definite answers. I'm not interested 
in making either. I just want to know where I can go buy them where people actually tried 
them as well. There are hundreds of different lemon peppers and all the one's I tried aren't 
as good.

I read your response to http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m0224M14.htm but it 
seems like they stopped selling the Moo & Oink Barbecue Sauce.

Thank You For Any Suggestions!

Hello Jim,

I'm afraid we're going to strike out on this. I searched again today, and I had zero success finding any place on the Internet where someone, like a former employee of one of those places, says "at J&J Fish / Harold's / Shark's we used xxxx brand of Lemon Pepper and xxxx brand of Mild Sauce." It just hasn't happened, and it may not ever happen.

These places may not buy a brand of lemon pepper/mild sauce that is sold commercially.  They may make these up themselves at a central commissary or they may have an outside vendor make them up to order from the buyer's recipe. The product would then be shipped pre-made to the individual restaurants and would not be available to the general public at all.

There is some discussion about the lemon pepper on this forum: J&J Fish Lemon Pepper This person may not be correct, but he says: "you might wanna check some of the warehouse stores (i.e.: 70th & State), where they sell a lot of restaurant stuff in bulk. Check to see if they might carry it there."
"Great choice! (70th & State) You will also find the mild sauce used at Harold's Chicken there too. - Bonne Chere (iirc) in the Gallon jugs."

Shark's fish & chicken has a Facebook page  where they say they use "'Sprinkle-On' lemon pepper": Sharks Matteson You can buy "Sprinkle-On" products here: Sprinkle On

There are several lemon pepper products for sale online that claim to be like the ones used by Chicago restaurants. See:

Buffalo Enough Lemon Pepper

Lemon Pepper - Chicago

Chicken Crack Seasoning

The thing is, the only way you're gonna know whether one of them is close enough, is to try them yourself.

Same thing with the mild sauce. There are several brands of commercial mild sauce. One brand of BBQ sauce, "Bonne Chere BBQ Sauce" was mentioned on two different sites as tasting like the mild sauce used at Harold's. You can buy it online. Amazon has it:  Bonne Chere BBQ Sauce

I know you said you didn't want to make the sauce yourself, but there are several copycat recipes on the web, including the one I have posted here:

02-24-2014 - Mild Sauce Copycat

That recipe gets more visits than any other recipe on my site, so people must like the recipe. If "Moo & Oink" bbq sauce is no longer available, I'd try using "Bonne Chere".

The problem with mild sauce is that, while it's basically a mixture of bbq sauce and ketchup, the various recipes have other things added, such as hot sauce, etc. that make each one a little different. Plus, the brands of bbq sauce, ketchup, etc., may be different from recipe to recipe, and each variation can change the taste.

I'll post this for reader input, but I've had no follow-up responses in five years since that 2014 posting, so I don't expect much. However, it's always possible that a former employee of  J&J Fish / Harold's / Shark's might see this and respond.

Phaed