Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Acopine.
Hi Joshua, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi, and thank you for having me! To begin, I am from South Carolina originally. I come from a large family of restaurant professionals and have been in the industry for almost 20 years now. My wife, Katherine Yeaworth, a teacher for the last 10 years, and I started our condiment business, Apco Foods, back in October 2021. After many years in the industry, several key events led to where we are today and our decision to start a business. We are based out of the kitchen at The Feed Co Table & Tavern restaurant in beautiful downtown Chattanooga, TN. We have put all the skills we’ve learned over the years together with new knowledge and built our business from the ground up, handling every aspect of production. We design our own labels and logos, make merch like hats and koozies, and handle all day-to-day operational procedures. What we do and how we do it is very humbling, and we are fortunate to have people in our corner that have helped support us from the beginning. Without our family at The Feed, we wouldn’t be in business right now.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When my wife and I met, we never could have imagined being where we are today. Katie and I met each other here in Chattanooga, TN. She and her family are from Nashville where they have had their home for decades. During the fateful Spring we met, Katie mentioned that she was taking a teaching job in Nashville for the following year, giving us just a couple of months to get to know one another. As fate would have it, we fell head over heels for each other. After the summer had ended, Katie moved back to Nashville in August of 2019. After several long months of distance between us, I decided to sell my things, packed a duffel bag and an air mattress, and I headed to Music City. I took a sales job to make ends meet while I stayed with a friend until March when I could finally get my own place. Little did I know everything was about to change. I was excited for a job, cooking at a prestigious fine dining restaurant in Brentwood, TN that I interviewed with on the same day I signed my lease. After two weeks on the job, we got a call. The restaurant was going to be closed indefinitely. Covid-19 had already run rampant through most of the country. Katie, who was staying with her parents to save money decided it was too risky to be around her parents during this time since we didn’t fully understand the gravity of the situation yet. We did what we could to survive. Katie’s school shifted virtually so we built her a home office in our dining room. I went into logistics and worked with a fleet manager partnered with Amazon. We both did odd jobs on the side like Instacart and anything else to keep us afloat. In a year and a half, we had built a life together. It was unconventional, sure, but we were happy. In December of 2020, I proposed, and we set a date for June 8, 2021. One day, almost exactly two weeks to the day prior to our wedding, I came home from work to something I never could have anticipated. I was home for five minutes when Katie said she thought there might be a fire. Stunned at the notion, I took a moment to gather myself. The next thing I know, my wife to be is standing with the door wide open, huge plumes of smoke blowing by the front door, and people running and screaming frantically through the parking lot. Someone in our building apparently had a BBQ grill on their patio unattended. We lost everything. The life we had worked so hard to build was in ashes, and as I stood there in my Amazon uniform, I knew we had to act. We had a ton of support from friends and family, as insurance barely covered 10% of what we lost. By the grace of God, we were able to still get married two weeks later. We went on our honeymoon and then moved in with Katie’s family outside of Knoxville in Kingston, TN. It is here where we looked at each other, still in the middle of the pandemic, and thought, of all the times to start a business, why not now? My whole career, I was blessed with money but very little time. Finally, I had all the time in the world but no money. We put our heads together and did our research. We learned new skills like graphic design and applied all that we had learned from our respective careers. We do everything ourselves and we still try to only put in what we receive out of it. When we were ready, I had this idea for a sauce I worked on for the last 10 years. I’d seen some adaptations of sauces dubbed “Italian hot sauce” but growing up in a family from Calabria, Italy, nothing hit the mark for me. I wanted to create something entirely unique. Something that honored my family’s heritage and channeled my passion for cooking. Acopine Pepper Co LLC began with the vision of a hot sauce company. It was when we created our flagship sauce, Iacopino’s Bomba Italiana (named after my grandfather, Giovanni Iacopino), that we realized we wanted to make more than just hot sauce. We now make condiments, which, by definition, are anything that enhances flavor. Iacopino’s is a Calabrian chili pepper-based sauce with pepperoncini and giardiniera that packs a punch with bold Italian flavors, including garlic, basil, and oregano. We’ve recently developed a vegan garlic aioli for a client in the Northgate Mall called The Sleepy Sloth Café in Hixson, TN. We hope that as we grow, we will have the opportunity to support other local food entrepreneurs and vendors. We want to apply our skills and help others grow with us. After all, Chattanooga, much like, Nashville, is about local businesses and entrepreneurs rising to help one another. Times are harder than ever, and we hope businesses like ours will be the backbone of our community as we all rise from the ashes. For us, our challenges are what pushed us into our business. We’ve done and learned everything the hard way. We have only been successful because of our hearts of gratitude. We are thankful for what we have. Losing everything puts things into perspective. In a way, we are thankful for our struggles because they have shaped who we are as people and business owners in our community. We have had a wealth of support but little help. Regarding contacts and people we otherwise would not have access to, we have been very fortunate. In learning the ins and outs of running a business while working full-time we’ve been on our own to be diligent and patient with the process. It takes discipline, yes, but also grace for yourself to be able to keep things moving forward. Slow, humble beginnings only make success stories with hard work, determination, and patience.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In my career, I’ve worked every position in a restaurant. From dishwasher to bartender, management to marketing, catering and even multi location management. The bulk of my career was spent as an operator. I specialized in systems development to increase efficiency, workflow, and improve work-life balance for others. I also developed and trained employees on all levels, including managers. I had the opportunity to perform on various levels in a variety of restaurants including a couple of chef gigs and catering jobs. My passion is cooking, which translates into the sauces I develop. I want to make unique sauces that excite the palate. Sauces that people haven’t seen or tasted before. The skills I picked up along the way help me in running my business. Networking, marketing, cost analysis, food safety, quality control, and knowing the science behind food and food preservation have greatly impacted our success as a company. What sets us apart is the dedication and research we put into making things that don’t necessarily exist. We are a boutique condiment company, aiming to remain in our tiny niche. We also have a strong vision and dedication to help others in our shoes who may not have the same resources or connections that we are so blessed to have. We aim to help entrepreneurs do things hopefully easier than we did.
What’s next?
This year has been a lot about regrowth. Coming back to a community we were once embedded with a new vision and a product unknown; our focus has been largely to allow people to taste our products. Since moving back in January of this year, we have made efforts such as offering discounted bottles to restaurants for exposure, wholesale products in retail environments, and even waiting tables at our home restaurant The Feed to let patrons taste our sauce with a variety of menu favorites. By the beginning of next year, we hope to run our business full time, reach more outlets, put out more demos, and participate in local markets. We have started slowly but have gotten many compliments and opportunities to do business, both now and in the future. We took place in a market early August this year and we are regularly cooking for a food and wine tasting at Imbibe in Chattanooga. Our vision is to open a storefront next year to bring more of our products and those of other local food vendors to the community, offering our services to these vendors, including marketing and brand development. Currently, you can find us in various places in Chattanooga, including The Feed Table & Tavern, the Northgate Mall in Hixson, and at our website www.apcofoods.com
Pricing:
- 2 oz Iacopino’s Bomba Italiana – $3.99
- 4 oz Iacopino’s Bomba Italiana – $4.99
- 8 oz Iacopino’s Bomba Italiana – $6.99
- 16 oz Iacopino’s Bomba Italiana – $11.99
Contact Info:
- Website: www.apcofoods.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apco_foods/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100074872339451
- Other: www.etsy.com/shop/apcofoods
