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Posted: 8/17/2001 1:03:51 PM EDT
[brought up due to "How will you have your steak? thread]

Fellow carnivores...

Years ago, I'd eat at a little crappy $5 steakhouse. (Good burgers, though). Was a Sizzler before I went there, then owner figured he didn't wanna pay the franchise fee & took down the logo. Odd to be in a old-style non-Sizzler Sizzler with the "wooden cow" wall menus.

This place had the friggin' *BEST* steak sauce. 'Twas "Sexton" steak sauce, produced by the S.E. Rykoff company. (I believe the whole product line was "Sexton Fine Foods". Co. may have stood on their own before being acquired by Rykoff.)  Sexton was a whole line/grade of products: not just steak sauce, but all sorts of condiments, pickles, etc. - maybe even mashed potatoes & the like. There were probably other line/grades of products (w/different names) above & below this, depending on the market position of the restaurant. Rykoff also did a lot of cafeteria business in the days when there were more 'lunch counters' around (i.e. Woolworth's, Sears, etc).

Restaurants bought the Sexton sauce in bottles but to save money could later refill bottles from a bulk container.

Seems Sexton sauce was private-labelled ("OEM'd") for other restaurants too. In the late 80's/very early 90s, Black Angus had their own private steak sauce, which was this WONDERFUL Sexton sauce.  Friendly waitresses at local Angus would set me up with a few bottles now & then but then Angus got in bed with the A1 folks for a marketing gig, and have served A1 ever since.

S.E. Rykoff was a big restaurant/institutional foodservice co. - soup mix, buns, sauces, straws & napkin refills - in the West (maybe even nationally, but certainly SF/LA, maybe Portland/Seattle).  Slogan was "Enjoy life, eat out more often!", which I loved.  Rykoff eventually got purchased by someone, IIRC, that eventually got bought out by "J.P. Foodservice"  The Sexton & Rykoff brands seem to have faded out. Perhaps Sexton sauce still exists under another wrapper.

If anyone knows where this GREAT steak sauce ended up or what it's branded as now, I'd love to find out.  If I can buy it - no matter the quantity - lemme know!  Maybe fellow AR15 carnivores & I can do a bulk purchase. ;-)

For reference, it'a a close kin, flavor-balance-wise, to Heinz 57, but is distinctly different (and better, and I love 57!)  Not too sweet, sour, bitter, etc. Great balance.  Sauce is only a mite darker - a tad less orangish, a bit more red - than 57, and a tad less thick, although much thicker than runny A-1 sauce. For I.D., it came in a med. size round bottle w/a dark brown cap - bigger than a typical Tabasco bottle but smaller than a std ketchup bottle, about same form-factor as a reg square A1 sauce bottle.

For the record, it has NOT shown up again in the form of House Recipe, Bullfighter, Crystal, or Lea & Perrins steak sauces, or any "generic" steak sauce types in Safeway or Albertson's. I know; have 12 bottles of sauce in my fridge and buy new ones when I encounter 'em.

Closest kin flavorwise might be the delicious, late and lamented Sharwood's Steak Sauce (from Britain), but Sharwood's stopped production in late 90's and only makes chutneys (whatta letdown!).

I know you'll all love this stuff - several of my friends have fond, fond memories of this sauce too - so that may make the hunt that much more pleasant...

Regards,
Bill Wiese
San Mateo, CA
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 1:31:33 PM EDT
[#1]
Damn Bill! You definitely know what you like when it comes to steak sauce! That was more informative than a big city food critic!
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 1:32:28 PM EDT
[#2]
Well lets get on the case then!!  And DON'T forget to e-mail me any findings you may have!!

Heres a starter, an article from 1997:
[url]http://baltimore.bcentral.com/baltimore/stories/1997/07/07/story7.html[/url]

JP Foodservice bought Rykoff-Sexton out, they are right up the road from me, now we just need to find out if they still make it or if they re-named it!!!


Nuckles.
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 1:34:38 PM EDT
[#3]
Now this:

JP Foodservice, Inc.
Issue: March 9, 1998

JP Foodservice, Inc., Columbia, Md., changed its corporate name to U.S. Foodservice. At the time of JP's Dec. 23, 1997 merger with Rykoff-Sexton, Inc., the company's operating subsidiaries adopted and began operating under the U.S. Foodservice name to reflect the company's nationwide presence and distribution capabilities.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Sparks Companies, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group

Getting Warmer!!!


Nuckles.
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 1:38:23 PM EDT
[#4]
Hey bwiese: What have you done for ME lately???

Check it out:[url]http://www.usfoodservice.com/[/url]

Seriously, let me know when you find it!!!  Sounds YUMMY!!!

Nuckles.
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 1:43:24 PM EDT
[#5]
I haven't looked in awhile but SE Rycoft had a huge office and warehouse in downtown Los Angeles but no listing in the '97 Business to Business yellow pages.
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 1:43:49 PM EDT
[#6]
My e-mail is in!!!  Awaiting reply!!!

Nuckles.
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 1:48:25 PM EDT
[#7]
"Feel the power of the internet!!!"
This just in.....

US Food service had this link from their page!!  Could this be the crown Jewel???

[url]http://www.nextdaygourmet.com/store/productFamily.asp?catID=356&pfID=3775[/url]


Nuckles.
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 2:26:33 PM EDT
[#8]
You da Man...! [beer]
Link Posted: 8/17/2001 4:13:42 PM EDT
[#9]
Dudes!

Appreciate the enthusiasm. I hain't lyin' when I say it's good.  

Nuckles - way to go, great bird-doggin', boy.  When I checked US Food Svc awhile back very limited website, one was supposed to call an 800 #.  Folks on other end didn't wanna hear from little guys...

Noname - the inordinate detail was not due to sex fantasies about good steak sauce ;-) or being a hoity-toity food critic,  but to help ID the whole product chain, maybe see if it popped up under another name, etc.  

I logged in to Next Day Gourmet website and ordered a couple of bottles @ $1.63/bottle.  Haven't lost anything really if it ain't "the" sauce but if it is I will be in Hog Heaven and will order several cases (this stuff seems to have some shelflifetime - it's preserved, after all, w/salt, BHA, BHT, etc. - and I do eat a lotta meat).

I will gleefully report if indeed this sauce is "the one" as soon as I open the pkg next week (hell, I'll just guzzle a nip from the bottle).  If not, I'll report that and we'll continue...

If it is the right stuff, esp at $1.63/bottle, I swear I'm gonna latch on to a couple of cases of this sauce - before some brilliant Harvard MBA decides to f*ck with the recipe to save half a cent.

I go thru 1/3 of a bottle of 57 w/my steak.  Hell, that's $0.60 for just damned sauce.
But living nicely has its costs. Just like ammo - when in doubt, go for the quantity deal! ;-)

Will report in, stay tuned... meantime, if other/additional info comes in, do post it on this thread - and if it's esp definitive, email me!

Regards & shoot straight,
Bill Wiese
San Mateo, CA






Link Posted: 8/20/2001 5:22:46 AM EDT
[#10]
Do I smell a complimentary bottle of "the right stuff" to the finder?????

Keep us posted!  Nuckles.
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