Creator of Pure Heat sauces grew up in East St. Louis and became `serial entrepreneur’
He was born and raised on 15th and State streets in East St. Louis. And due to no fault of his upbringing, Reggie Smith started hanging out in the streets, imitating the things he saw his friends do.
It took him down a path that led to trouble. That was then.
Now, the 49-year old graduate of East St. Louis High School is living his best life. He’s created Pure Heat, a wildly popular selection of sweet and spicy gourmet sauces that communities on both sides of the river and beyond are savoring with their wings and other favorite foods.
In all, Smith has three sauces, a seasoning, and now a potato chip also called Pure Heat. He’s pleased with their success.
Last month marked the one-year-anniversary of Schnucks’ decision to carry the sauces on the shelves of 90 grocery stores, after a company executive tried the product at Soulard Farmers Market in St. Louis while he was shopping, then told his colleagues about it.
That was a major milestone for Smith, but it took hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit to get there.
It wasn’t easy.
Smith faced many challenges in his younger days before he reached the success he enjoys today, starting with the choices he made as a kid growing up in East St. Louis.
“Orr Weathers got me,” he said, referring to a city housing complex.
He said that when he was 15 or 16 years old and a student at Hughes Quinn in East St. Louis, his daily route from school took him through the Orr Weathers complex, where he said he began heading down the wrong path.
“Friends I went to school with, I was hanging out over there (Orr Weathers) with them,” he said. “...They were all selling drugs for survival, to improve their living conditions and just because they were impoverished.
“ With me it was more out of greed … Both of my parents worked at General Motors. My grandmother owned several Chinese restaurants in East St. Louis,” Smith said. “My family was well off. I jumped out into the streets when I really didn’t have to.”
As a result, he said, “I was convicted of drug trafficking in 1996. I came home in the beginning of 2000.”
After leaving prison, Smith said, he worked in the debt collection department of a phone company for a year. He said he found his niche and decided to open his own debt collections business in St. Louis. He said he was pretty successful for four or five years before he moved on to other ventures.
Operating nightclubs in East St. Louis, elsewhere
Smith calls himself a ``serial entrepreneur,” so his determination to succeed kept him in St. Louis trying to develop other businesses.
His next business venture took him to nightlife, promoting and running nightclubs in East St. Louis starting in 2005, then on to Hannibal, Missouri, then to St. Louis County, where he was the owner- operator of what was then called the Junkyard Bar and Grill. He later changed the name to Pure Ultra Lounge in 2014.
“This is kind of where my success story begins. During the time of the Pure Ultra Lounge, I also had the first black nail bar in St. Louis or in the metro area ...period,” he said.
During the time that both of those businesses were open, “ I had one foot in the street, and one foot in business. I was not all the way there mentally,” Smith said.
Smith said he ended up in trouble again. This time for tax violations, and he went federal prison in 2016. Pure Ultra Lounge closed that summer, right before he went to prison.
A year later, in 2017, when he was released, he was reminded of something another inmate told him about.
“I met a guy in prison who told me owning five trucks could earn me a million dollars because he did. Of course that caught my attention immediately,” Smith said with excitement.
Smith said he went straight to truck driving school when he was released, completed training in roughly six weeks then got his first job as a driver. He saved all of his money over nine months and started his own trucking company: All Brothers Logistics..
But people still remembered those popular chicken wings served at his former lounge, Pure Ultra, and they still wanted them. He called it the ``Pure, Sweet and Spicy Wing.”
Creating that now famous gourmet sauce
When he owned the lounge, Smith said, he had a cook who made the sweet and spicy sauce that his patrons adored. But the cook quit, and Smith said he didn’t have a clue about how to make the sauce. He knew, though, he had to get into the kitchen himself.
“I had to get back there in the kitchen to keep those people fed while they were doing karaoke, drinking, watching sports. I had to keep those chicken wings coming. He (the cook) made a sweet and spicy wing when he was there. I had no idea how to follow up behind his wing. I know his wings were good,” said Smith.
“I jumped on Google and Googled three or four sweet and spicy wing recipes and started playing with them, putting them together, mixing a little of this and that. I started sending wings out of my kitchen and people started telling me how good they were,” he said.
Smith said he had to hurry up and memorize what he had done. “I knew that was my it. That’s what was going to keep my kitchen going,” he said.
Those wings with the delicious sauce were still in demand after he left prison. So while he was operating his new trucking company, he also was cooking.
“I was making wings for baby showers, weddings, funeral repasts, weddings, birthday parties. People just kept asking for the wing,” he said.
Then came the pandemic in 2020.
“When the pandemic came around, everybody kept asking for the wing because nobody’s restaurant was open,” Smith said.
“I said ‘ I am not going to keep cooking wings for you guys for free because it’s costing me a lot of money and a lot of time. It’s not the wings because anybody can fry some wings. You guys want this sauce I am putting on the wings.’
Bottling, selling Pure Heat gourmet sauce
“I bottled the sauce. I went on Amazon, got me 12 bottles, 12 tops and got me some labels made at Office Depot. I called it Pure Heat , named it after the club because the club was called pure and those were the wings,” he said.
After he made his first case, he realized he needed an additional flavor. “I started playing around in the kitchen and came up with a garlic flavor, which is now my best seller,” he said.
Smith knew he had to come up with a mild flavor too.
Business kept picking up as his three sauces gained popularity.
“It was in high demand. I was selling it out of my house on Facebook like big time,” he recalled joyously. “After it was selling so good, it got kind of dangerous letting all these strangers come to my house . Now you have people outside of my close friends asking for it. You have strangers who want the sauce.”
Smith’s next move was to go to neighborhood stores and gas stations and ask them to carry the sauce. “ I would give them a cut of the money to keep people from coming to my house and to keep me from having to do so many hand to hand sales,” he said.
From there, Smith took his products to Soulard Farmers Market where he got a booth, selling every Saturday.
“One Saturday the CFO of Schnucks was down at Soulard shopping and came across my sauce. And coincidentally, the same week I saw Todd Schnuck on television talking about he wanted more minority-owned products at his stores,” Smith said. “I reached out to him. He told me his CFO was just in with him talking about a sauce he bought at Soulard. He said he already had wind of it. They hooked me up with the right people from that point. It was history from there.”
From Soulard Farmers Market to Schnucks
Pam Hild, Schnucks category director, talked to a BND reporter about how Schnucks began to carry Smith’s products.
“A teammate of mine saw the Pure Heat sauce at the Soulard market. He tried it there and thought it was really good and he sent it to my attention. At the time , I managed the barbecue and sauces category. I tried it based on his recommendation, and I loved it as well,” Hild said.
“ We got in contact with Reggie and found out he carries three gourmet sauces. We loved the product so we brought it in to about 90 of our metro stores. We did that last March. So, it’s been in almost a year,” she said.
“ His three flavors are garlic heat, which is my favorite, sweet and spicy and sweet and mild. The sauce is not really a barbecue sauce. It’s a gourmet sauce . It’s a great combination of savory and sweet and sweet and spicy,” she said. “It’s a really good dipping sauce. It’s got a little spice to it, but it’s also got a little sweet to it. It’s a really good combination.
“ I love to dip my chicken in it,” she said ,chuckling aloud. “ And, it’s good on chicken wings as well. I am sure Reggie has lots of other uses for it. But, that’s the two I like to use it for.”
How does Schnucks determine what local products they will carry?
“Local products in general really resonate with our customers,” Hild said. “We do like to see what’s available in the market. We are always looking for new products that our customers will love and they’ll support. They really do like supporting our local neighbors … Really, it’s a win win for us when we bring in successful local product.
“It’s gotta be a good product. It’s also good when it’s unique and it fits into a unique space in the category. Reggie’s product definitely fit into a unique space in the sauce category”.
Smith said he’s been selling his sauces for about two years now. And he has introduced other products - Pure Gourmet Coffee and a new seasoning - a dry rub called Pure Heat All Purpose Seasoning. Then there are Pure Heat potato chips.
“All of my products have been selling good. I am paying my taxes,” Smith said chuckling. ”Uncle Sam can’t mess with me anymore. Everything is legit. I created a million dollar brand during the pandemic.”
He said he is feeling good about his success in legitimate business. “ I don’t have to watch my back anymore. I don’t have to worry about whether the police are going to come knocking on my door. Life is great right now.”
His message to anyone who says they can’t make it out of the trenches: “You can come out of a bad situation and still do great things . Never let your past dictate your future. I frown on people who say they can’t find a job because of their criminal history. I hate hearing that. That’s one of the lamest things in the world.”
He went on to say: “ It has never stopped me from gaining employment. If you can’t get what you want, two $10 an hour jobs add up to $20, all day long. Get you two fast-food jobs if you have to. Working two jobs is better than being in prison sweeping floors or working in the kitchen, cooking for 500 men for $20 a month, or cleaning up the highways ” Smith said.
“A lot of people don’t know they pay you $10-$20 a month to work in prison and they force you to work. You don’t have a choice. A life outside of those walls doing anything productive is worth it,” Smith said.
This story was originally published April 10, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
