By Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register
Lola’s Fine Foods, by any account, is a success story.
Lola’s is now producing millions of bottles of sauces, salsas and other products annually to adorn the shelves of major national retailers such as Walmart and Costco, not to mention Iowa stalwarts such as Hy-Vee, Fareway and Casey’s.
And yet, Lola’s has never abandoned its beginnings, the Des Moines Downtown Farmer’s Market and Downtown Winter Farmer’s Market, despite now being in more than 14,000 retail outlets coast to coast and in several foreign countries.
Best known for its hot sauces and salsas, Lola’s is branching out into the world of salad dressings and seasonings. The salad dressings and dipping cups came at the urging of Maverick convenience stores with a new line that includes ranch, light ranch, spicy ranch, Italian and Caesar dressings, Lola’s CEO and founder Taufeek Shah said.
Shah said Lola’s seasonings are destined for the shelves of Target.
Lola’s now boasts nearly 50 products, Shah said.
In addition, Lola’s will begin offering some products under the brand “Winthrop Farms” that will offer less spicy items from its West Des Moines facility with 18 employees, Shah said.
Lola’s is producing bottles for Maverick that are in the “back of the house,” including a sauce used for their spicy chicken sandwiches and a hot honey sauce for their breakfast chicken sandwich.
At Maverick’s request, Lola’s is also making dipping cups of their ranch dressings and hot sauce with the convenience store chain also using green jalapeno and serrano bottles on their condiment shelves.
“So really just taking our local Iowa family brand and expanding it nationally through Maverick but also getting into new categories of items that are traditionally not spicy, featuring family recipes which are really good,” Shah said.
Lola’s Original Hot Sauce was the recipe of his mother, Carmelita “Lola” Shah, a Filipino doctor, featuring a blend that includes garlic, a “hint of lime and a touch of vinegar.”
His father, Syed Shah, was a doctor in the U.S. Army originally from Pakistan with the multi-cultural household resulting in many creative spice and flavor combinations.
A self-proclaimed “mama’s boy,” Shah said he spent hours in the kitchen with his mother and two older sisters making salsas and hot sauces for the kitchen table.
“Our brand really centers on being able to share different flavors. Being Filipino and Pakistani, I call it ‘Pakipino.” We’re able to take these great flavors and build them together,” Shah said.
To add to their product offering, Lola’s hired corporate chef Carla Christopherson, a Culinary Institute of America graduate and former Hy‑Vee research and development chef, who has helped systematize and expand the recipe development process.
It was Christopherson who helped Lola’s branch out into salad dressings, Shah said.
“Bringing her on board helped us tackle some new projects and innovations that we otherwise wouldn’t have,” Shah said.
Shah said Christopherson has brought more precision to the family’s system of creating recipes with a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
“You know when you’re talking family recipes, you’re just jotting things down: a little bit of buttermilk a little bit of seasoning, maybe I put a half a tablespoon of that in and she’s like ‘No, no, no.” We gotta get it down to a science,’” Shah said.
While the flavor of Lola’s can be found in other products such as Hy-Vee kettle-cooked potato chips, Lola’s branded pretzels and a spicy mayo collaboration with Iowa-based fast-food chain B-Bop’s, Shah said the company remains committed to the products that has been driving them to success so far.
“We have great partners and just a great team that really knows what they do, and you know, at the end of the day, we’re really good at one thing: we’re good at making sauces. and those sauces are family recipes that we really treasure and hold close to our vest and when we’re able to stick with what we’re good at, we don’t have to branch too far out outside of the box, if you know what I mean,” Shah said.
Shah started the business after the original hot sauce received rave reviews from co-workers when he worked at Principal Financial. Armed with just a family recipe, he want from humble beginnings in his own kitchen to the downtown farmers markets and onward to national distribution.
Even though his products have grown way beyond Court Avenue on Saturday mornings, Shah has not abandoned the company’s roots.
“You’ll find us every Saturday morning at the downtown Des Moines Farmers’ Market, you’ll find us at the Winter Market. I mean, for us,It’s good to be there. It’s where I got my roots started, and that’s where I want everybody to go.
“And what’s really cool, too, is every new employee that we have, we have them work one farmer’s market so they can see what it’s like when I started this from day one,” Shah said.
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