The Pittsburgh Dish

086 Two Ugly Mugs Salsa

• Doug Heilman • Season 3 • Episode 86

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A backyard garden harvest and a family united on a new journey—this is how Two Ugly Mugs turned a homemade recipe into a national salsa brand. Diane and Matt Perella trace the steps from hot sauce experiments to a salsa lineup with a habanero base softened by carrots, a clean label with low sodium, and a flavor that wins over heat skeptics and spice lovers alike.

Their journey is packed with real turning points that led from local stores to a footprint across the United States and beyond. We also get a first look at new products—an amped-up hot honey salsa and a bright salsa verde, coming soon.

We broaden the flavor tour with a day trip pick: White Rabbit Cafe and Patisserie in Greensburg, with Sarah of Sarah Loves Yinz. Then culinary pro Tess Monks from Phipps Conservatory shares a soup blueprint that turns whatever is on hand into comfort. 

If you love origin stories, retail strategy, and food you actually want to eat, this one delivers. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves Pittsburgh-made food, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find the show.

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Doug:

Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. How does a garden harvest transform one local family into a national brand? We learn the story of Two Ugly Mugs salsa. Do great coffee and pastries conjure a day trip? Sarah of Sarah Loves Yinz gives us a reason to visit White Rabbit in Greensburg. And if you're heavy into soup season, Tess Monks reveals her recipe blueprint for what's ever on hand. All that ahead, stay tuned. Would you love to get your local business in the ears of hundreds of food-centric listeners? Just send us a DM on Instagram or email us at thepittsburgdish at gmail.com to learn more about our advertising options. Now on to the show. Thank you both so much for coming over and for being on the show. Thank you. Yeah, glad to be here. Would you take a moment to introduce yourselves to our listeners and what you have going on in the world of food? And Diane, let's start with you.

Diane:

Absolutely. Diane Perella. I am one of the owners of Two Ugly Mugs, gourmet salsa out of Pittsburgh, PA. Um, this is our family business. We started back in 2012 and my husband cleaned out the garden at the end of the year and put together a hot sauce. We actually started as a hot sauce company. Oh. And best business advice we could have got when we approached our first store, we said, Will you sell our product? We knew the owner of the store. He said, Absolutely. But let me tell you something. Salsa is the number one condiment right now. So if you want a product that's gonna sell, take your recipe, turn it into a salsa, and come back. Oh so that was some of the best business advice we got early on. So we did start with two different hot sauces and two different salsas, but then we wanted brand awareness. So we dropped the hot sauce for now, but it's gonna make a reappearance. I'm so excited. Yep. Hopefully soon, right, Matt? Yep, yeah.

Matt:

In the near future, we'll have it launched again. And Matt, how about you? Yep, and I'm Matt Perella, uh Diane's son and partial owner of Two Ugly Mugs Salsa. Like my mom was saying, it started uh Italian family always cooked and canned out of the garden. It's kind of been tradition, and that's where the salsa started. Uh Matt, I have a quick question. Are you one of the two ugly mugs? I would be one of the two ugly mugs. Yeah, that's me and my dad.

Doug:

I would, I would never say you've got an ugly mug. But what a name, right? Right. Ugly's a beautiful thing, though. How did that name come up?

Diane:

Oh, it's interesting. The three of us, my husband, Matt, and I were sitting around the table and we're thinking, we're gonna start this business. What could we name it? Or brainstorming, brainstorming, and all of a sudden, my husband said, Who would have thought two ugly mugs like us? And I went, That's it. Oh two ugly mugs.

Matt:

And this is your husband, Mike. Mike, right, who couldn't be here today.

Diane:

Exactly. Right.

Matt:

Yeah, all born out of the kitchen, even the name.

Diane:

I love that. Yes. And we do have a daughter also. And my husband said, Do you think Taryn will be mad that her face is not on the jar? I said, Do you think our daughter wants to be on a product saying two ugly mugs?

Doug:

Probably the right choice.

Diane:

Right, right. So she was good with that. Oh, so good.

Doug:

Well, you you've already answered one of my later questions, which was, How did it all get started? And so what I'm gathering is you've always had a garden and there was a year you had a lot of abundance.

Diane:

Exactly. All leftovers from the garden. My husband just threw together. As Matt said, he loves to cook. He was born and raised with parents that canned as long as he can remember. Yeah. And it just carried through. And we started giving samples to friends and family. And you know, the what you always hear, you should sell this. We're like, what do we know about running a business? But we took the leap and here we are now. And what year was that where it got started with that hot sauce version?

Matt:

Yeah, 2012 was when we started the business. So it was probably the end of 2011 with uh the garden clean out that uh an original recipe came to be.

Doug:

Oh my gosh. So you're well over what 13, 14 years? You're coming up on 15 years. It's crazy. It's been that long.

Diane:

Yeah, we started with the farm market and local mom and pop stores, and now we're in Whole Foods, we're in Giant Eagle Market Districts. Oh my goodness. Walmart. Yeah. Which put us in how many states? Yeah, we're in 22 states right now.

Doug:

Get out. Right. Wow. Right. So, Matt, I know that uh as your mom said, you guys started out with a hot sauce. What is the product line right now? Like what are you uh what are you selling on the website? What are you known for?

Matt:

Um, right now we're running two different flavors of salsa. Uh say the bigger seller is sweet heat. Um, both of our, like the flavor profile is kind of a little sweet, then you get the heat. And we say taste the sweet before the heat. I agree. I've tried it, right? Yeah. And yeah, you kind of get the best of both worlds. But the mug and hot, which is the hotter one, it's kind of more like a medium, medium plus salsa. That also starts out a little less sweet and a little more heat. But something different about our salsas is it's a habanero base. And usually when you hear habanero, most normal consumers, if you don't love heat, steer clear of habanero.

Doug:

Because traditionally it's considered hotter than a jalapeno, right? Yeah. It's we're talking about the little um, it's kind of orange in color, right? Right. They're smaller, yeah. Right.

Matt:

More gnarly looking than a jalapeno.

Doug:

But I will tell you, I think the first time I tried your salsa, I tried the hotter salsa, and I'm a heat wimp, and I really loved it. Right. And and so without giving any of the I don't want to give away any family secrets, but like that sweetness, I did look at the ingredients. Is it coming from carrot?

Diane:

The carrots. That's it. Because the sugar content is minimal. Right. And that's another thing that we pride ourselves on. We're low sodium, we're gluten-free, we're vegan, we're no preservatives, all natural. It's everything good for you. If you look at the label, when we went to our co-packer when we first started mass producing, he said, This is amazing. And we said, What do you mean? He said, There's minimal ingredients. People come in here with this long list of ingredients that you don't really need. Right.

Matt:

And that's one of the things we even promote about it is even on a label, it's simple ingredients you know and trust. Just like if you grew it in your own garden and cooked it in your own kitchen for your family, that's something we still hold dear and want to keep that value going as we grow.

Doug:

I'll have to tell you, I mean, I know the serving size usually says like two tablespoons, but I'm known to just crush a whole jar of it. I am super appreciative that the sodium level is low too, because if anyone out there is like worried about blood pressure or things like that, I don't miss it in your salsa. I I have used it to make some chicken, and I honestly don't think I added any extra seasoning at all because all of the flavors that are coming out, it was so good.

Diane:

We actually had someone reach out to us on Facebook and said, Hey, love the salsa. I'm a member of a low sodium group on Facebook. I'm putting putting it out there. Yeah, it's important to a lot of folks for just a lot of different lifestyle reasons.

Matt:

Right. Right. Yeah, there's a a big group of people that have even told us that they've kind of taken salsa out of their diet because of the sodium content of a lot of like the national brands. So in comparison, we tend to be 30 to 40 percent of what what other brands have in sodium.

Doug:

Yes, I mean saying that a different way, you're 60% less than most other national brands, 60 to 70 percent less than most other national brands out there. Correct. And it's still like packed full of flavor. I love it. There are a couple of other products on the website, and I feel like they're seasonings. Am I getting that right?

Matt:

Yep. Yeah, we have two dip mixes. Um, actually, we met a friend at doing through doing the events, he sells dips and he's like, I got this idea for you. Here you go. And the dip mix, it's you mix salsa, sour cream, and this spice packet. Uh and it's the easiest, quickest, most delicious appetizer ever. Salsa, sour cream, dip. You mix it, refrigerate, and it's like a creamy taco dip. I love that. It's great as a standalone, but if you do like a seven-layer taco dip, this takes it up to the next level. Oh, that is such a good recipe.

Diane:

We sample that at a lot of events, and that's it's a big seller. Once you taste it, you're buying it.

Matt:

Of course. Right. And we have another dip mix on there that it's actually a reaper heat additive. I was gonna say, isn't there like a reaper pack, which is not probably what I want to go for? Well, with the two flavors, you get the sweet and then the heat, but I mean, the amount of people that love crazy hot now. Right. We had a lot of people saying the the mugging hot is it's nothing. Not hot enough, right? They wanted something more. Yeah, so we have uh pick your own heat level with that packet and add that to the salsa, but then that adds Carolina Reaper and Ghost Pepper. We want to eventually get that bottled as a salsa, but we haven't added that yet. We are coming out with some other flavors that we're gonna do a hot honey that's gonna be significantly hotter than the mug and hot, and it's basically mug and hot hotter, and we're gonna use honey as the sweetener.

Doug:

Oh my gosh. Listen, hot honey is like the new thing. Everyone that I talk to that have had hot honey on a pizza, right? Like it takes it to a new level. So that in a salsa, I'm looking forward to that. Okay, that's gonna have that launched like by summer.

Matt:

This is exciting. Very much so.

Diane:

Also, the salsa verde we're coming out with. Okay. It's a green tomatillo salsa. Yes. Uh, we've we've piloted both of those at events and they were very, very well received. So we're working on that also.

Doug:

You mentioned earlier that you, you know, right now you're in national retailers. Are you still doing some smaller events?

Diane:

Every year we usually do Seven Springs, their wine festival. Yeah. That's a big event for us. We have a lot of repeat customers, good exposure. People come from all over to that event. Uh, last year, Matt can fill you in. We did the first ever hot sauce festival in Pittsburgh. Oh, The Rivers of Fire.

Doug:

Yeah. Lisa was on the show. So I'm so excited. Yeah. I think that's coming back for a second year.

Diane:

It is. We just got an email asking if we want to participate again. And I believe they're adding on a preview night on Friday night. So it'll be Friday night and Saturday.

Doug:

We're talking it's in October of 2026, but I think she's going to do some preview type events, even leading up to it. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Matt:

I'm not going to lie, even thinking back to that right now, my mouth is starting to drooll water.

Doug:

Well, I'm excited. And I think salsa hot sauce all fits in sort of a similar neighborhood, a similar arena. So if you are bringing back a hot sauce like the original, I'm excited to see that. Yes. Yes.

Diane:

So good.

Doug:

Gotta bring back the original. The OG. Yep. Well, I I would love to take a step back. I know we talked about it was in a 2011, 2012, a big garden harvest. And then you just started marketing locally. Uh, you know, you had these friends and neighbors saying, hey, you should sell this. How does this family with this great garden and a lot of good energy? How do you get to this national position? I I would imagine there are a few moments or a few friends that helped along the way that that helped kind of take you up a step. Absolutely. Could you share with us like one or two stories or moments that have really been impactful in the business?

Diane:

Oh, I think the first one is our very first store we got into because of a relative. Oh. A cousin.

Speaker 5:

Yeah.

Diane:

They knew the owner of the store, and that was that was our first foot in the door. And what was the store? It was a shop and safe. Okay. In Castle Shannon. Yep. They gave us our big break. And then smaller mom and pop stores. And then Matt, I let him take it from here. He'd had a nice road trip to get us to Walmart. Oh.

Matt:

Yeah. I mean, to start from the beginning, it was all exploration and persistence. And I mean, there's been a lot of dead ends along the way. But uh, we got our foot in the door with Shop and Save and took the knowledge from that to learn retail from the inside out. And it's been an evolving process because none of us, I mean, I had I worked at a gym and did sales in high school, but other than that, like no sales experience. And none of us had business experience. Right. I was a dental hygienist by trade.

Doug:

Oh my gosh. Yes. So it's not. Were you giving salsa at the absolutely? Absolutely.

Diane:

People would actually call and say, hey Di, I'm coming in. I need a case. Oh my gosh.

Doug:

Yeah. Wow. Yep. She's my dentist and a dental hygienist. Right. And salsa dealer. Right.

Matt:

Yeah. And I went to college for biochemistry. So I love the science side of it. And that has transitioned to applying those principles to the nutritional side of food. Yeah. So I kind of look at it from that avenue as well. Like another big pivotal moment is me and one of my best friends, Ben, he actually found a way to apply for Walmart. And they had a program. It was called Open Call. It's turned more into like a Shark Tank event now, but they wanted to promote more American small businesses. Yes. So we applied and got accepted. And we had to go down to Walmart headquarters. This was Bentonville, Arkansas. Wow. So we got we got in the car and drove down there. I'm getting Shark Tank nervous for you right now as you're saying this. Yeah. And we had an Airbnb close enough so that the day of the meetings, we walked across the parking lot, across the street, went into this huge auditorium, and we're watching the CEO of Walmart, the president of Walmart, the governor of Arkansas talking in this huge auditorium. My goodness. Now so walked back up and found a seat at the back. Um after the auditorium split, we all had like breakout rooms and we went and met the buyer and pitched, and she said yes. Oh my goodness. And yeah, I mean, it was over a year to get finally into the stores. But I mean, that was a crazy turn that it's not a normal profile of growth. This opened up a huge door for you guys. Right. Yeah. We kind of went from being small and local and just learning retail to being thrown into learning the top. Because we were only in 40 stores at the time when Walmart took us. Yeah. And now kind of in our growth trying to fill in the in-between. In between, yeah.

Doug:

You went from, yeah, we're just a small local company to hey, we're national, we're in the biggest retailer in the United States. Right. Yeah. Right.

Diane:

Hi, this is Diane Perella.

Matt:

And I'm Matt Perella, Diane's son, and we are Two Ugly Mugs salsa. And you're listening to The Pittsburgh Dish.

Doug:

Aside from this, you know, distribution breakthrough, you started making the salsa yourselves at home. Correct. And then probably needed a commercial kitchen. But it sounds like you alluded earlier, you've got a co-packer now. So I imagine there's a little bit of tension there, like, hey, this is our product. Right. This is our brand, but we're getting too big. We can't make it ourselves anymore.

Diane:

Right. We started, like you said, we started in the home kitchen and then we did rent space in a commercial kitchen. Matt was away at college and he would come in at night. We were all working full-time jobs. Yes. So we would get together in this commercial kitchen. We cut, we canned, we jarred everything at night. So there were some nights we didn't get out of there till midnight. Wow. Get back up, go to our regular jobs. Right, nine to fives, as they say. Yeah. And then we had decided it's time, you know, we can't do this anymore. We were just wearing down. So we found a co-packer out of Punxitauni, and that's been our only co-packer since inception. We're thrilled with their quality. It's a consistent quality production. And still pretty local.

Matt:

Right. Yeah. And one other great thing about them is in Pennsylvania, you can't grow all the vegetables you need in salsa year-round, but they do source things from local farms when they're available. Right. A lot of the year it's local, locally grown produce as much as the salsa yeah.

Doug:

Right. For if we have some listeners out there that don't know the term co-packer, can you just help enlighten us? Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Matt:

Co-packer stands it's means contract manufacturer. So it's basically yeah, you sign an NDA with them over the recipe and place the orders with them and they produce it for you.

Doug:

And so did you have to then give them your recipe? Yes. And then go in and like sort of test quality. Yeah.

Diane:

My husband went when he saw the first jars coming off the production line and they made him taste it to make sure it was exactly what he wanted produced.

Doug:

Yes.

Diane:

And that's the story.

Doug:

Oh wow. Right. And so as you mentioned, you're you're thinking about some new salsa flavors and maybe the hot sauce coming back. Will you go back and work with them so that you have this sort of at the same quantities that you're doing the others? Or will your newer products be more specialized, you know, maybe just on the website? Like, how do you how do you see that happening?

Matt:

That's something we're working through the details of right now. Of we have been considering doing like small batch. There's a couple local like community kitchens that you can rent, and we could do small batch to get the product started before we do a full run. Um, we've done it for a show over the summer, and we actually had the hot sauce at the hot sauce festival. And we did that in a smaller jar, you know, thinking about how to launch correctly.

Doug:

Yeah, yeah. Just a smart way to say, okay, we're gonna step back into this or we're gonna step into something new. I'm sure you're making decisions now, and you're probably like, what is happening? Right. What are we doing as a family? Are you still in the dental hygienist? No, no, I retired. Okay, good. I retired.

Diane:

Yep. So Matt pretty much runs the show. Mom's just helping with the conning and deliveries and events. And so he's the brain behind the operation now for sure.

Doug:

Well, you're both doing a lot. So thank you so much. Yeah. I mean, it's such a great story for a local family, a local company. I think local manufacturing, like we want to see stuff made here and even in the state of Pennsylvania. You know, what a great news story. Are are there any other moments or folks that were really a door opener or change the trajectory of your business?

Diane:

Oh, absolutely. I can't even remember how we I think I saw something in the newspaper. There was going to be a workshop on how to start a business at La Dorita Cooks and Sharpsburgs. Oh, yes. And they would have different speakers every week. Matt and I went, and one week one of the speakers was Paul Abbott from Giant Eagle.

Doug:

Oh, we know Paul Abbott.

Diane:

Yep.

Doug:

Yep. So he did his thing.

Diane:

And of course, we took salsa with us, and Matt said, I'm doing it. So he went up and approached him and said, You said you'd like to try products. You could tell us yay or nay by looking at the label. So he said, Okay, I like the label. Two different color lids. Matt said two different color lids. And he said, All right, I'll take it back and we'll follow up. So initially we got turned on. He said, Salsa, there's so much competitive. Right, right. He said, if you come out with some other flavors or other profiles, reach out again. Well, after Matt went to Walmart, he went back and said, Okay, we're not just little, little guys anymore. We're we're breaking through. And that's when he gave us our shot at all the giant eagle market districts in Pittsburgh. We're thankful for that because we know that. They pride themselves on helping local companies.

Doug:

That's right. And just to remind our listeners, Paul Abbott was on, I believe, episode nine. He was responsible for bringing a lot of the uh the local makers into giant eagle market districts and two ugly mugs in the world. We were one of them. Yeah, Paul. Oh wow.

Matt:

Paul's a great guy. Paul, if you're listening, yeah. Absolutely. He's been like a pseudo mentor, but he's always his door's always been open to give advice through the growth stages. But yeah. Right.

Doug:

Right. Well, that's a great story. You know, when you mentioned you went to La Durita and you're kind of learning this business, this is again just a family at home with this great product. How does somebody start to learn the ins and outs and and how to keep it legal? I mean, I I know a lot of folks that want to maybe start a cottage business. Matt, were there any other resources or things that you discovered?

Matt:

We kind of learned it all from the ground up. But I mean, with there's plenty of resources, and we've actually the food community of makers in the city has grown through the time we've been doing this. But there's a plethora of events based around food businesses or even not necessarily food, but starting small businesses in the Pittsburgh community. It was kind of like going back to school. We found the local seminars and went to events. You can't just cook in your kitchen and sell it legally. You need to get serve safe certified. And like we even have to have had to have our garage approved as a food storage facility by Allegheny Health Department. But yeah, just getting out and really seeing what resources there are around. There's a lot more than you think once you start to start to look.

Doug:

That's so good to know.

Diane:

We also did a program through the Small Business Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Oh. And again, it was just startup information. What kind of business do you want to be? Do you want to be an LLC? Do you want to be an S-corp? And they had different speakers with that also. And that was very beneficial. And it that still continues to be a great resource for us. I might need to look into that for myself.

Matt:

Yeah, we actually just completed another program with Pitt grad school students. They did a like a marketing uh research study on your brand.

Doug:

Oh I love the one. What a full circle moment. Right.

Matt:

Yeah, that's great. Absolutely. Yeah, because mom actually taught at Pitt for Oh, you did for 12 years.

Doug:

Wow. Right. Secrets revealed here. Yeah. I had no idea. I had no idea. I want to pivot just a bit and talk about you all as a family. You're making this great product. You've had this amazing success. What's food life like at home? Do you all like to cook? I mean, it sounds like you like to garden. Yes, we all do like to cook. You mentioned a big Italian family, and you and I are connected. Diane and I are connected on Facebook too. Did I just see a lot of cooking over the holidays?

Diane:

Yes. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. Oh my gosh.

Doug:

Yes. And so was salsa always something that was also around? Or was that, you know, once you started gardening?

Matt:

We were kind of a store-bought salsa up until the hot sauce turned into a salsa. And now it's like if I see any family or friend with a store-bought salsa, I'm like, what are you doing a little offended?

Speaker 5:

Right, right.

Doug:

Come on now. You know, growing up, I'm gonna date myself. When I was growing up, I don't even remember salsa as a kid of the 1970s to early 80s. And somehow it just started to happen. And and I think, keep me honest, it's way more popular than like ketchup. It's like the most popular condiment now. It's the number one condiment in the world. Is it right? Do you all have any idea how many jars you have produced and sold? Oh, wow. I know that was a real honest.

Matt:

I thought, but uh, if you did, I believe we're approaching 500,000 units sold since we started using our manufacturer, yes.

Doug:

Yeah, since you used the co-packer. So you're above that when you were doing it on your own. Right. Wow. Right. Congratulations. Thank you.

Diane:

Yeah, we're still pretty amazed sometimes ourselves.

Doug:

Well, I always like to look ahead too. You mentioned, you know, you have a couple of other products coming up. Are there any other new goals or events or or other things in the works?

Diane:

We did the fancy food show in New York. It's one of the biggest food shows on the East Coast. So we've done that two years in a row now. And Matt actually made some contacts with somebody in Dubai. That is amazing.

Matt:

Yeah, that is what's coming up. Wow. Will that require you to go to Dubai, Matt? I mean, if the souls is going to be sold in Dubai, I think we need to go to Dubai. That is an incredible trip.

Doug:

Right. Wow.

Matt:

We actually just got the order placed this morning. I saw it in the car. Oh my goodness. Yep. So our first export will be to Dubai. That is so crazy.

Doug:

Yes. Congratulations. I don't know what to say. This is a first on the show. I don't know if I've had anyone ship something to Dubai to sell their product from Pittsburgh.

Diane:

We were shocked when we got our first order from Canada, an online order. Yes. Hawaii. I think now we've sold product in what, 43 states?

Matt:

Yeah, I believe 43. Well, we've got to get to all 50. That's right.

Diane:

Absolutely. Okay.

Matt:

Absolutely. Yeah, some new things coming up. Our current goals are increasing our distribution in and around the New York, New Jersey area. Okay. Um, we're in talks with a few chains out there. We just sent samples and have approval for a chain called Shoprate. Oh, yes. Which is pretty big out there, which is really exciting. That's been one of our top goals for a while, but we're in the final stages of approval to hopefully be launching there within the next couple of months, which would be major expansion for us.

Doug:

My goodness. I mean, you guys are truly a national and now an international brand. Yep.

Diane:

Doesn't feel like story.

Doug:

Are you sure?

Diane:

Matt always says our goal is to be Pittsburgh salsa. Yeah. I love that. When people think of Pittsburgh, think of two ugly mugs. Yep.

Matt:

Pittsburgh loves Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh takes Pittsburgh everywhere. Yes. Right. It's crazy how many connections.

Diane:

You know how people take terrible towels everywhere and take pictures. We should do a contest with the salsa. With your salsa, right? Oh, I love that.

Doug:

Can you remind our local listeners again where they can find your salsas right now in the Pittsburgh region?

Matt:

Yeah. So, I mean, we're in a lot of like local independent markets, but um, giant eagle market districts. We're in a bunch of shopping saves. And as we talked about earlier, we did just relaunch a new website. So soon I will have a list of locations on the website so everybody can find and Whole Foods locally also.

Diane:

Whole Foods. Yes. Walmart? I am Walmart. Okay. Yes. All right. Yep. One in West Mifflin, right where we live. Oh my god. Incredible. So of course we always check the shelves when we go in.

Matt:

Yeah, not every Walmart, but uh a few in the area.

Doug:

Matt, since you did just mention that your website had a little bit of a glow-up, can you remind our listeners of the web address and your social handles? Yeah, sure.

Matt:

It's twougglymugs.com all spelled out. And that is also where you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter at Two Ugly Mugs. Oh. And there's no ugly mugs here, really.

Diane:

Thank you.

Doug:

All right. Diane, Matt, it has been such a pleasure to get to know your story. I do have one final question for you. The name of the show is the Pittsburgh Dish. Right. What's the best dish you've had to eat this past week?

Diane:

With salsa or without. I think that's a great follow-up question. Your choice. This past week. A pot of homemade chili. Oh. Did you make it? Yes. My husband did. Did he? He cooks more than I do. Yes. Mike likes to cook. We like that. Yes.

Doug:

Does he put anything, does he put anything special in the chili? Anything you think that takes it up a notch?

Diane:

I don't usually watch. You might watch it?

Doug:

Okay. All right.

Diane:

I just know he likes any kind of canned bean that you can put in. He puts a lot of beans in. Does he put your salsa in the chili? Sometimes. Sometimes.

Matt:

I put I put the salsa in the chili.

Diane:

That's going to come up with that. When we do these events, we're always amazed at how people tell us they use our salsa. Yes. Chicken, fish, eggs. We even had one person talk about Pittsburgh. They said, Your salsa is great in ham barbecues. Have you ever made it? We said no. They came back to the event the next day and brought us ham barbecues made with our salsa and buns and napkins. We're like, it was really good. It sounds delicious. It was. We never even thought of it. Yeah. No. Yeah. But we have had people tell us chili, lasagna. It's very versatile. Very versatile.

Matt:

Yeah. Wow. The salsa is in the same jar as Isaly's.

Doug:

Yes. Oh, that's amazing. Matt, I just want to ask quickly: was the chili your favorite dish this week?

Matt:

I did not have the chili, but my favorite dish this week was uh leftovers. I had seafood paella last night. Oh that's delicious. Who made that? Uh a restaurant in New Jersey. Oh, well, we we brought it back and I was like, that needs to go. It was so good. Paella is a delicious dish. Oh, sounds perfect. Yep. With a side of salsa.

Diane:

And we are doing tacos tonight with our salsa. I love it.

Doug:

Well, again, thank you both so much for sharing your time and your story. Congratulations on all the growth. Diane, Matt, thank you for being on the Pittsburgh Dish. Thank you very much. Yeah, it's been a pleasure to be here.

Diane:

It sure has. A lot of fun.

Matt:

Get ugly, Pittsburgh.

Speaker 5:

That's right. I love that.

Doug:

Up next. If great coffee and pastries are always high on your day trip agenda, we have a spot for you. One of our newest contributors, Sarah of Sarah Loves Yinz, tells us about the goat of Greensburg. Hey everybody, we're joined today with Sarah of Sarah Loves Yinz. Sarah, I know you hail from the Greensburg area. And when folks are traveling out that way, if they're in the mood for, let's say, a good coffee, maybe a little hangout spot, is there a place that you like to go?

Sarah:

Yes. So The White Rabbit. Oh. It's it's the goat. Honestly. The white rabbit. Do the kids still say that?

Doug:

The goat? The white rabbit is the greatest of all time. Yes. Uh I don't know if the kids say that.

Sarah:

It eats, right? Is that what they say now? No, but for real. The white rabbit. Okay. He oh my gosh. So it's a a couple, Tommy and Amber. Amber is this amazing pastry chef.

Doug:

Oh. So this is more than coffee.

Sarah:

Correct.

Doug:

Okay.

Sarah:

The case there is phenomenal. Well, it's really just like it looks like a wooden butcher block table, and then there's glass up, so you just see everything on this spread before you get to the register to order.

Doug:

Temptations go on all this good bakery stuff. Yes.

Sarah:

Homemade biscuits, homemade honey butter, different jams for the biscuits. They have cheesecakes, yogurt parfaits now, soup sometimes when it's soup season. The best chocolate chip cookie facts. They actually have brownies and I don't even like really phenomenal brownies. I don't like brownies. But I like their brownies. I like their brownies. They have vegan chocolate chip cookies, vegan brownies. They make all their syrups in house.

Doug:

You mean like for the coffee? Correct.

Sarah:

They're not like they make their own marshmallows. What? Mm-hmm.

Doug:

Oh my gosh.

Sarah:

Homemade syrups. They have really amazing loose leaf tea. There's a whole house water filtration system. Their cold coffee situation looks like a science experiment because it goes through, I want to say it's at least 24 hours where it's a slow drip.

Doug:

You're kind of blowing my mind. Like not just the fact that I was looking for a coffee shop, but you've given me like a full bakery pâtisserie, and they have this water filtration system. So anything you're getting, coffee, tea, or whatever, is going to taste amazing. Correct.

Sarah:

That's where I learned about Chemex.

Doug:

Oh. Are you a big coffee person? Black coffee. Oh, okay. So when you go there, what do you get?

Sarah:

Black coffee. And a sweet treat. Oh, yes. Several. I have no self-control. But it's like I won't eat. I'm sorry, Deb, but I won't eat like little Debbie, right? Like I don't want some oatmeal cream pies. I'm sorry. If you make them yourself, I might want them.

Doug:

But which this place might.

Sarah:

Yeah, they might. Yeah. The best cheese Danish. Oh, it's so it is seriously so good.

Doug:

Remind me the owners' names again.

Sarah:

Tommy and Amber.

Doug:

You should have I would love to, Tommy and Amber.

Sarah:

So they were in the city though. They were both living here in the city somewhere. I forget. I worked there for a hot second. Oh, you did? Yeah, but then I was like too pregnant.

Doug:

Didn't work out. So Tommy and Amber, you're doing it right. And we're talking about the White Rabbit Cafe and Patisserie in Greensburg. I'm just looking it up as we're talking here, Sarah. So they're on 113 North Main Street.

Sarah:

Diagonal from the courthouse.

Doug:

All right. Check the hours.

Sarah:

Monday through Friday. Great spot. It is amazing.

Doug:

It really, really is. Sarah, thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for being on the Pittsburgh Dish. Thanks for having me. You can follow Sarah on Instagram and Facebook at Sarah Loves Yins. And that's Sarah with an H. If soup is a go-to in the colder months of the year, we get some great advice on a recipe blueprint from Tess Monks of Phipps Conservatory. Hey everybody, we're joined today with Tess Monks. As you might remember, she's the Culinary Program Manager at Botany Hall Kitchen at Phipps Conservatory. Tess, when we were here, we talked all about the cooking classes at Botany Hall. And I was wondering, you're probably getting inundated with all kinds of culinary skills and recipes. When you go home, what's something that you make?

Tess:

You're so right. I have an arsenal of recipes, always something, you know, always, you know, got my favorites at the top. But really, I mean, when I go home, I have, you know, my my what I like to call my formula recipes. So, you know, I'll do a soup every week, I'll do um a stir fry every week. And it just depends on, you know, what we had an extra, we had a pepper left over from class this week and and half an onion. And um, and how do we how do we do that? You know, pick your protein, make your sauce, pick your veggies, and then kind of throw that together. So soup is my go-to, especially, you know, during the winter months. I'm like all summer long, I'm just dreaming of soup. A gazpacho here, you know, cold soup there. But uh yeah, always like like to like to build a soup. So, you know, always starting with garlic onion, getting that going, adding some broth, your spices, get your veggies in there. Um, I'm I'm I love a pantry meal. So anything from a can I can just kind of throw in. I love a bean soup. I love any of those things. Uh so really, like, really building as you go, um, adding some adding some special ingredients along the way. Uh, I've I don't know if I've ever made the same soup twice. Wow.

Doug:

Is there one you made in the past that you're like, wow, this is killer? Like, how did I get here?

Tess:

Italian wedding is one of my favorites, and it's a labor of love. So I definitely I'll lean into that for sure. I'll make that a couple times.

Doug:

That is the brothy soup. It usually has the little pasta or some little pasta.

Tess:

Yeah, yep.

Doug:

Did you make little meatballs?

Tess:

Made little meatballs, yes. I didn't do the pasta, but I do do the meatballs by hand, and it's it really is worth it.

Doug:

Yeah, and it usually has some spinach or some kind of dark meat in there or something. Yep. Always good. I am I'm right there with you. As we get into chillier months or winter time, I could have soup multiple times a week.

Tess:

Easily. Easily.

Doug:

Tess Monks, thank you so much for taking some time to be on the Pittsburgh Dish.

Tess:

Thanks for having me.

Doug:

Tess Monks is the Culinary Program Manager for Botany Hall Kitchen at Phipps Conservatory. You can check out their 2026 lineup of cooking classes on their website. Just search Phipps Conservatory and look for the Culinary Arts program. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description. And if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at Doug Cooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors, and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.

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Douglas Heilman

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