Mr. Falafel Rebrands Homemade Hot Sauce to Expand Business

In 1982 Aladin Habib, or better known by his nickname “Mr. Falafel,” moved from Egypt to Brooklyn, taking along his family recipes to open an Egyptian cuisine restaurant.

Now, the eponymous Mr. Falafel on Seventh Avenue is the place many Park Slopers go when they want, well, falafel or lamb gyro.

When he first opened his restaurant, between Third and Fourth streets, he used to give away his homemade hot sauce, a thick tomato-paste-and-spice-based recipe made fresh everyday in-house, for free.

“We used to fill large to-go coffee cups half way and give it to our customers for free,” said Habib's son, Murad Habib who thought of the idea to start bottling the generations-old recipe and sell it a few years ago. “But after people started actually buying it, still in the coffee cups, I knew we had a product people wanted.”

In 2010, Murad, who goes by “Mike,” designed a label with help from a customer and bottled a few batches in Mr. Falafel’s kithcen. Another customer said he’d put it on the shelves of his store, the Key Food on Flatbush Avenue near Sterling Place, and bought almost 200 bottles.

“Once in the Key Food it did okay, but people didn’t know what it was. It’s a great product, but it didn’t have name recognition,” Mike said. “Now we’re trying to rebrand ourselves with the new label, but it’s still the same classic family recipe.”

Mr. Falafel’s Hot Sauce claims to be “the first Egyptian hot sauce” and is made with tomato paste, jalapenos, onion, garlic, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, cumin and paprika. Aladin makes it everyday in the kitchen with fresh ingredients and Mike bottles it, also in the restaurant, and puts the label on each bottle by hand.

“We’re not trying to burn your tongue like other hot sauces, we just want to make your meal more enjoyable,” Mike explained.

He said that they sell about two gallons everyday, just with people’s orders in the restaurant and to go, not including what they sell in bottles.

“We have a unique hot sauce that people love, it’s an Egyptian family recipe that Aladin makes by hand,” Mike said.

“We’re a small operation, but hopefully we will catch on soon and our goal is to be on every table, like Tabasco, and in every grocery store,” Mike said, explaining that they have sold over 1,000 bottles since 2010.

Mike said that since they released their new design a month ago, he and his father made 200 bottles and plan to make that same amount every month.

Although they are only sold at the Key Food on Flatbush, their restaurant and Pita Pan, also on Seventh Avenue, they are beginning to go after bigger grocery stores.

“People have begin to recognize our name and symbol and business has picked up since the rebranding,” Mike said.

He said they are not as hot as other sauces, like Frank’s and Texas Pete’s, are better quality and not watery like the others. He also said that they only use natural ingredients and natural preservatives.

“We taste better than the bigger companies and we are made by hand in Brooklyn,” Mike said. “My father really focused its thickness, freshness and flavor.”   

Mike said that customers don’t mind paying for it now. But, every now and then, he will get an old customer who asks for a large coffee cup.

“The other day a woman called and said she needed extra sauce, like two coffee cups full of Mr. Falafel’s Hot Sauce. I had to tell her that things have changed,” Mike said. “I told her that the sauce is even better now and comes in bottles for $4.95. She said, 'Okay, but that’s only because your hot sauce is that good.'"