Double Comfort had a good run a while back as a fried chicken joint in the Short North. The idea behind the place was to offer up comfort foods in the context of a business model devoted to raising money for local food pantries. So, each meal gave comfort to both restaurant patrons and those who benefitted from the meal’s proceeds.
While the restaurant itself is gone, Double Comfort is still raising money for local food pantries. It’s selling a line of seasoning products. In spite of the Double Comfort name, the wares are decidedly discomforting. Well, discomforting in the sense that the new products are spicy, and that’s spicy in a “hot n’ spicy” sense. Stuff with a kick is usually designed to amp things up, not calm them down for comfortable binging.
If the seasoning line is less comfortable, it is at least award-winning. The Double Comfort website mentions that the products earned a first place win in the 2017 Chile Pepper Awards. A national prize sounds pretty impressive for the first time around.
The product line-up consists of hot sauce, green pepper sauce, and a seasoning sprinkle called Soul of the South, stumbled across on the shelves at a local gourmet grocer (Hills). As suspected, the reddish granules of powder have a distinctly burning, smoky heat, but also a saltiness that makes the spice oddly addictive — more addictive than regular ol’ hot sauce. In trials, it works well on fried chicken and pretty much everything that involves melted cheese.
While the ingredient list on the bottle includes the usual suspects: salt, garlic, onions, the very first ingredient was deliciously vague: “spices.” No reason to give away all their secrets.
There are no particular health claims that go along with the bottle. Priced around $10, It won’t change your life, but it might change someone else’s.
For more information, visit doublecomfortfoods.com.