AS MOST ENTREPRENEURS WILL TELL YOU, when you’re committed to your passion, you’ll find the time to dedicate to it. For many who are in the nascent stage of establishing their businesses, those hours fall outside of their regular full-time work schedule. For salsa man Jimmy Brogden, those late-night hours inspired the name of his company, After Midnight Salsa Company.
“Always try to do everything right the first time. If you don’t have time to do it right, when are you going to have time to do it again?”
Jimmy Brogden
What makes Birmingham the perfect place for After Midnight Salsa Company?
I’ve lived in a lot of different places, but Birmingham has the best conglomeration of the best chefs in the country. This is a foodie town, and people really support one another here. I have seen that firsthand at Pepper Place.
How did you get your start?
I started making salsa to bring to potluck lunches when I worked in the corporate world. The ladies went crazy for it, telling me I needed to sell it, so I finally did.
We’ve been selling at Pepper Place Market since 2012. We’re now entering our 10th season there, and the market has been really, really good to us.
Your salsas have some funny but memorable names.
My salsas are made fresh without any preservatives or any ingredients you can’t pronounce. A friend of mine tried my original salsa, but she claimed to be a sissy and needed it to be milder, so I named that one Sissy Salsa. My buddy Joseph likes things really hot, so I called that one Lava Joe. And the one in the middle? Well, I just call that Fire in the Hole.
What is a saying you keep in mind when you think about being a small-batch maker?
I always say that it is the customers who build the business; we just do the work. I think if you keep that perspective, everything else falls into place.
Learn more about After Midnight Salsa
