Sriracha-obsessed Denton City Councilman Kevin Roden headed off to Irwindale, California yesterday to visit the headline-making Sriracha factory, and Denton's chile heads gave Roden and his delegation a proper sendoff on Friday night with a rally at Oak St. Drafthouse. The event featured Sriracha-spiked cucumber margaritas, a spicy photobooth and t-shirts featuring the #Sriracha2Denton hashtag Roden popularized earlier this year. A fairly large crowd of media made an appearance, too — even a few reporters from Al Jazeera America.
Huy Fong Foods, manufacturer of the planet's most-hyped hot sauce, has seen quite a few out-of-state visitors this year to its factory. That's probably because the company was rumored to be considering moving to a new location after being threatened with legal action by Irwindale's city council, stemming from complaints by several residents regarding the plant's rather strong chili pepper odor.
Councilman Roden has spent the year trying to lure the Sriracha factory to Little D, promising lower taxes and a more friendly locale for the peppery icon. Other lawmakers from Texas already toured the plant earlier this month, but Roden feels that the creative spirit of Denton is a perfect fit for the factory. It's worth noting that Huy Fong's founder David Tran has recently gone on record to say that he's not currently considering a move, but that's clearly not discouraging Roden and his supporters.
However, Tran also said that if demand for the red stuff continues to grow, Huy Fong will outgrow its current factory by 2017. Considering all the pending legal action, a move to a different state might start to make a lot of business sense.
In any case, if the rally turnout is any indication, just imagine the kind of party Denton would throw if Huy Fong actually decided to pack up and relocate to Texas.
· Kevin Roden - Denton City Council, District 1 [Facebook]
· Denton City Councilman Kevin Roden on Why the Sriracha Factory Should Move to Texas [-EDFW-]
· All Sriracha coverage on Eater Dallas [-EDFW-]
