Pogo’s Peppers
After leaving the Air National Guard in early 2020, Matt Pongrace of Rye started bottling his own homemade sauces to great fanfare among family and friends. What started as a hobby during the pandemic lockdown quickly turned into a small business venture, one that Pongrace has consistently grown ever since. Matt and his wife, Alli, are now in their first season of running Pogo’s Peppers (122 Lafayette Road, North Hampton, 686-6127, pogospeppers.com) — its name is a truncation of “Pongrace” and was Matt’s father’s call sign, or nickname, in the Air Force — out of a North Hampton storefront. They’re currently open five days a week for tacos and on weekends for breakfast burritos, and additionally have take-and-bake offerings of taco kits and weekly macaroni and cheese specials. Although he has garnered rave reviews out of the gate for his tacos and burritos, Pongrace has big plans to expand his sauce business turned brick-and-mortar eatery. Late last month, for instance, he offered Cubano sandwich specials, while other ideas he has up his chef’s sleeve include Turkish-style döner kebabs. “We definitely want to be a very eclectic type of place,” he said. “In my years traveling with the Air Force, I’ve had street foods all over the place … and so we want to do all kinds of fun things, with different specials all the time. Keeping the menu small, of course, and being very busy with our sauce operation. … I feel like it’s a good model for us right now.” The Scene recently caught up with Pongrace to talk about Pogo’s Peppers’ journey over the last few years and how his first season on Lafayette Road in North Hampton has been going.
How long has Pogo’s Peppers been around?
We started up [the sauce business] in the spring of 2020, just selling hot sauces online. … I would say it was a side gig until about last spring, so the spring of 2023 [was] kind of when I decided I’d commit to this being my full-time gig. … [Memorial Day weekend] was our first big weekend open for food, and it’s been received really well. … I’m very fortunate to have my wife here, who is a dedicated teacher and who just got off on summer break, so I’ve got her throughout the summer to get through what I’m hoping is going to be a really busy season.
What makes Pogo’s Peppers unique?
Everything is available with our sauce, as far as tacos, burritos, sandwiches and whatnot. … That was always kind of our biggest appeal, like just when I would put up a social media post [saying] ‘Hey, here’s a great way to use our sauce … that’s going to add a lot of flavor.’ … [Our sauces] vary throughout the seasons, [but] we’ve got three mainstays that are always available: our OG sauce, our jalapeno lime and our Colonel’s Mustard. We’ve also got one-offs of all kinds of recipes that we do all the time. Right now, our summer seasonal [release] is our ANCHOr sauce, and it’s kind of somewhere between a barbecue sauce and a hot sauce, with no sugar. It’s a great grilling sauce.
What is your favorite sauce, and your favorite thing to put it on?
Oh, gosh — that’s like asking me what’s my favorite kid! I’m super partial to our OG sauce. It’s our original sauce, and it’s a Caribbean-style. It’s got an awesome sweet citrus [flavor] up front, with orange, lime and pineapple … and then that habanero creeps in, so you get a nice savory round-out on the back end with the carrot, garlic and onion. It’s just a really well-rounded sauce. … As far as my favorite food that we’re putting it on, right now, our breakfast burritos are standalone.
What is one thing that everyone should try?
Our carnitas, which is our slow-roasted pork, with our OG sauce. … I’ve been spending the last six years perfecting the way that I do our carnitas. It’s a little bit more of a Yucatán-style, a little closer to cochinitas, but it’s absolutely phenomenal.
What celebrity would you like to see eating at Pogo’s Peppers?
I would have to say Dave Portnoy [of Barstool Sports]. I want him to come in and give me a taco review. … If he comes in and tells me that my tacos are a 9.8, then I’ll have a good night’s sleep.
What is an essential skill to running a restaurant?
It’s got to be a love for what you’re doing. If you had asked me 10 years ago where I would be, the last thing I would’ve told you was that I was going to be running a little taco shack with a hot sauce company attached to it … but it’s honestly something that I found after getting out of the military that I love doing.
What is your favorite thing about being on the Seacoast?
I’ve lived all over this country, and I’ve been all over the world, and there’s just nothing better than being here. There’s no place that I’d rather be. … The weather, the seasons, [and] being able to get to the mountains from the beach within an hour or two … is just awesome.
— Matt Ingersoll
Photo courtesy of Pogo’s Peppers in North Hampton
