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Barbecue brand owner spreads business

MUNCIE, Ind.(NewsLink) -- Lathay Pegues started JohnTom’s barbecue sauce in honor of his grandfather and his secret recipe.

“When you talk about passion, I realized that my passion has always been barbecue,” Pegues said.

Being an entrepreneur was not his first career choice. He went to Indiana University for broadcast journalism and worked at two different stations.

“I’ve wanted to be a broadcaster since high school. That’s what I wanted to do, and I knew that as soon as I went to college, that’s what I wanted my career to be,” Pegues said.

After seven years in broadcasting, he felt the need for a career change.

“For my transition to barbecue sauce, I wanted to get out there and be an entrepreneur and see if I can do something with it,” Pegues said.

After an immediate response from people, the sauce company grew to states outside of Indiana. In Muncie, JohnTom’s Barbecue keeps its local home feel.

“A mutual friend came to me and told me about the sauce, I tried it and loved it and we ran with it from here,” Mark Stoughton said.

Stoughton is the owner of Greek’s Pizzeria, and he made a special pizza of the month for the sauce to showcase the taste and the hometown brand.

“Local people helping local people is always great,” Stoughton said.

Ball State University dining also uses the sauce in its barbecue locations and throughout campus.

If you want to buy the sauce you can visit their website.

For comments or concerns regarding this story, contact the author at alchalker@bsu.edu.