CHICAGO — Want to curse the Cubs or White Sox for 100 years?
A Logan Square-based hot sauce company launched a $3,000 Kickstarter Thursday morning where you can do just that.
"I think the way the Cubs have been playing, a real bitter South Sider will pony up the money just to keep them from winning," said Kyle Janis, the CEO and founder of Soothsayer Hot Sauce, which is offering the curse.
The Kickstarter has a number of less expensive options, including three bottles of hot sauce for $30 or a hot sauce cooking lesson for $300. But for $3,000, backers can get a seance dinner ("for you and 13 guests") featuring either a voodoo priest or a member of the Wiccan community — Janis said he knows both — who will perform a hex against the Cubs or White Sox that will last 100 years.
"The city of Chicago, especially on the baseball side, loves curses," said Janis, pointing to the Cubs' Curse of the Billy Goat and the former Curse of the Black Sox. "I think superstitions like that are a little bit ridiculous, but they're fun."
Janis, a 26-year-old Toronto Blue Jays fan, has a history with hot sauce. The DePaul graduate toured all 50 states and several countries as a former assistant production manager with the band Chicago. On most stops, he tried the local hot sauces and was enamored. He started dabbling with his own hot sauces in fall 2014, first creating the habanero-based Perdition sauce. He's expanded to three sauces, adding a red pepper-based Harbinger and a jalapeno-garlic salsa verde called Omen.
The three sauces will be officially launched Saturday night with a party at Quenchers Saloon, 2401 N. Western Ave.
Regardless of whether he raises the $3,000, Janis said he wants the company to start producing sauces on a larger scale by Christmas. He'll be making the sauces at Kitchen Chicago, a shared kitchen on the Near West Side. He's already invested $10,000 of his own money into the venture.
"No matter what happens, this will be a great thing," he said.
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