Yet another glance into our delectable past

I’d like to thank everyone for the huge number of kind responses to last week’s column. I love our Cape Region dining history and the restaurant pioneers who helped shape our business of eating here at the beach. In the spirit of, “Be careful what you ask for – you might get more of it!” a few of your responses recommended even more places and people. So fasten your seat belts.

Aside from the Atlantic Ocean and perpetually hungry parking meters, there are few things more fundamentally Rehoboth than entrepreneur and all-around likeable character, Chip Hearn. This guy will sell you hundreds of bottles of hot sauce (all different), and dish up frozen flavors at The Ice Cream Store with names like Booger, Motor Oil, I Don’t Give a Fork (yup, it comes with a fork), and Looks Like Viagra. Feeling savory? He’ll feed you award-winning wings and barbecue that have won competition after nationwide competition over the years.

A Delaware boy through and through, young Chip spent every free moment at his grandfather’s house (built in the ‘20s) on the ocean block of Olive Avenue. He worked at the family business in Wilmington, which back in the early ‘30s covered a city block and included a baker, a candy store, a butcher and an ice cream parlor. The word “supermarket” wasn’t yet a household word when Chip’s father and grandfather consolidated all the stores into a single building.

As a high schooler, Chip set out to find his fortune where Olive Avenue intersects the ocean. His first venture was a no-frills affair: a table on the Boardwalk from which he sold Italian water ice. Back then, Dominick Pulieri himself was tossing pizzas at Grotto, and Tim and Tony Gouvas weren’t much taller than the counter at Louie’s Pizza.

Chip’s first Rehoboth storefront was a Dairy Queen located near the Boardwalk on the south side of Rehoboth Avenue. In the mid-‘70s, a larger space just a few doors to the east became The Ice Cream Store that he still operates today. The Hearn ice cream empire eventually grew to seven stores in Delaware, including the landmark Dairy Queen on Lewes Beach and several Tastee-Freez franchises.

In the late ‘70s, Chip’s family took over the Country Squire restaurant located in the space that later became Seaside Thai and is now home to Semra’s Mediterranean Grill. Diners flocked to the bloody mary smorgasbord and its famed collection of hot sauces, a foreshadowing of things to come.

In the late ‘80s, the Hearns moved the operation to the Starboard in Dewey Beach, continuing the do-it-yourself bloody mary tradition. Loyal customers donated their favorite pepper sauces to the ever-increasing collection. They accumulated so quickly, Hearn started selling them out of a utility building in the Starboard’s parking lot.

When the first Peppers store opened, Chip was already a celebrity in the world of chiliheads. His collection-gone-wild became the definitive source for everything spicy and pleasingly painful. He sold the Starboard in 1999, and since then, Peppers.com and its current storefront in Lewes have become mandatory destinations for pain aficionados the world over.

Hearn’s pepper prowess extends to national barbecue competitions. He has appeared on “Good Morning America” and numerous Food Network specials, including Bobby Flay’s “Throwdown” and “Unwrapped,” and it’s no secret that Chip will do just about anything to charm a TV camera. The stakes are in the multi-thousands of dollars at national barbecue competitions, and he can be found smoking octopus, fruit and even ice cream to keep the paparazzi pointing at Peppers.

I’ve always loved the old saying, “The ice cream scoop doesn’t fall far from the tree.” OK, I made that up … but nowhere is it more true than with Chip’s daughter Aileen and her partner Kyle Ten Eyck, the proprietors of Somewhere restaurant on Baltimore Avenue (where Iguana Grill used to be). They have their own shelf of fiery and flavorful hot sauces that can add a little zing to almost any dish on the menu, and they’re happy to discuss and share options with curious customers.

I’ve had the pleasure of hosting Chip on my radio show several times, and one of the funniest moments occurred during his rather scientific on-air explanation of the effects of capsaicin, the pain-producing pepper extract. He was calmly describing how the chemical activates pain sensors that alert the brain to send protective endorphins throughout the body. When they get to the mouth and discover there’s no injury, they apparently exclaim ... and at this point Hearn shocks me, my engineer and my listenership by waving his hands in the air and speaking in a loud, high-pitched endorphin voice: “Oh well, we’re already here, so let’s just have some fun!” Those of us who love hot sauces crave that fun – and many like-minded chiliheads responded to the show accordingly.

Cape Region endorphin fans know it’s never boring when Chip is around. Aileen and Kyle are keeping the tasty family tradition going over on Baltimore Avenue, and I’m delighted to be able to join in on the fun – and the pain. And if something’s too hot for you, you can always chase it with Motor Oil ice cream.