The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival is one of Central Texas’ spiciest summer events, but for Elizabeth and Nicholas Michael, it’s also one of the sweetest. The now East Riverside residents had their first date at the Hot Sauce Festival in 2016, and things only heated up from there.
Although Nicholas had lived in Austin for eight years, Elizabeth, originally from New York, was the one who found the festival that set off their love story. The couple spent the day sampling tons of sauces, sweating through their cute “first date” outfits, and filling up on chips and drinks. Nicholas later wrote in a Facebook post on the anniversary of their first date, “Found my other half through terrorizing our stomachs and drinking warm, flat beer. Love this woman.” The couple got engaged just four months after the festival and they were happily married at Hotel Ella this past April.
Today, Elizabeth and Nicholas have a growing hot sauce collection at home to commemorate how their romance began. They laugh about how “burning through their stomachs together proved they would stay together,” and they visit the Hot Sauce Festival every year. Elizabeth, now a seasoned Hot Sauce Festival goer, offers a few recommendations:1. Don’t dress cute, but rather dress for the heat.
2. Bring a hat and a bandanna (which you can dunk into buckets of ice water to keep cool).
3. Come ready to eat.
4. “If you’re not into spicy, it’s not a good place for a first date!”
The 28th Annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival will be held at Fiesta Gardens on August 26 from 11am to 5pm. Stop by, and maybe if you’re as lucky as Elizabeth and Nicholas, you’ll find somebody who will always be there to brave the heat with you.
This article appears in August 10 • 2018.