Thirteen years ago, we were carrying bottles of ketchup around Chicago, knocking on restaurant doors, and asking people to take a chance on a product nobody had heard of. Most said no. The first place that said yes was a leap of faith we still talk about. The second place was Flo & Santos.
A South Loop original
If you know Chicago's South Loop, you know Flo & Santos. They have been at 1310 S. Wabash since before the neighborhood became what it is today. A warm, exposed-brick pub with red booths, a spacious beer garden, and a menu that does not make sense on paper until you try it.
Tavern-style thin crust pizza. Homemade pierogies. Pork wings. A craft beer list that takes itself seriously. The name comes from a real Chicago couple. Florence, Flo, was from Poland. Santo was from Italy. They met, married, and raised a family on the south side. The restaurant is a tribute to them, and to the Polish and Italian immigrants who shaped the neighborhoods they came from.
We did not know that story the first time we walked in. We were just two guys with a cooler bag of ketchup samples. But when we found out that Flo was from Poland, that the whole place was built on the idea of honoring where your people came from, it hit differently. 78 Brand is made in Poland. Always has been. There is a reason we ended up on a menu built on Polish and Italian heritage. It felt like it was supposed to be there.
What taking a chance actually means
When a restaurant agrees to put your product on their tables, they are not just buying ketchup. They are telling their guests, people who trust them, that this thing is good enough to represent what they are about.
Flo & Santos took that risk. They put 78 Ketchup on the table. Guests noticed. Some asked about it. A few of them became customers of ours, people who found us because they had a slice of thin crust pizza in the South Loop and thought, what is this ketchup?
When things got hard
2020 was the year that separated the relationships that were real from the ones that were just transactions. When COVID shut down dining rooms across Chicago, we reached out to the restaurants that had believed in us early and extended a discount. No conditions. No contract revision. You helped us when we needed it, and right now you need it, so here is what we can do.
That is the version of business we believe in. You do not build a product on real ingredients and then run your relationships on cheap ones. Flo & Santos made it through. The patio is still open, the pierogies are still homemade, and 78 Ketchup is still on the table.
Thirteen years is not an accident
A lot has changed since we walked into Flo & Santos with a cooler bag. 78 Brand is in restaurants and retail accounts across the country now. We have been in Walmart. We are a certified HUB Zone supplier to the U.S. government. We have built a co-branding program for restaurants, launched a spicy ketchup, and expanded the mustard line.
And every time something new happens, we think about the places that said yes before any of that existed. Flo & Santos is still one of them. They actively reorder. They keep it on the table. That kind of staying power does not happen without something mutual underneath it.
If you are in Chicago's South Loop, go to Flo & Santos. 1310 S. Wabash. Get the thin crust. Get the pierogies. Tell them 78 Brand sent you.