Skip to content
Food

Give cookouts a boost with BBQ sauce from the Shore

From North Wildwood, a Kansas City-style BBQ sauce so good, customers started stealing it.

The house Klepto barbecue sauce is pictured at The Surfing Pig in North Wildwood, N.J., on Friday, June 21, 2019.
The house Klepto barbecue sauce is pictured at The Surfing Pig in North Wildwood, N.J., on Friday, June 21, 2019.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer

The slow-smoked meats at the Surfing Pig in North Wildwood are legit. But the sauce is so good that guests began stealing the squeeze bottles of it off the tables. Owner Bill Bumbernick thought that was the ultimate validation, so he wryly named it “Klepto Sauce” and started selling it by the bottle. This is a sweet and tangy dark brew in the Kansas City style, which is perhaps the most familiar style to BBQ sauce consumers. It’s especially well-balanced, with good vinegar tartness and paprika-mustard spice to counter the brown sugar and ketchup base.

— Craig LaBan

Klepto Sauce, $8 per 18.5-ounce bottle, the Surfing Pig, 231 W. 10th Ave., North Wildwood, 609-522-0900; thesurfingpig.com