Anthony Rowe still remembers the moment Lip Smacking Sauces got its name. He was dunking barbecue chicken into a bucket of what he then called guava jelly barbecue sauce at a catering event when he noticed people smacking and licking their lips as they savored the flavor.
That reaction became the brand.
Rowe, 39, is the executive chef and owner of 3L Catering LLC, the Lehigh Valley-based company that does business under the title Lip Smacking Sauces & Caribbean Cuisine. The business currently operates from the Slatington Farmers Market at 8281 PA-873 in Slatington.
He has run the operation for approximately six years, building it from pastry sales during the COVID-19 pandemic into a catering and bottled-sauce business that now sells at farmers markets, festivals and community-wide events.
The path there was not linear. Rowe said the business survived a damaged relationship with a major regional arts and culture organization, a cross-country move prompted by financial strain, and more recently rising fuel costs he attributes to the war involving both the United States and the Iranian government, which pushed him to raise his sauce prices for the first time.
Rowe was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on Oct. 2, 1986, and moved to Queens, New York City, at age 10. He lived with his mother, three brothers, and grandmother. He said his early exposure to Jamaican dishes such as callaloo and beef patties, along with family dinners, was largely centered on his grandmother’s cooking, which shaped his relationship with food.
He later lived in the Bronx, then moved to Massachusetts before settling in the Philadelphia area, where he attended culinary school.
Rowe said much of his technique is self-taught, developed through jobs at a bar, a buffet-style diner, a smaller family-owned pizza shop and, after graduation, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. He credited Brittany Muthard, senior director of dining for Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services, as a mentor and former business partner.
Rowe founded 3L Catering in 2019, a year after culinary school, while still working at the Ritz-Carlton. His company was formally registered with the state and licensed in Philadelphia in 2021. However, he began bottling his sauces in 2022 after earning competitive demand at events, and registered Lip Smacking Sauces & Caribbean Cuisine as a DBA name under 3L Catering in 2023.
Rowe’s flagship product, the Lip Smacking Barbecue Sauce, began as what he called a guava jelly barbecue sauce, inspired by a Jamaican condiment from his childhood. He said he settled on the Spanish version of guava jelly after experimenting with both.
The line also includes a Mango Delight sauce, inspired by a family recipe his father shared from Rowe’s great-grandmother, and an Island Blaze hot sauce, a blend of Dominican and Jamaican spices introduced in 2022 and reworked in 2023.
Rowe described his cooking as “Caribbean fusion,” pulling from Jamaican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, American, French, Italian, and Southern influences.
Menu items include jerk chicken platters, a jerk chicken triple-cheese sandwich, a beef patty sandwich stuffed with five-cheese mac and cheese, and family-style platters serving five to 20 people. Prices range from $5 for cornbread to $20 for platters; sauce bottles sell for $12 each, or three for $30.
Rowe said the sauces are gluten-free and contain no animal byproducts, and that he has had them lab-tested for shelf stability so they can be displayed at room temperature.
Rowe said the business hit its lowest point in 2023, when he failed to pay ArtsQuest, the organizer of Reggae Fest in Bethlehem, a required 20% share of his sales from the event. He said the missed payment followed a car accident and a slow sales period, and that it strained his relationship with the organization. He said he still hopes to repair that relationship with ArtsQuest and other Reggae Fest vendors.
That year, he left his apartment and moved south to stay with a friend, continuing to sell pastries to make ends meet, according to Rowe. In 2025, he returned to the Lehigh Valley and opened a stand inside a farmers market, which he said struggled to draw enough foot traffic. Business has since picked up with stronger sales at recent events; he credited his business’s social media presence for the consumer uptick.
Rowe said the company now grosses about $6,500 a month, with a profit margin of roughly 30%. He does not have formal employees, he said, relying instead on freelancers, an event chef and his mother, who retired earlier this year and now helps with food preparation.
Rowe said increased fuel costs since the start of the U.S.-Iran war in February have raised his travel and delivery expenses, prompting him to raise his sauce bottle prices from $10.00 to $12.00. He said he factors in gas, ingredient, and labor costs into his pricing using a system that tracks receipts and expenses, a process he has recently streamlined with artificial intelligence tools.
He further mentioned that pricing challenges are balancing rising costs against customer expectations. “Chicken ain’t the same price no more,” he tells customers when explaining increases.
Rowe said one of the biggest obstacles for Caribbean-owned food businesses in the Lehigh Valley is a lack of commercial kitchen space, noting there is only one commissary kitchen available in Allentown.
Lehigh Daily News reviewed the location in question and can independently confirm that there are currently two legally established commissary kitchens in the Lehigh Valley region, one operating in Allentown.
During the interview with Lehigh Daily News, Rowe suggested local churches could allow small businesses to use their kitchens temporarily while the businesses meet their financial sustainability needs. It is unclear whether any operating religious institution in the Lehigh Valley has intentions to do this at this time.
Rowe further mentioned that he has applied for small-business grants without success and described the application process as burdensome. He received an informal loan from Muthard, his mentor, rather than a bank loan, citing the credit, revenue, and collateral requirements imposed by most lenders. He continued to express displeasure with respect to the perceived bureaucratic processes and procedures surrounding categorical grants.
Rowe said the business has not partnered with a chamber of commerce or outside investors, though his sauces are sold wholesale at Tipsy’s Bar and Lounge in Allentown and Crooked Row Farm and Market. He said he is open to expanding wholesale partnerships and eventually wants to secure a commercial kitchen in Allentown or Bethlehem, recruit two catering teams, and pursue a contractual agreement with a major chain such as Walmart within the next three years.
Part of Rowe’s marketing strategy involves filming customers’ live reactions to his food, a practice he said grew organically out of sampling sauces at events. He posts the videos primarily on Instagram, as well as on TikTok and Facebook.
Jibreel Naiem, a repeat customer who said he first met Rowe at the Juneteenth Classic event at Cedar Beach Park, said he has ordered from Lip Smacking Sauces at least five times and has appeared in multiple of Rowe’s videos. He said Rowe gave him free food on one occasion after he appeared in several clips, and that he could not recall a negative on-camera reaction being filmed or left unused. Naiem said he believes the videos have led friends and family to purchase products from Rowe’s business.
“Me and my boys tried the mac and cheese, and it was excellent that I had to go back and get it again another day,” said Naiem.
Another customer, Abdoul Aidara, said he had the jerk chicken sandwich and mac and cheese at the Juneteenth Classic event and described the portion size and quality favorably.
Rowe participated in the International Cultural Festival at Cedar Crest Beach Park on Aug. 22. Looking ahead, he said he wants Lip Smacking Sauces & Caribbean Cuisine to represent Caribbean food “at its highest quality” in the Lehigh Valley region.
“I truly believe that I help my customers’ lives be better by being there and serving them some good food — you will never be starving around me; that’s one thing that I can promise you,” Rowe said.