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In true Louisiana fashion, this Port Allen furniture store doesn’t use business cards — instead, every customer leaves with a bottle of hot sauce.

“We were looking for an idea, something with shelf life,” said Lindsey Fourroux Heidingsfelder, co-manager of Brian’s Furniture. “You give somebody a business card and they throw it away.”

Around 2021, Fourroux Heidingsfelder and her brother and co-manager Blake Fourroux started buying hot sauce wholesale and pasting the Brian’s Furniture label on the bottles. It is a way for the small business to show its humorous side and stand out from other retailers, Fourroux Heidingsfelder said.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of small businesses that have gone out of business this year, and it’s definitely been hard,” Fourroux Heidingsfelder said. “I think that our niche is just kind of that uniqueness.”

Fourroux Heidingsfelder said the sauce, made by a south Louisiana company, is a pleasing blend of vinegary and spicy, and people like it because it’s a “perfect medium.”

They keep a shelf stocked with it at their store in Port Allen’s historic downtown. They also distribute bottles to local restaurants, including Cou-Yon's BBQ.

Cou-Yon's orders about two cases of the bottles a month, restaurant manager Katie Babin said.

“(The customers) like it,” Babin said. “We keep it on our tables. I really enjoy it.”

The hot sauce is one of Brian’s Furniture's experiments in how to keep customers’ attention, Fourroux Heidingsfelder said. Outside the store sits another tactic: a life-size chimpanzee statue on a bench, welcoming people who come into the shop.

The business wants to give customers a fun and different experience, Fourroux Heidingsfelder said.

“You’re looking at a pretty piece of furniture, then you have a funny sign, then you have a tiger statue,” she said. “We’re just all over the board.”