Out of the Shop is our chance to move outside our four walls and into our friends’ lives for just a moment, highlighting the work of the amazing photographers, planners, musicians, artists, and rapscallions that inspire us.

I passed Mama’s Sauce no less than four times as I checked my watch – at least fifteen minutes late.  I was thrilled to know there was a letterpress shop within even a day’s drive of Lakeland, much less an hour!  Now here I was driving around town, cursing Google Maps.  Mama’s Sauce occupies part of an industrial building quite literally on the other side of the tracks from what Orlando offers as it’s hip district (not far from my former office) and is just down the road from one of the swankiest private schools I’ve ever seen.  It’s a bit nondescript, except for the blazing large sign on the fence that I missed each and every time.

Nick Sambrato runs the shop.  I had seen him in moving pictures by Chase Heavener and knew I had to come see his shop and its beautiful machines that hiss and clack.  After being given a tour that made me wish I was born in a different time (or, perhaps, so very glad to be born in my own) and talking numbers and whatnot, I asked Nick if he would grant me an interview (via email) and a photograph (which you see above).  The following is the result of said interview:

1} Who are you and what do you do?

my name is nick. i am owner/operator of a cool little print and design firm by the name of mama’s sauce… for the longest time i was the screen printer, letterpress operator, and manager. luckily now, i’m pretty much the dictator… um i mean, guy behind the desk.

2} How and why did you start Mama’s Sauce?

i know this will sound cliche, but mama’s sauce honestly came from a dream. after assuming a screen print shop into our digital operation (at the time we weren’t mama’s sauce, but rather a small digital shop), i literally woke up in a sweat. i was so inspired by the proprietor of the screen print shop that we just bought, that my mind raced at the possibilities of what could be done in the ‘real’ printing world… at the time, we were in an empty house, printing in the living room and mixing inks in a kitchen. for a few days prior to the dream there was a cobalt blue bowl chock full of a chunky red ink sitting in the kitchen… it’s resemblance to sauce may be what made the name come so easily. that and the fact that the three of us at the time were (and still are) italian-americans.

3} (In the notes for his video, Chase says you’re not “a very smart guy.”)  Why letterpress now?

ha. i don’t take any offense, as i’m just smart enough to realize how big of an idiot i am at most things… but when it comes to letterpress now – i really think it’s smart choice. the world will always have a consuming class drawn to artisans and goods produced by classic method. the consumer climate right now is particularly leaning in this direction… well that, and martha says letterpress is cool. i just do what she says.

4} Who else spends their day at Mama’s Sauce?
well, you can always find an oddball collection of people in our shop. that is to say – it’s a diverse crew that both work and shop at the sauce. besides our little staff and interns, we’re lucky to have some of the finest artists, photographers, designers, performers, and business people in all of orlando in and out of our shop daily – not to mention all the internet clients, who i am assuming are just as rad!

5} What has been your most challenging project so far?

the first job on a new (but actually very old) press is always the hardest. learning the personality of a press can be just as frustrating as trying to enter into a relationship with that fox you’ve always had your eye on. during the dating phase you just about want to kill yourself, but once you learn who the press is, and what he or she wants and needs – you’re pretty golden.  it still never gets easy, just easier. our record on a press’ first job is 37 hours straight on a 3-color job. on a press already set and rockin’ – the job would have been about 5 hours.

6} What new equipment are you dreaming about?

i just committed to rescuing a GIANT letterpress from going to the scrap yard. it’s going to be a lot of work moving the 11,000 lb beast across country and then refurbishing it – but we’re teaming up with kickstarter.com and a handful of amazing poster artists to raise the money to keep this gorgeous, important piece of history from being melted down to make the innards of whatever new, soulless product it’s precious metal would be part of.

7} What are you reading/watching this week?

i’m always reading uncrate.com, pacingthepanicroom.blogspot.com, rifledesign.squarespace.com, tightslice.com/blog, yasly.com/blog, and constantly reading about letterpress history/technique wherever i am able to find it, both in print and online.

8} What is the biggest challenge you face?

for the past 2 years, the launching of our website has been my everest!

9} What do you wish every designer knew?

file submission guidelines for their project’s respective process.

10} What’s next for Mama’s Sauce?  For Nick?

23×35 letterpress prints, amazing sign painter signage for our building, a rad 1962 UPS truck in our driveway, and of course that ever elusive website.

You can follow Mama’s Sauce on Twitter at @mamassauce.