Pace Picante Sauce revolutionized American kitchens when David and Margaret Pace started making it in 1947 from the back room of a small San Antonio storefront (a former liquor shop). Their hand-crafted recipe—built on peak-season tomatoes, onions, and jalapeño heat—grew from door-to-door sales to a dominant national brand with leading market share by the 1990s.
You’ll discover how this authentic Tex-Mex creation transformed from humble beginnings into Campbell Soup’s landmark acquisition, forever changing how America enjoys one of its favorite condiments.
Image: UserTwoSix, Pace Picante sauce (Medium salsa), CC BY-SA 4.0
The Humble Beginnings: David and Margaret Pace’s Vision
In the heart of San Antonio, Texas, David E. Pace and Margaret (Bosshardt) Pace began a culinary partnership that would reshape American condiments. The couple founded Pace Foods in 1947, operating from a humble back room where family collaboration shaped their approach.
David brought experience from his syrup-making venture while Margaret contributed organizational savvy and local connections as they refined recipes that moved beyond preserves into something distinctly Texan. Their early days included door-to-door sales of jellies, syrups, and a bright, balanced picante sauce—featuring jalapeños, onions, garlic, and tomatoes—that would become legendary.
This small operation blended David’s entrepreneurial vision with Margaret’s practical business sense, creating a foundation that would later define the salsa category. A Monroe, Louisiana native who had settled in San Antonio, David shifted his focus from syrups to the sauce that would make him famous—drawing on the region’s culinary diversity from South and border Texas.
From Backroom to Grocery Shelves: Early Distribution Challenges
Cramped space and improvised equipment defined Pace’s early production as the business scaled from kitchen tests to commercial batches. Capital constraints meant the Paces repurposed a San Antonio back room for cooking, bottling, and shipping their picante sauce.
You’d be amazed how logistics shaped the journey:
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Hand-filled glass bottles demanded labor and slowed throughput, raising costs.
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Distribution relied on personal relationships with Texas grocers and specialty shops.
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Early transportation limits kept reach regional before broader retail acceptance.
Without automated labeling or established networks, the family leaned on in-store demos and tastings to educate shoppers unfamiliar with Mexican-style sauces—building from local to regional presence over time. Like other Texas food icons that grew from wholesale roots like Shipley Do-Nuts, Pace methodically scaled while insisting on fresh, peak-season inputs that set its product apart.
The Recipe That Changed American Kitchens
When David Pace finalized his picante sauce in 1947, he couldn’t have foreseen how it would reshape everyday eating. His emphasis on fresh, hand-selected ingredients yielded a lively balance of tomato brightness and jalapeño warmth that Americans embraced.
Versatility made the difference: Pace helped move “salsa” from specialty shelves into daily life, ultimately becoming the country’s go-to chip partner, recipe base, and table condiment. By introducing “picante sauce” commercially, Pace bridged traditions and accessibility, welcoming newcomers with Mild and Medium alongside Hot, and later Thick & Chunky styles—without abandoning the clean, consistent flavor that defined the original.
Like early Texas brewers focused on community first, Pace began as a local staple that organically grew into a national habit through flavor and reliability.
Pioneering the Salsa Revolution in American Food Culture
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Trailblazers in the evolving U.S. palate, Pace Foods helped transform how Americans experience Mexican-influenced flavors. The San Antonio company didn’t just sell sauce—it sparked a shift that put salsa squarely in the pantry mainstream.
As competition intensified, Pace leaned into Texan authenticity and simple, repeatable quality:
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By the early 1990s, Pace led the U.S. picante/salsa category with the largest single-brand share while expanding across retail channels.
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Category momentum was undeniable, with Mexican sauce sales climbing at double-digit rates in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
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Positioning salsa as an everyday condiment accelerated the broader move that, by the 1990s, saw salsa challenge and surpass ketchup in dollar sales.
You’re seeing the legacy of a brand that reset American condiment culture.
Growth Years: How Pace Dominated the Salsa Market
Pace’s rise to category leadership came through disciplined execution. By the early 1990s, the brand commanded a leading share of grocery salsa sales and expanded across club, mass, and food-service channels. Innovation such as Thick & Chunky matched changing preferences without sacrificing the crisp jalapeño-tomato profile.
Advertising amplified the edge: the iconic “New York City?!” campaign contrasted Texas roots with coastal imitators, making provenance part of the pitch. Consistency—driven by dedicated quality and R&D teams—kept Pace dependable across plants and seasons.
Distribution strength, tight process control, and heat-flavor balance helped Pace stay a step ahead of rivals even as the category grew rapidly.
The Campbell Soup Acquisition: A New Chapter
In 1994, a watershed moment arrived when Campbell Soup Company acquired Pace for about $1.1 billion—a move that broadened Campbell’s portfolio into a fast-growing sauce category.
Key outcomes preserved Pace’s identity while enabling scale:
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The brand, recipes, and quality standards remained central to positioning.
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Campbell’s national reach expanded distribution and shelf presence.
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Over time, manufacturing was consolidated within Campbell’s network—most notably to Paris, Texas—while the Pace brand retained its San Antonio heritage in marketing and recipe stewardship.
The result: bigger footprint, same recognizable taste.
San Antonio’s Culinary Heritage and Pace’s Influence
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San Antonio’s layered food history—Indigenous, Spanish, Mexican, German, and more—primed the city for a salsa that tasted authentic and traveled well. Pace captured that identity, channeling regional chile preferences and kitchen practicality into a jar that worked for weeknight dinners and gatherings alike.
When you taste classic San Antonio plates, you meet centuries of fusion. Pace recognized and packaged that everyday flavor, aligning with a city whose culinary economy and Tex-Mex traditions continue to thrive on both heritage and adaptation.
Beyond the Jar: Pace’s Impact on Tex-Mex Food Manufacturing
Pace also influenced how Tex-Mex flavors get made at scale. What started in a back room became a modernized operation under Campbell, showing that regional recipes could be produced consistently for a national audience without losing character.
As operations centralized in Paris, Texas, supply chains adapted—standardizing ingredients, packaging, and quality checks that preserved freshness and flavor. Pace demonstrated a blueprint for taking family recipes to industrial scale while keeping the eating experience familiar at home.
Preserving Authenticity: The Enduring Legacy of Pace Picante Sauce
Even as volumes grew, the heart of Pace stayed the same: jar after jar that tastes like fresh, peak-season produce with clean jalapeño heat. Consolidation didn’t mean compromise; rigorous controls and careful sourcing kept the core profile intact.
That dedication has earned consumer loyalty and industry accolades over decades. Despite joining a global company, Pace’s San Antonio roots remain central to the story—proof that a straightforward, well-made sauce can shape a nation’s palate and still feel local.
