Despite a major stroke, “Pop” is still going strong and attempting to get a new business off the ground.
“Pop” is Larry Senko of Clarkston who is marketing his own barbecue sauce. It is hard enough breaking into the food business, let alone when you are recovering from a stroke which left you speechless for three years.
However, that is exactly what Senko is attempting to do. The former computer manager has been making this sauce for close to 25 years.
“It is my own personal recipe. I had always enjoyed barbecue sauce,” Senko said. “It took me four or five weeks to get it down.”
The sauce was instantly a big hit with family and friends. Larry, along with his wife, Anita, distributed it to friends and neighbors as gifts for Christmas.
“Everybody who got it wanted more,” Larry said.
Larry was busy with his career and his golf game so providing more sauce to friends, or trying to sell it to the public, was not happening.
However, Larry’s life was changed forever in 1998 when he suffered a massive stroke. The stroke left Larry a shell of his former self and the busy man was suddenly not even able to speak.
“It was so frustrating,” Larry said.
Trips to multiple doctors were not helping Larry recover. That was before one of Larry’s kids suggested a doctor in Florida they had heard good things about.
“When we went down there we didn’t know whether he was a quack of a doctor,” Anita said. “A lot of other doctors told us not to go, but Larry said he is the one who is sick and decided he wanted to go. We thought the worst thing that could happen was that we would have a vacation in Florida.”
What happened next has been dubbed a “minor miracle” by Larry and his wife. With medicine that was intended to increase blood flow to the brain, Dr. William Hammesfahr helped Larry make great strides in memory and physical functions in addition to getting Larry to speak again.
“He is a great doctor,” Anita said. “He is very personable with a real type A personality. He has also been nominated for a Nobel Prize in Medicine.”
With a new lease on life, Larry was looking for something to occupy his time and also a way to give back to the doctor who gave him his life back.
That is when he decided to begin bottling his famous barbecue sauce and sell it to others.
“It helps him feel good about himself and it also allows him to help the doctor,” Anita said.
A portion of the proceeds from all sales goes to help fund the doctor’s research.
The process of getting the company off the ground was a slow one. The couple had to do everything from bottling to buying the labels.
“We received a lot of help along the way. People like Joe Bologna have really been a great help,” Anita said. “This has been a big deal to get it done.”
It was a difficult process for the couple, compounded by the fact it was difficult for Larry to sell the idea to merchants given his slowed speech.
“This is a society where people don’t have a lot of time and it was difficult to get people to take the time to hear Larry out,” Anita said.
Through networking, the couple met individuals who could help them build the company. As the business matured, the couple stopped producing it in their home. It is now produced at Houlihan’s in Auburn Hills.
Larry has come a long way from producing the sauce so his kids could dip potato chips. The couple has three children and nine grandchildren.
“They always called it Pop’s Sauce so that is how we got the name,” Anita said.
Pop’s Barbecue Sauce, which ranked third in a taste panel by The Detroit News, can be bought in gourmet food shops around Metro Detroit including Joe Bologna’s Gourmet Shop in Canterbury Village, Mike’s All World Market in Oxford and Papa Joe’s in Rochester and Birmingham. Anyone interested in ordering the sauce can visit www.popsbbq.com.