The creator of a popular marinade and meat sauce made in North Dakota is crying foul at a newer sauce that's hit the market.

It's not just that both of the sauces, Essie's South American Style Sauce and Don Diego South American Sauce, are in almost the exact same jar, or that they both originated in North Dakota. Or that they're both South American-style sauces that both carry a picture of a ship on the label.

It's the claims on the side of the Don Diego sauce that gets under Esther Davis' skin.

"On the back of the sauce jar, they say it's the original Seven Seas recipe,"Davis said.

But if it is, that's a problem, she said. Because her sauce, Essie's, is the original sauce.

Technically, the back of the label says: "… Developed by chefs for use at The Seven Seas restaurant in Mandan, North Dakota - for their signature steaks, the sauce soon developed a loyal following of home cooks …"

But Davis, owner of Essie's South American Style Sauce, has some contention with that.

In 1964, Davis and her then-husband bought a little supper club in downtown Mandan called the Havana Club. They renamed it the Seven Seas and after six years moved it to Interstate 94 and exit 152.

They began making a South American sauce for their steaks, perfecting a recipe and giving it to their chef, Davis said. He made it on a daily basis, and was the only one, outside of Davis and her husband, who knew the recipe.

In the mid-'80s, Davis and her husband divorced, but continued to work together for six more years. Davis now lives in Seattle.

In 1986, after hearing a lot of encouragement from her customers, Davis began to produce and market the sauce; after a couple of years producing it with Red Owl in Minneapolis, which eventually discontinued making contracted products, the sauce was brought to a small producer in North Dakota called Golden Fleischkuekle in Stanton.

For 19 years, Golden Fleisch-kuekle produced the sauce. Davis said they gave the owner the recipe, with a verbal agreement that it was not to be shared.

"Even at the Seven Seas, nobody knew the recipe,"Davis said. "Our chef, Cal Neiss, he was the only one who had the recipe. He always made it. He wouldn't give the recipe to anybody."

Eventually, the producer asked to buy out the product, but they couldn't agree on the financials. And pretty soon after, Mandan-based Cloverdale Foods made a higher offer for the sauce.

T.J. Russell, president and CEOof Cloverdale, confirmed it, adding that Davis didn't want to sell it. In fact, Davis had decided to hand the business over to her daughter to keep it in the family.

After declining both offers, Davis said the producer asked them to find another facility to make the sauce; in fall of 2006, Essie's production was moved to Full Service Foods in Hillsboro. At around the same time, Cloverdale bought out the producer's business and began producing and marketing their own South American-style sauce.

Jon Sanstead, Davis' attorney, said there are two things at issue.

First, if the Don Diego sauce is, in fact, Davis' sauce due to the original producer violating a trade secret.

Second, if it is not Davis' sauce, there is a consumer fraud issue, Sanstead said.

Russell says the product is not the same.

"I think it's a better steak sauce than what's available in the South American steak sauce market,"he said.

But the wording on the back of the label may be misleading. Russell said the actual Don Diego's sauce was not used at the restaurant.

"Have our jars of sauce actually been used at the Seven Seas? No,"Russell said, adding that the wording on the label may be revisited.

Sanstead sent cease and desist letters to Cloverdale, the producer's old company and a distributor, who Davis said was making unfair claims about the sauce.

All parties have denied that it's the same sauce and will not discontinue making it. The next step would be to file a complaint in court, she said. But those fees get costly.

"That's our dilemma right now, and they know that. They feel we're not a threat and that they could railroad right over us,"Davis said. "It was a long hard job getting this product on the market."

Russell said it's all within the bounds of healthy competition; the South American steak sauce is a niche market that they wanted to get into.

"She's not real happy that we have a sauce that's comparable to hers,"he said. "I'd imagine that Heinz and Hunt's probably felt the same way about each other."

The story behind Cloverdale's sauce:The sauce is named after a giant toy gorilla he'd helped win for his dad, Don Russell, while they were on vacation in San Diego. They affectionately named the gorilla"Don Diego,"which ultimately sounded like a good, Caribbean-pirate name for a steak sauce, T.J. Russell said jokingly.

And they made the sauce because they wanted to get into the market; it helps that the producer who used to make Essie's sauce is now making theirs, he said.

But, Russell contended, it's just not the same.

"If I was making any kind of sauce … Iwould make doggone sure that Ihad a point of differentiation,"Russell said.

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or crystal.reid@;bismarcktribune.com.)