Pair concocts a saucy combination

Karl Dias and Anthony Mello aren't shy about eating, and their bodies show it. This they readily admit.

So, last year, when the pair was searching for something to call the sweet marinade they invented, they fell in love with the name Fatboy.

``It just made sense," Mello said. ``I've been called fat boy my whole life."

Dias, a 36-year-old Somerville resident, and Mello, a 34-year-old who lives in Essex, met while working for a startup company seven years ago. They became fast friends, bonding while fishing for striped bass on Plum Island and drinking cans of Coors Light.

They also shared a love of cooking. Mello was trained as a chef, and Dias is creative in the kitchen, inventing wacky dishes like chocolate-dipped bacon. When the guys got together to grill steaks, they both brought homemade marinades. Soon they were working side by side, creating an amalgam of the two sauces.

``I think you can imagine what it was like," said Dias's wife, Maureen. ``I would go to bed and the kitchen would be fine, but in the morning dishes were in the sink, stains on the floor."

Combining vinegar, dark brown sugar, and tomato sauce and adjusting the proportions, the men created a marinade recipe. ``I don't think we set out to do that," Dias said. ``It just happened."

Two years ago, Dias made a batch of the sauce, bottled it in mason jars, and gave it as Christmas presents. His friend Jed Duso says he tried the sauce repeatedly while Dias and Mello were refining the recipe. The Tupperware containers got bigger and bigger, Duso said, because he asked for refills so often.

``Everybody loved it," Duso said. ``We use it all summer long."

When other friends and relatives asked for more, the pair realized they were on to something. They decided during a fishing trip that the sauce was something they could market.

Last fall, they found a Union Square company to produce and bottle the sauce, hired product and Web page designers, created a list of ingredients, and started production.

They have tried the sauce on just about every kind of meat. At a launch party, a friend used the sauce to make a martini. Dias will even drink straight from the bottle when asked.

They initially sold the orange- labeled bottles of marinade online, at food shows, and at independent grocers. But this spring, the international supermarket chain Royal Ahold picked up the sauce. Now it's available for $5.49 at about 300 Stop & Shop stores in New England and 250 Giant Food Stores as far south as Virginia.

In the last couple of months, their business venture has started to become profitable, but not enough for them to quit their day jobs. Dias works in sales at Dun & Bradstreet and Mello is a software project manager at State Street Bank, but they spend their free time creating new sauces. They've decided on a honey mustard recipe, which they hope to launch early next year with a spicy marinade.

Mello said the product line will continue to be called Fatboy, even though he has lost more than 30 pounds in recent months. He's still far from svelte, he said.

Dias said he's not worried that Mello's weight loss will undermine the essence of their brand name. ``He's still a fatty at heart."