If you’ve spent time in Sun Valley over the last 40 years, you’ve surely seen the iconic glass jar of Sun Valley Mustard (SVM). Perhaps you’ve slathered it on your sandwich at Atkinsons’ deli or enjoyed it in the Sun Valley Roll at Sushi on Second. No matter the flavor it’s added to your life, there’s no denying that this well-loved brand of small-batch mustard has been an iconic local condiment since Lois Allison created the recipe 40 years ago.
The newest Sun Valley Mustard owners (from left), Patricia Florescu, Ryan Rosmarin and Alex Langerman.
Allison began jarring and selling her family’s generations-old mustard recipe in 1984. While the recipe itself has remained consistent, the brand has changed ownership five times, with the newest owners—Alex Langerman, Patricia Florescu and Ryan Rosmarin—taking the reins from previous owner Josh Wells in December 2023.
The SVM acquisition was a spontaneous step in the most recent owners’ lives. Florescu, a renewable energy finance consultant, and her husband, Langerman, COO of Cold Summit Development, met Rosmarin after moving to Sun Valley from New York in 2019. Since moving here 10 years ago, Rosmarin has worn many hats in the community, from ski patroller and cross-country coach to Bald Mountain trail crew member and cast-iron restorer (a hobby of his). Rosmarin spotted Wells’ original ad in the Idaho Mountain Express in 2022, advertising the sale of SVM.
“I thought it seemed like a unique opportunity to check out, so I spent a bit of time working for Josh, cooking mustard, checking out the whole operation,” Rosmarin says. He initially passed on buying the company, but Rosmarin’s mind was swayed when he ran into Wells a few weeks before the official SVM shutdown in late summer 2023. Given how much the situation had changed, Rosmarin called in Langerman to see if he might want to go in on buying a mustard company.
At the time, Langerman was familiar with the brand and loved the product but hadn’t inquired any further. “When we moved here, just browsing through the grocery store, it jumped out as something unique, but I didn’t know anything about it. I just knew it was a local brand and didn’t want to see it shut down,” Langerman says.
By this time, Wells had committed to closing the business. Production had ceased, there was minimal product on the shelves, and the website was shutting down. If the business continued with minimal disruption, they would need to act fast. Florescu crunched some numbers and told them to go for it. “I’m an enabler,” Florescu says. “I thought it was a cool idea.”
With that, the trio closed on the business in December 2023, inheriting a leased production space in Hailey, 20 pounds of mustard flour, a proprietary recipe, Wells’ hand-me-down equipment, and 40 years of history.
Priority number one was stabilizing the business and getting the mustard flowing again. This first meant simplifying the line of flavors from six to three (Spicy-Sweet, Amber Ale, and Chardonnay). While Rosmarin had experience cooking with Wells, he’d never run a kitchen before and has come to rely on Satori Sake’s Shin Hasegawa, who uses the SVM space on non-mustard-producing days to create his line of sake. The mustard-making process is extremely hands-on, from cooking to packaging to labeling and distribution. The new SVM team helps Hasegawa and takes on any other tasks required to keep this small-scale business running. “It’s definitely all hands-on deck in the current state,” Langerman says.
The goal at present is getting the business to a sustainable place, with further innovation on the horizon. Nodding to the forty-year history they’ve inherited, SVM has started selling mustard-yellow corduroy hats, as well as stickers featuring the original SVM logo. They’re also making the rounds to businesses seeking local collaborations.
“It’s been fun working and interacting with so many people in our local community,” says Rosmarin. “Sun Valley Mustard has such a rich history; I can only hope the future of this company will be equally as exciting.”
“I think we’re just really fortunate to be able to keep that going,” adds Langerman. “And who knows what will come of it, but to have the opportunity to continue that history is pretty special.”