(Certified eggheads: Chef JJ Boston and sou chef Jenna Gatchell.)

The wife and I knew JJ Boston was talking the spicy food-themed “Hell Night” seriously when we saw the firefighter standing inside Chef JJ’s Back Yard. But it turned out that Jim Campell, training supervisor for the Pike Township Fire Department, was there to start fires, not douse them.

“Hell Night” was the first time the Wife and I had gotten the chance to visit Chef JJ’s. We’d gotten to know JJ through my coverage of Sun King Brewing Co. and I interviewed him for the Star before he opened but we hadn’t actually stepped foot inside his new place.

JJ’s isn’t a restaurant, per se, it’s more of a kitchen-by-appointment. The chef hosts private functions, themed dinners, and cooking classes, and everything is prepared from fresh, local ingredients on Big Green Eggs. The night before Halloween JJ hosted “Hell Night,” a spicy foods dinner featuring a specially crafted beer from Sun King (exclusive beer supplier to JJ’s Back Yard) and hot sauces from Campbell’s Franklin, Ind.-based Mild to Wild Pepper & Herb Co.

Campbell is well known in the hot sauce scene and has been featured on the Food Network and Travel Channel. A chile lover since childhood, he started growing peppers commercially after butting heads with a superior at the station house.

“I had a revelation at the firehouse one day shortly after my supervisor told me, ‘you’ll never be promoted as long as I’m here,’” said Campbell, “I figured on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I better look for fulfillment elsewhere. So I grabbed my seeds and threw ‘em in the ground.”

When his peppers came up he pitched them hot sauce producers, telling them he could get them high-quality chiles for less than they could get them from Central and South America. He started selling peppers commercially and before long was making his own sauces for retail and restaurant sale. “I finally suckered one of my customers into starting their own commercial kitchen and as soon as he did that I started having him make my sauces for me,” Campbell said.

The firefighter doesn’t have as much time to spend on Mild to Wild now that he’s out of the station house, and because food is a low profit margin business, he describes it more than a hobby and less than a second job. “It’s a labor of love,” he said.

That labor includes tending to a one-acre patch of peppers at an undisclosed location in central Indiana. “I grow the hobby patch for two reason. One, I’m always experimenting to see what the next big thing is in chile peppers, and two, to give ‘em away,” he said. The firefighter grows 40 to 60 varieties of chiles on his patch and each year Campbell hosts an event called “Open Field,” where chile aficionados come to pick pecks of un-pickled peppers. “People come from New Zealand, Australia, England, Denmark, the Netherlands, all over the United States,” Campbell said.

Campbell grows some of the hottest peppers on the planet, peppers with names like “The Ghost” and the “Trinidad Scorpion,” but he prefers much subtler flavors. “I love chipotle. I love the smoke,” the firefighter said. “I don’t know what it is, I’m just attracted to smoke.”

Before digging in to dinner Campbell advised us that the best way to avoid trouble with hot sauce is to start slow. “Build your way up so you can get off that train before it gets too far out of the station,” he said.

JJ followed that up with a warning that he would not be held responsible for anything the food did to his guests that night or the following morning, and with caveat JJ’s publicist / assistant / server / utility infielder Staraya McKinstry started delivering long plates of appetizers.

Round one featured bacon-wrapped, chorizo-stuffed jalapenos paired with Chile Sun Cream Ale. Brewer Clay Robinson explained that he filled a cheesecloth sack with jalapeno, Serrano and poblano peppers that JJ had smoked on the Big Green Egg and dropped it in a batch of Cream Ale. “So the beer basically sat on peppers for the last week,” Robinson said. The front end was all Cream Ale but as soon as you swallowed there was this wash of heat in the back of your mouth and throat.

Round two offered Caribbean jerk chicken and curried pork paired with Saison de Taffy, which is delicious if I do says so myself. I added “Rookie Orientation” to the chicken and pork and decided to get off the Campbell’s crazy train early. We had to get up early the next morning to produce the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange Halloween Mini and I couldn’t risk dealing with the Ring of Fire at 6 a.m.

Dessert was a Spiced Blueberry Bread Pudding paired with the El Gallo Negro Black IPA. The bread pudding may be spicier when served alone but after peppers, pepper beer, and hot sauce, I wasn’t picking up any spiciness. El Gallo Negro is rich, creamy, and smoky, a cross between an ale, a porter, and a stout. There is a bit of chocolate or coffee in it but not so much that it tastes infused. I am not a big stout fan but this was one of the best beer’s I’ve ever had. I’m considering going downtown today to get a growler of it.

I’ve eaten four or five Chef JJ meals now and every one of them has offered something interesting and unexpected, including the conversations we have with our tablemates. Chef JJ’s Back Yard is intimate but not cramped, which means you’ll probably end up talking to the strangers seated around you and having a lot more fun than you would if you spent a comparable amount for dinner at an upscale restaurant. The fact that JJ brings the food producers to the table is an added bonus.

All in all, “Hell Night” was heavenly.