Dan McKean already owned the Cheese Shack, a food truck specializing in grilled-cheese sandwiches. Just recently, he decided to add to his little fleet of food trucks with Wing Nutz, a truck that serves up chicken wings cooked in an onboard fryer and dressed in 21 different sauces.
Is he addicted to food trucks? Not exactly. “You need two to make a profit,” he quipped.
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We sympathize. A food truck may eliminate some of the costs associated with a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant, but it comes with its own headaches. The biggie, of course, is getting customers to come to you when you’re not even sure where you’ll be parked from week to week.
One thing McKean has going for him is his other job as an electrician. He has the know-how to build his own food trucks, and that’s what he’s done.
Another thing is juicy wings, fried crispy (and unbreaded, which, says McKean, is the way his customers like it), served in so many different sauces you want to try a bunch just to see what they’re like.
Some of the most popular sauces include:
– Buffalo with bleu cheese crumbles: It’s a creamy Buffalo sauce with a touch of brown sugar, and the bleu cheese means no mess from a second sauce
– Coco Chile: Sweet from coconut, and heat from pepper flakes.
– House: The only sauce McKean makes himself, it has a mustard base with a sweet and lingering heat.
– Thai Sweet Chili
– “Buffalo Gold”: a very sweet Buffalo made with honey
– Buffalo Ranch: a super-tangy Buffalo sauce
– Honey Garlic: emphasis on the garlic
– “Honey Honey”: a honey-based BBQ sauce
– Toxic: the hottest sauce Wing Nutz offers, but not sinus-melting (“I didn’t want to do anything like a ghost pepper that would be too much,” said McKean).
The wings are offered with crispy tater tots sprinkled with a touch of sea salt and paprika.
One thing McKean says he’s learned about food trucks is that during a St. Louis winter, it’s virtually impossible to make a profit. Both the Cheese Shack and Wing Nutz will take a yearly hiatus from November through January, he said.
So to the customer we say, “gather ye chicken wings while ye may.”
Wing Nutz
314-807-1533
