Wait up, summer's not over yet. You can tell because the streets are still lined with the ever-growing food truck culture in Milwaukee. It's Food Truck Week here at OnMilwaukee.com and all week long we're stopping at some of Brew City's best restaurants on wheels in search of the most interesting dishes on offer.
This summer, Kyra McCullum – who is a social worker by trade – rolled her food truck, called Bebe’s Bistro, onto the Milwaukee streets for the first time.
The business on wheels offers Italian beef sausages, Polish sausages, cheeseburgers, turkey burgers, sliders, mini donuts, "junk-in-a-bag (Cheetos or Doritos topped with meat, peppers, cheese and jalapeños), "disco fries" (French fries with Italian seasoning, Parmesan, beef au jus and nacho cheese) and more.
The business is a tribute to McCullum’s mom, Brenda "BeBe" Appling, who passed away earlier this year.
Appling, also a social worker and activist known for her work with Career Youth Development (CYD), the Milwaukee Urban League and more, had beat cancer in 2011 but was unable to recover from heart surgery.
Appling was loved by many and the ceiling of the food truck is covered with Appling’s friends’ signatures and exclamations of love.
"She was a very strong woman and I’m proud of this to be her namesake," says McCullum.
During a recent visit, I ordered the cheeseburger sliders with bacon jam which came with a side of Parmesan fries for $8. Did I mention bacon jam? The two sliders were larger than I expected and really juicy. The fries were hot and flavorful but could have been saltier for my tastes. But hey, there was bacon jam!
McCullum says she and her mother talked about the food truck prior to her death and Appling wanted her daughter to operate a barbecue business.
"Unfortunately, I’m not much of a barbecue-er," says McCullum.
Bebe’s Bistro will be in Wahl Park, 4750 N. 48th St., on Saturday, Aug. 16 and outside Panache Lounge, 4828 N. 57th St., on Saturday, Aug. 23. McCullum hopes to eventually break into the Downtown food truck scene.
(Bacon jam!)
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
