There is something irresistible about food trucks, trailers and carts. It's easy to walk past a restaurant without giving a thought to going in, but try ignoring a food vendor whose mobile eatery is parked at a curb. You have to check it out.
A similar gravitational pull affects those in the business. Joe Brady moved to Milwaukee, a city he had never visited, from Chicago to get the 4 Wheel Kitchen truck he manages on the streets.
The Forbes family – husband Craig, wife Debbie and son Billy – used a Romanian gypsy wagon pattern they found on the internet to build the Hard Wood Cafe, an eye-catching kitchen trailer they pull with a small truck.
Veteran West Allis restaurateur Scott Bunker had an itch to break out of his Greenfield Avenue bar and bistro in the summer, and with a partner he has hit the streets with a customized van they call Big Frank's Wiener Waggin. All three joined the city's expanding mobile food party around July 1.
The 22-ft. long gypsy wagon, painted and decorated by Debbie Forbes to look like an Up North cabin, is the most visually striking food trailer or truck to appear on Milwaukee streets. She and her husband, Craig, are retired chefs who got into the mobile food business as a lark. They are discovering it can be lucrative.
Craig received his chef's training in Europe. "I've cooked for the King of Norway and the secretary general of the UN," he proudly declares. He and Debbie, both natives of Wisconsin, have at various times owned the Cobblestone Station in Madison, Friar Tuck's in Stoughton, Pirates Cove on Tichigan Lake in Racine County, a deli and a chicken and ribs carry-our restaurant.
The latter two businesses were in Sarasota, Fla. "My wife is the better chef, but don't put that in print," he says. "I don't want her to ever read that.
"She has always wanted a mobile business. It was something we just wanted to do. We didn't think of it as a moneymaker."
Obviously a handy fellow, Craig wants to build a trailer from each of the five gypsy wagon patterns he discovered on the web. He doesn't plan to operate all of them as food trailers. It's a project for fun.
The Hard Wood Cafe contains an on-board smoker and grill. It offers everything from steak burgers and Chicago dogs to Italian beef and pulled pork sandwiches in a $2.75 to $7 price range. The Hog Wild, a combination of ham, bacon and pulled pork, is a specialty.
The Forbeses haul their trailer cafe to the mobile vendor clusters that have sprung up this summer – Schlitz Park on Tuesdays, the county courthouse on Thursdays, Cathedral Square on Fridays – and they can be found at Sherman Perk coffee shop on Saturday mornings. They also use the Hard Wood for home parties and catering jobs.
A sausage and condiments are stuffed into the roll. Wieners ($3.75), brats, chorizo and Italian sausages (all $4) as well as a veggie dog ($3.75) are available. All of the sausages are made by Usinger's.
The full range of condiments includes jalapeno ketchup, sauerkraut and sport peppers. An Italian beef sandwich ($4.75) was recently added.
Big Frank's Wiener Waggin shows up at some of the mobile vendor gatherings, but it also makes appearances at softball tournaments and private events. Bunker hopes to keep the van running until the end of November, with the addition of soups as the weather becomes chillier.
Milwaukee had 4 Wheel Kitchen rolling around town because Chicago didn't want it. To be more specific, the Windy City has placed such highly restrictive regulations on mobile food vendors, the truck could not do business there.
Manager Brady explained that not only does Chicago prohibit all food preparation and cooking on trucks and trailers, it will not permit any vehicle that has the capability of on-board cooking to work the streets. His large truck is truly a mobile kitchen, and even if he promised to sell only pre-packaged items, the city wouldn't license it.
So Brady pointed the 4 Wheel Kitchen north and settled in much more hospitable Milwaukee. He initially sold burgers, fries, steak sandwiches – "the standard meat options" – but quickly realized it would be smart to offer a menu that set his truck apart from the others. He went vegetarian, offering black bean burgers, two veggie and cheese sandwiches, and pierogies.
Brady's truck wins the prize for the most unexpected menu item on Milwaukee streets this summer. He made peaches Romanoff, which sold for $4. The manager credited his local assistant, Sarah Cherkinian, for helping him develop and execute the vegetarian concept that became his business' signature.
A Facebook posting on Friday announced 4 Wheel Kitchen was calling it a season.
Bunker is impressed with the quality of dining choices being offered out of food trucks and other mobile vendors. "There is some amazing food being made out there," he says. "Some of these people are very talented, and they work very hard."
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
