Local Flavor on Wheels: This summer, we’re dining at area food trucks again for our Local Flavor series instead of sit-down establishments. We hope you’ll come along for the ride!
The Highland Square Food Truck Fest was a fun place to go for lunch May 24, which was a day we got respite from the rain.
The second annual festival was held at Will Christy Park, which was a nice yet somewhat mucky location walking on the grass after heavy rains the day before. Thankfully, festival organizers shifted plans and had the food trucks lining the streets around the park instead of operating on the grass.
A tent with tables and chairs was set up at this year’s event, which was a bonus. Seating wasn’t provided at last year’s Highland Square Food Truck Fest.
After perusing 15 trucks, I settled on the Wagler Farms food truck, a family-owned business that operates with a big smoker to make its traditional barbecue.
Wagler Farms, formerly based in Randolph but now located in Beloit, Mahoning County, specializes in brisket, pulled pork, ribs and its signature side of smoked mac and cheese.
I got a couple of those things in one package with the brisket burrito, a $16 mega burrito that’s new on the Wagler Farms menu. It’s made with brisket, mac and cheese, coleslaw and a choice of two sauces.
I chose a spicy white sauce over the barbecue sauce. The spicy white is made with mayo and Scotch bonnet peppers, which gave it a good kick. I had never heard of this type of hot chili pepper before.
This brisket burrito was comforting, warm and delicious. It was a bit on the wetter side with the coleslaw but the tortilla didn’t fall apart. It was a fun concept to eat “side dishes” of macaroni and cheese and coleslaw inside the burrito rather than out.
I also tried Wagler’s sweet barbecue sauce, which surprisingly tasted like applesauce.
This burrito was so huge, I shared one half of it with my husband, Steve, and we still had the other half for our two kids at home to try.
Sean Wagler, who co-owns the food truck with his wife, Amber, said his top seller is his brisket mac and cheese bowl.
“Basically, the burrito is just a step up from the brisket mac and cheese bowl,” he said.
He also sells a lot of huge baked potatoes, which can be ordered with butter and sour cream but are most often served with brisket or pork on them.
Just about everything for this food truck is made on Wagler’s dual-side smoker, which features both a 300-gallon propane tank on one side and an 800-gallon one on the other side. That means Wagler can smoke meat for the next day on one side as he’s preparing ribs and sides for the current day on the other side.
One of the only things that’s not smoked for the Wagler Farms food truck is its Amish-made, pumpkin whoopie pies ($3.50), which are baked by Nicole Miller inside the food truck.
The pumpkin taste in this dessert’s creamy filling was subtle and the whole thing was delicious.
Wagler Farms does a lot of its business in Stark County. To learn where the food truck will be next, see streetfoodfinder.com/WaglerFarms.
The Wagler Farms food truck will be at Hartville Hardware June 3, Sunbeau Summer Celebration in Ravenna June 5, and Art in the Park in Hartville and Dusty’s Landing in Akron June 6.
What Steve chowed on
Neither of our substantial lunches were for the faint of heart. But sharing is good.
Steve chose the $20 Odin burger from American Chuck Wagon, a truck from Massillon that’s owned by Lisa and George Lenhart and Mandi Watson. This food truck, which got its start in Akron four years ago, serves primarily Summit and Portage counties.
Steve’s incredible-tasting Odin burger, which I got a bite of, had barbecue pulled pork, cheese and an onion ring on top of it and came with a side of hand-cut fries. American Chuck Wagon’s fries also were perfectly crispy.
“The burger was well cooked, the pulled pork was spicy and tangy, the cheese was warm and melted and the onion ring had a nice crunch,” Steve said.
He had fun talking to the American Chuck Wagon folks about who Odin is in Norse mythology — the ruler of the gods and mankind. That puts him on the level of Zeus from Greek mythology.
Those facts are particularly fun because American Chuck Wagon attends the Viking Festival in Painesville every year, where it sells its Odin burger and Viking fries. Viking fries are loaded with barbecue pulled pork, bacon, cheddar cheese, green onions, sour cream and barbecue sauce.
American Chuck Wagon will be at this year’s Viking Festival June 26-28.
The food truck’s top sellers are its loaded French fries, cheeseburger basket and chicken bacon ranch sub.
See the business’s full schedule at streetfoodfinder.com/AmericanChuckWagon. American Chuck Wagon will be at the Carovillese Club in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood June 10 and 24 as well as the Akron Food Truck Festival in Hardesty Park Aug. 28-29.
To wash our great festival food down, Steve and I both enjoyed hibiscus cold brew tea from Akron Honey, made with the company’s delicious hibiscus honey ($5). We were also excited to learn that Akron Honey has come out with a new strawberry honey for summer.
Our lunches were good fuel to get us through a college moveout later that afternoon at Ohio State.
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: BBQ satisfies taste buds at food truck fest | Local Flavor on Wheels
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
