WAWA —With summer in full force, you may be thinking of checking out the mobile eateries in the area.
One food truck worth adding to your northern Ontario list this summer is Bangin’ Burger N Chicken Shack located in Wawa, approximately three hours north of Sault Ste. Marie.
The food truck’s owner, Carol Pepper, moved to Wawa more than a decade ago and decided to open a food truck after she saw one for sale in the small community.
With a background in kitchen management and an entrepreneurial spirit, Pepper decided it was a natural progression to open a food truck in Wawa.
“I purchased an existing food truck and just upgraded it so we could offer something different here,” Pepper says.
The food truck’s menu is relatively straightforward —Pepper offers customers pressure-fried chicken, poutine, barbecue boneless rib sandwiches, charbroiled burgers, and potato tornados that can be flavoured in either seasoning salt, maple bacon or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce.
“We cook everything fresh, and it's cooked right in front of you,” she says. “The pressure-fried chicken is awesome, it’s moist and has a great flavour. It’s totally different from anywhere else.”
The food truck officially opened four summers ago and is open seasonally, seven days a week from May to October in downtown Wawa.
Despite growing popular in the area to both locals and tourists, Pepper admits opening a food truck in Wawa was a challenge at first.
“Getting people to trust you to try it, that’s the hardest part,” she says. “We still get people in Wawa, who walk up and they’re like ‘first time here’ and this is my fourth season here.”
Over the years, Pepper says she has been able to build loyal customers with U.S. tourists
“I have people that come from New York every year and they tell their friends in the states,” she says.
Although most COVID-19-related restrictions have now been lifted, Pepper says she has seen an overall decline in customers in the last few years.
“Our customers are mostly tourists, we do have some locals that are committed but our business is basically tourists and tourism is way down,” she says.
Pepper hopes numbers will start to increase again as things go forward.
For more information on Bangin Burger N Chicken Shack, make sure to check their Facebook page, by going here.
