Thoughts on a smoked wing food truck/trailer?

Curious to get your thoughts on this. Wings are incredibly popular with our country and there are several popular restaurants and take out joints that have a menu either built exclusively around wings (bone-in & boneless) or wings and sandwiches. I’ve even seen several food trucks I’ve found online. Chicken-based concepts in general seem to be becoming popular in general. And wings (when truly done right) are flat out addictive. Great sauces also help with this addition factor. But I’ve only found maybe a couple mobile food vehicles nationwide that appear to be selling smoked wings as their only or core menu item.

I know wings aren’t nearly as cheap as they used to be but they still have respectable margins. Wondering if any of you think a simple food truck or trailer concept selling smoked wings (with a variety of great sauces plus a side of seasoned fries) would be a viable full time business concept? Of course location is everything but I was specifically thinking in the lot of popular breweries or in food truck parks that get a lot of people. There is even a food truck called “King of Wings” in Denver that has been killing it over the past few years and is now opening up their first brick & mortar...I believe they do sous vide and then finish off over a grill to char the wings up. This is actual evidence of success I think. But without knowing their financials it’s still a guess. :mrgreen:

medic92 said:

Are you planning to develop and use homemade sauces? What about side items?



Wings seem fairly cost-effective by themselves, but by the time you add up all the ingredients for several different sauces, sides, containers, cooking equipment, fuel for the cooker, etc. they start getting expensive and the margins get a lot smaller.


Every time we roll out a new item we have to do a cost analysis on it to figure out what we're going to have to charge to make a profit, and you also have to figure the price of wings is probably going to keep going up as demand for them grows.



Good luck, and if you get it going, bring it downstate to some of the fairs around here. I'd like some wings I don't have to cook myself. :mrgreen:

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Sauces are already developed and side item will just be seasoned crinkle cut fries. If I did this I want to keep things as simple as possible to start. There would be four different sauces offered plus naked (no sauce). The rub would be simple and cheap too.

I admittedly have not done a cost analysis on the sauces yet but have an idea. I’ve focused more on the wing pricing and developing a process around cooking the meat, holding/chilling and serving. The cost of the trailer, wrap, smoker and other cooking equipment will all be one time (upfront) cost...I hope. Locking down actual margins shouldn’t be too difficult as this isn’t as complex as other food operations such as full barbecue or other challenging concepts. I will drill down on this. I’m just trying to get a gauge if there would actually be enough demand to run a full time mobile food vehicle focusing on smoked wings to make a solid profit. The north side of Chicago appeals to me but the laws there for food trucks suck and the harsh winters scare me. Actually thinking about this in a more foodie centric place like Austin, Houston or Charleston along with the warmer weather year round.