This year’s annual Meyer Festival block party was held in Brookside along Meyer Boulevard. It hosted two delicious Kansas City food trucks – Cooter Brand and Slaters Pizza Wings “N” Things.
Slaters Pizza Wings “N” Things
If you were at The Rose in Hays, KS around 2011 you may remember Slaters serving huge pizza slices out of a trailer to hungry bar-goers. After they grew in popularity and established a large customer base, Slaters decided to move their operation to Kansas City. Now they are a staple local food truck that’s hard to miss, enveloped in lime green paint and boasting a huge graffiti- style logo.
But the truck isn’t the only loud thing about them – their food is also striking.
Slater’s is known for huge slices of authentic, foldable, New-York style pizza (available in cheese or pepperoni) and making their signature wing sauces (Honey BBQ, mild or spicy garlic buffalo, and spicy Asian) from scratch. A lesser known gem is their buffalo street tacos, which I was able to enjoy at the Meyer Festival this year.
The Slaters Taste
The tacos were made with smoked, shredded chicken coated in Slater’s homemade buffalo sauce, topped with a pico slaw and an avocado drizzle, all wrapped up warmly in a toasted flour tortilla. The chicken was smoked to perfection, and the buffalo sauce was tangy but not so spicy that I couldn’t taste the creamy and crunchy combo that was the pico slaw and avocado drizzle. It was juicy and savory, with just the right proportion of each ingredient to make every bite as good as the last.
By far one of the best tacos I’ve ever gotten from a food truck and something I find myself craving throughout the day, every day.
The Last Tidbit on Slaters
If you decide to give Slaters a try, and you really should, keep in mind that they only make a limited amount of their food each day in order to keep everything as fresh as possible. When they’re out – you’re out of luck. So come early and grab yourself a slice of pizza, some wings, and a couple of tacos.
You can track the Slater’s truck at their website or call them at 785-259-1949.
Cooter Brand
A family-owned business originating from Shawnee, KS and now based in Kansas City, The Cooter Brand is a full line of barbecue sauces, rubs, and catering from, of course, a food truck. Since 2010, Cooter Brand has been making their mark on the barbecue competition scene, racking up awards throughout the Midwest.
They brought their impressively high-tech food truck to the Meyer Festival this year, which has both an Xbox and a satellite TV on the outside. The inside is even more impressive, where they’ve managed to fit in a fully equipped kitchen complete with a refrigerator, freezer, steam table, mobile smoker, and cold pots.
The Cooter Brand Taste
Cooter Brand offers two BBQ sandwiches: pulled pork or slow smoked chicken, and four side options: baked beans, cheesy corn, cole slaw, or chips. After you’ve selected your meat you can top it with one of Cooter’s own sauces: applewood, KC, or hot. I chose the pulled pork sandwich with hot BBQ sauce and the cheesy corn, which were the most popular menu items according to the operator.
In Cooter Brands’ own words, “some people beat their meat, we rub on the Cooter Rubs!”; and the sauces are “Cooter-licking good”, “so hot they’ll make your lips quiver “and so good it’ll tickle your gizzards.”
My lips may not have been quivering, but the sauce was definitely hot. However, Cooter Brands doesn’t coat their meat in the sauces – they provide it in a separate container, so you can add as much or as little as you like.
While I enjoyed the sandwich, and the extra pickle that came with it, in a city full of the world’s best barbeque I don’t think I’ll find myself looking for the Cooter truck next time I’m craving pulled pork. Maybe I should have put more sauce on the meat in order to avoid the dryness, but that’s the risk when patrons assemble their own sandwiches. The corn, on the other hand, was not beautiful, but definitely what you would want out of cheesy corn: thick, cheesy, and with no soggy corn to stick to your teeth.
The Last Tidbit on The Cooter Brand
If you’re interested in making some of your own barbecue, you can check out Cooter Brand’s signature sauces and rubs, all made from scratch and gluten-free, or even buy your own Cooter Brand smoker.
Learn more about Cooter Brand here or contact them at 913- 265-8300