New food truck features Chicago-style hot dogs

Dec. 4, 2020

Chicago natives who moved to Sioux Falls seven years ago have started a food truck featuring Chicago-style hot dogs.

Windy City Bites made its debut in late October, and owners DaShawn and Samantha Lewis are taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to keep the trailer running.

Photo by Just Breathe Photography

They will be downtown tonight to serve the late-night bar crowd. The blue-and-white camper-style trailer will be parked outside Wileys at Sixth and Main starting at 10 p.m.

On Saturday, Windy City Bites will be at Fleet Farm from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and back out from 6 p.m. until close at Bin 201 and Stogeez at 11th and First for the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.

They post locations on Windy City Bites’ social media accounts and website. 

Owning a food truck has been DaShawn Lewis’ dream for several years.

“I grew up in the kitchen,” he said of his family’s businesses in Chicago. “I was raised in restaurants.”

“The last three years, we’ve been going back and forth with the idea,” Samantha Lewis said.

“He found this trailer, and I can’t say no. If it doesn’t work out, we can turn it into a camper,” she joked.

Photo by Just Breathe Photography

Their menu is inspired by the restaurants they love to visit when they’re back in Chicago, Samantha Lewis said. It’s those neighborhood spots “where it’s more fast food, made to order. They throw it together, and it’s quick and good. … It’s those little restaurants where they drop it into the fryer, get it on the grill, and get it ready quick,” she said.

Their authentic Chicago-style hot dog is the star on the menu. And yes, they’ve already been questioned on how authentic it is, Samantha Lewis joked. “I tell them: ‘We’re from Chicago. It’s authentic.’ ” Customers haven’t been disappointed, she said.

“The buns, the dogs, the toppings, everything has to come from somewhere else,” DaShawn Lewis said. They’ve found a distributor who can supply the ingredients, so they won’t have to make “big trips home to buy the ingredients.”

The hot dog is beef, and it’s topped with sweet green relish, diced onion, Vienna yellow mustard, sliced tomatoes, a pickle spear, sport peppers and a dash of celery salt, served on a warm poppy seed bun.

Windy City Bites’ Pizza Puff is Chicago’s version of a calzone, Samantha Lewis said. It’s a dough pocket stuffed with sausage, cheese and tomato sauce.

The Taffy Grapes are a popular treat in Chicago that DaShawn Lewis describes as a snackable version of a caramel apple.

“They’re sweet grapes, the sweetest I can find, melted almond bark with vanilla and honey-roasted nuts.”

Windy City Bites also serves jerk chicken tacos and nachos with jerk chicken or beef.

The Lewises have started with a small menu that will grow.

“Late in the season, into spring, we’ll expand the menu to include comfort food, soul food,” he said, envisioning seafood on Fridays during Lent and “Soul Food Sundays.”

He has family from Jamaica, so that’s where the Caribbean influences come into the menu. Additions to the menu next year will include jerk-seasoned whole and half chickens with rice and peas, and Jamaican-style cabbage.

They’d like to find a parking lot to use as their home base next year and plan to do events and festivals in the Sioux Falls area. DaShawn works full time, and Samantha works part time, so they’ll operate the trailer mostly on weekends for now, but they’re available for catering.

“We can do weddings, office parties. We’re willing to work with any budget or menu,” Samantha Lewis said. “We want to help the community any way we can.”

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New food truck features Chicago-style hot dogs

How authentic are the Chicago-style hot dogs at this new food truck? “I tell them: ‘We’re from Chicago. It’s authentic.’ ”

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