Wit and Wisdom: Chef Wit Milburn
Over a chicken parm sub and a French dip at the sticky counter of a north Wilmington diner, Norawit Milburn and I talk restaurant philosophy. What drives customers’ choices? How do you define restaurant success? Why are some guests so damn ignorant? As his phone rings for the sixth time, “Wit” handles snags with plenty of vitality. And one helluva laugh.
The multi-location owner/operator has played some serious tough tosses of the dice, especially lately. Building on the early experiences of working with his mom following kitchen time in Thailand, the path to and through the kitchen was made clear.
But where did it start?
“At ING [bank] doing mortgage sales, and after some time in Mexico,” Milburn remembers, “I came back and started working with my mom and grandmother at Jeenwong’s [at the Riverfront Market in Wilmington].”
Like so many kitchen hooligans, the line from the grill to ownership was less of a straight line and more a doodle about restaurant mayhem. Wanting more of the creative mojo than the bank life had to offer, with wife Jodi and dollars pulled together from online funding, Wit got his Kapow truck on the road.
“We got the truck from a family in New Castle on September 13. By March, we did our first event. Nobody let me park my truck. Paul Ogden [owner of the Famous Taverns] at Famous Tim’s near Rockford Park was the first. We parked there until 2am during the weekends,” laughs Milburn. “Sometimes we made a hundred bucks, sometimes we made five hundred.” In April of the following year, Javier Acuna, owner of Hakuna Hospitality, brought Kapow into his first Brewfest. And word traveled.
A Zagat guest writer compelled Milburn to get serious as a “food truck chef.” Sticking to his DNA roots in Thai food, his Kapow truck became the icon for northern Delaware’s food truck revolution. Riffing on traditional Thai dishes, Kapow’s funky rice treatments, for instance, started to glean attention from truck devotees.
Along with the likes of taco trucks, dessert wagons, and other mobile vendors, Kapow came to life at the right time, with a spirited drive to make a mark in the northern Delaware food scene—and enough support to make trucks matters. A coupling of sorts, Rolling Revolution unified the truck movement for the region with Wit at the helm to tackle regulatory hurdles as well as promote events to draw even more attention to the trucks. Still rolling, the group continues to sponsor roundups and can be spotted at events to support community camaraderie.
A Thai restaurant - WHERE?!?
With Delaware regulations and the need for a brick and mortar place to call home, Wit set-up a noodle shop in the most unexpected of locales.
The six-seat counter service gig in the Booths Corner Farmers Market might be considered an iffy place for a Thai restaurant. But it works. A lot. Kapow Kitchen is a year-round spot that sustains Kapowinators as a permanent spot when the trucks take their seasonal break. With neighboring eating spots that dish apple dumplings, chicken pot pie, and scrapple sandwiches, the Amish-run market on the outskirts of suburbia was a dubious landing spot for the food of Thailand. Instead, the genial Milburn created a destination spot for the motivated crowd looking for something way left of center.
“Booth’s is really the pilot,” says Milburn. “It’s like having a food truck — it’s a low-risk entry. It’s an opportunity to see if the fast-casual segment works without losing yourself.”
He opened to the usual barrage of trash-talkers and gloomy defeatists sticking pins into his plans. “I’ll give you six months,” said one cynic. “There have been seven other places down there,” dismissed Wilburn. “Now, I am in two spots!” he beams
Wit’s approach is undeniably irreverent, doling out real Thai food with heaps of pungent fish sauce, wide trails of rice noodles, sprouts, lime, and a wicked amount of fiery sauce. “I don’t do hospitality,” he notes, “I just make bomb-ass food.”
In a time when so many restaurants are pandering for every dollar by softening their grip on the mission on which they were founded, Milburn’s commitment is spirited. Real Pad See Ew, Tom Yum soup, and red curries make for unimaginable endorphin rushes and the little crevices in the recesses of your mouth begging for a gentle relief while the crave merely pushes through. Don’t even ask about the spicy challenge!
“Who’s gonna run Ubon?”
With a second truck in the works and his son, JC, celebrating his first birthday, life seemed to be providing a subtle calm. Then, late on Thanksgiving day Wit’s dad “Buddy” Milburn, owner of Wilmington’s enduring Ubon, experienced a health turn that shortly thereafter ended the senior Milburn’s life.
Stepping into Ubon, “the first night, we played it like nothing happened,” keeping the crew on task. “Two weeks after he passed, I had to lay down the hammer,” says Milburn. He quickly updated the logo, drafted a new menu, whittled down underperforming staff, and brought on a designer for a modernized look.
“I am more about the food, dad was more about the entertainment. I know how I do business. I knew doing it my way was the best—and the smoothest—way to keep my sanity,” sparks Wit, with that resounding laugh.
The juggle
Trucks in the summer. A year-round location away from everything. An urban spot. Burgeoning family. A food truck ‘union.’ There are pieces and parts to manage, not to mention that there are plenty of people that are on the working team.
“Putting the right people in place - people who have the same passion, who take pride,” remarks Milburn on how he keeps the pieces glued together. "After leaking people that didn’t want the change that I do, I invest in employees. You are only one person. You have to ride with them.”
How is the busy culinary activist keeping the lines straight? “For Kapow and Ubon, I made the sauces the same. My chef goes to Ubon and makes the sauces for consistency. Aneida [from the Booth’s Corner spot] is now training the up-and-comers.” Plus, his approach has evolved. “It used to be food first, business second. Big portions; make the customer happy. Now, I am slightly business ahead of food. You know what each plate is worth.”
The challenge is personal, too. With wife Jodi often lending a hand wherever she is needed, and son, JC, in tow, there is only so much energy to share. Work hours blend into family time as the family often share some of the farmers’ markets fare while perched at the Kapow counter. They make it work with their shared graciousness and non-stop drive.
So, where does the next adventure take the indefatigable Milburn? Wit is looking to roll south. “Miami might be getting the ‘little’ food truck,” he bellows. Bigger city, lower cost of entry, and there is already a food truck setting. Why Florida? No income tax. The permits are about the same as Delaware. No storefront, so no rent and just have to park the truck.
What about the reception to his style of food? “It might be a rocky start, but it’s an optimistic hypothesis,” with a gentle, nervous grimace.
Franchising is next, too. “It’s so seamless.”
Crazy how you make it all right!
Where does the wit and wisdom of the adventuring Milburn see the industry going? “Everything is gonna be automated; I am even looking at [automated service] as the brand grows. I can focus on cooks that appreciate food, so your product is always bomb!”
“Food is gonna get a little crazy,” he adds. “More people are getting educated. People want to know what’s in it, origins, [and] the calories. It will help local farms get into the business more. It changes so fast now; it is like technology. Kale, kale, kale. Then-boop!-kale is gone. Food will always be a comfort thing versus a healthy thing; it makes you feel good.”
When not holding court behind the counter at Booth’s Corner, navigating the urban crawl behind the wheel of the food truck, or working on the duck with tamarind sauce at Ubon, Wit is checking out the goodness of Cape Henlopen Oyster House or Takumi or Tom’s Dim Sum. A font for inspiration? Perhaps. Any way it shakes out, Wit’s approach is a refreshing turn to what cooks like to prepare and what customers need. They may not know it. But they will.
Learn more about Kapow Thai Guy Cuisine
Ubon
936 Justison Street, Wilmington, DE, (302) 656-1706
Kapow Kitchen at Booths Corner
1362 Naamans Creek Road, Garnet Valley, PA, (610) 485-0775
