Handmade sausages, hot dogs served up old-school cookout style at Stolen Streetlights

Do not even think about asking for ketchup at the Stolen Streetlights Farm to Street food cart.

Mike Jewell has drawn on his 10 years of experience living and working in Chicago to handmake whole hog sausages, and he serves them with homemade toppings and condiments. For this purist, ketchup is not an option.

Jewell and Stolen Streetlights partner Katie Dirnbauer grew up in Knoxville and have been friends for almost 20 years. They became a couple when he moved back here in 2018.

When COVID-19 hit, Dirnbauer was in her seventh year making jewelry professionally, and Jewell had been traveling around the country with her setting up at craft shows. Then there were no craft shows, so Dirnbauer and Jewell returned to the hospitality industry working as beverage director/bar manager and chef, respectively.

“We both realized that we made an incredible team running front and back of house,” said Dirnbauer. “We are both creative and enjoy bouncing ideas off each other. Mike had some serious offers for his own restaurant from investors, but having complete creative freedom is something that we both realized we needed to be happy.”

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The South Knoxville couple were entertaining the idea of setting up a food cart to sell their handmade sausages when a friend called to tell them about a commission to make a public sculpture in Decatur, Tennessee. Dirnbauer is a trained sculptor and Jewell is a painter.

“Essentially Stolen Streetlights is anything Mike and I collaborate on, which is a lot of stuff,” she said. “Sculpture, food, paintings, jewelry, graphic design, clothing, etc.

“We had been looking at food carts, and a deluxe cart was the same price as the commission.”

Stolen Streetlights’ food is made and prepared at the Real Good Kitchen shared commercial kitchen space, and the food cart had its first public outing at the Rossini Festival back in April.

“We primarily use the Black Berkshire pork because it has more fat; it is known for its heavy marbling and is tender and has more flavor,” said Jewell.

“The texture is a semi-coarse ground, and we use natural hog casings. And when we grill them to order, they get that good snap. We use the whole hog including the prime pork belly and tenderloin, none of the scraps.”

The name was inspired by their initial plan to make metal artwork and add lighting behind it. The name Streetlights was already taken so the couple joked that they would try and take it back with “Stolen Streetlights.”

“There is something really special about neighborhood cookouts in that it creates a sense of community,” said Dirnbauer. “That is what we are trying to do with our sausage. People hang out at our booth and talk to us about things like people do at cookouts. The grill is an area to congregate.”

Initially they thought about making and selling sliders, but Dirnbauer had a memorable sausage at a craft fair in Michigan and they decided to re-create that experience.

Stolen Streetlights has a core menu of four different sausages, all made using pork from River Plains Farm in Strawberry Plains. “Eventually we will add a seasonal option, where Mike can have fun,” said Dirnbauer. “For Thanksgiving, he may do a turkey and cranberries sausage.”

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The Wisconsin Bratwurst is braised in Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, topped with caramelized onions and house mustard; the Chicago Dog is topped with sport peppers, house pickles, relish, chopped onion, tomato, yellow mustard, celery salt and served on a poppyseed bun; the Ranger Dog is popular with kids and is covered in white cheddar mornay (bechamel with cheese) and crispy bacon.

The Anarchy Dog is topped with ingredients from other independent food producers.

“We are attempting to build a micro business community by highlighting super tiny, independent food producers,” said Dirnbauer. “We’ve already used products from Seoul Brothers, Fierce Cultures, and Olde Virdens Tennessee Pepper Company.” The vendors all use the opportunity to send customers to one another.

Stolen Streetlights Farm to Street can be hired for private events, pig roasts and catering. There are plans in the works to sell sausages for customers to grill at home and all of the fixings already prepared in a kit to make a signature Chicago hot dog at home.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Stolen Streetlights food cart serves handmade sausages, hot dogs