Top Bun food truck owners 'feel the need, the need to feed'
Denton Hickman was asked to help with the Wednesday night suppers at Inskip Baptist Church when he got his first taste of catering to large groups. Then about 6½ years ago he was asked to cater a wedding, followed by a Fourth of July party.
“I was doing (catering for) 120 people every Wednesday, and then for the first time we got a big gig, a car show for 450 people,” said Hickman. “We had 450 people through the line in 36 minutes; after that, anything less you don’t sweat it.”
Hickman met his wife, Jamie, in the hospitality industry when they were working at Edwards steakhouse in Halls, which is now Bel-Air Grill.
“Jamie said why don’t we do this part time,” said Hickman. “Four or five years ago Jamie said we need to do a food truck, but I wanted to stay in control of our schedule. I have been in the youth ministry for the last 20 years and was starting to feel burnt out. I started praying. God finally answered when all I could do was think of food trucks and look at videos of the build outs. It consumed me.”
Doors started opening, and each time the Hickmans would walk through. In the past year they have turned their catering business into a full-time gig and launched the Top Bun food truck.
The couple’s original ad hoc catering service operated under the name ‘Snooky,’ a play on the way his daughter said ‘smoky’ when she was little. They needed a new name, and after discarding plays on popular '80s songs, another member of his youth ministry suggested Top Bun.
The sandwiches
All of the sandwiches are named after call signs in the "Top Gun" movie: Maverick, Iceman, Cougar, Goose, Charlie, Hollywood, Wolfman, Viper and Jester.
"My menu list is long and extensive. I wanted a good hot dog, because I love them, I wanted to hand bread my own onion rings and corn dogs,” Hickman said. “My wife asked where I was going to put it. I really wanted a 24-foot food trailer, but all I could fit in my driveway was a 16-foot one. I didn’t want to have a menu like the Cheesecake Factory, so I had to make concessions.”
The Maverick pulled pork sandwich topped with mac and cheese and homemade barbecue sauce on Texas toast was a must and Hickman noticed others overlooked a kids menu.
While the Jester, which is a regular cheeseburger, is an outright customer favorite, Hickman has noticed a spike in sales of the Viper, a burger with bacon and Boursin cheese.
“I don’t like spicy, but we needed the ‘Danger Zone’ on the menu for anything hot and spicy,” said Hickman. “The Talk to Me Goose is a spicy chicken sandwich with jalapeno cayenne cheddar cheese and mango habanero sauce; it is not too hot and we sold a ton of those at one event.”
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Some customers were reluctant to try the Cougar — a smoked fried bologna topped with a fried egg, American cheese, mayo and mustard on Texas toast — until Hickman offered to make them something else free of charge if they did not like it. He did not have to make them anything else.
The confirmed meat eater added the vegetarian friendly Charlie sandwich to the menu — portabella mushrooms topped with grilled onions, Italian herbs, sauteed spinach and Havarti cheese on a ciabatta bun — and even he was converted.
“I tried a bite, and it had such great flavor; since then, I have had four of them,” said Hickman. “You don’t feel super full.”
A family affair
Rising food costs have been challenging, but Top Bun has stuck to its approach with premium ingredients, a grain fed beef patty, remoulade-based burger sauce, on a square ciabatta bun or Texas toast. “We tried every bun, and ciabatta is the perfect bite and density,” said Hickman, who admits to being generous with the fries, too.
It is a family business, with his daughter, son, and their spouses as well as his sister-in-law helping out on the Top Bun food truck.
“The communication in the midst of pumping the food out gets chaotic,” said Hickman. “You work together long enough you can trust them to know that it is not personal. If we get something wrong, we need to figure out quickly why and correct it as soon as possible; you don’t always get a second chance at a first impression.”
Regular corporate bookings have given Top Bun some routine to their schedule, and the Hickmans have been happy to show up in neighborhoods, at community pools and church festivities. The schedule can be found on Facebook @TopBunKnox.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville's Top Bun food truck offers 'Top Gun' themed sandwiches
