The smallest place on the street – but it’s really hot!
“WE’VE got a gun shop, a sex shop and us.”
The ‘us’ in that sentence is Hot Damn wing shop, and owner Ryan Jenkins is talking about the curious make-up of shops in Aberkenfig, near Bridgend. It’s tucked between Tondu and the M4 and was previously notable for its sit-down Chinese restaurant that would bring minibuses of diners from miles around.
Ryan, from Porthcawl, opened Hot Damn back in 2018, after a series of ups and downs in the world of coffee shops, kitchens and cafes, but the shop, which is in the tiniest of premises, has simply been a springboard for the team who can been seen (and heard) serving up hundreds of dripping and spicy chicken wings around Wales’ food popups like Depot and Forest Feastival.
Before lockdown, Hot Damn would have threehour waits for food, queues that the gun shop up the road can only dream of.
There’s no compromise here. If you don’t like pared-back decor, counters- made- fromroof-cladding, swearing, AC/DC and hot wings, Hot Damn isn’t the place for you, says Ryan, who spends our entire interview doing DIY around the shop, which was formerly a sewing shop and, back during and after WWII, a ration book office.
“We started doing the wings [here] to my dad’s recipe, changed our name to Hot Damn and then it blew up overnight,” said Ryan whose dad, Alan, brought back his piri-piri recipe from Zimbabwe in the 1980s which is now framed in the shop.
“It just went crazy. It would only be me here on a Saturday night, threehour wait for food, wings, reduced menu and I would be blotto. It’s what got this place on the map - everyone knew it as being f****** wild, no rules, if you don’t like jalapenos pick them off yourself.”
Ryan and the Hot Damn team’s lively service is what attracted people to the restaurant - which is so small it’ll seat only 12 even without social distancing but the party atmosphere meant many would be eating wings shoulder to shoulder with the music blasting.
And if you’re lucky, sort of, you could even get a free dinner on Ryan. He explained: “I’d get bangered every night and what I’d do is comp (complimentary) someone’s table at the end of the night, I’d pick them at random and instead of paying for your dinner you’d help me tidy up, because I was so p*****. One night I got so mangled in here I thought one of the guys was still here but they’d gone home because they were so mangled, I got carried out of here and put in a taxi, didn’t realise that nobody was here.
“The following morning I got a phone call ‘hiya we locked up, we’ve got your keys, come and get them whatever you want.’ The restaurant was full of people mid-service,” he laughed. But his unusual approach landed with people and the shop blew up (not literally.)
Ryan, 26, continued: “The next morning my Instagram was on fire - people were turning up saying ‘Is this the mental place in Aberkenfig with no rules?’ It was 90% vibe, only AC/ DC playing - it was crazy.
“We’re only a small place it’s run by me and my guys, it’s personal and we keep it personal. There’s not a single thing in here I don’t own, or fix - as far as I’m concerned it’s like you’re sitting in my front room.”
It’s sweet success for Ryan who started out at Jolyon’s hotel in Cardiff and then hotfooted it to Merthyr Tydfil to help revamp a pizza place’s menu. From there Ryan realised that he wanted to be in business for himself.
A place in Neath came up for rent, which he and a pal were hoping to turn into a grillhouse - margaritas at 5am was the dream - but after Ryan took a loan out for the place, things fell apart with his partner dropping out of the project and a licensing mistake killing the idea.
“I was left with no job, massive loan, no place, no idea, so I went to France,” he said, installing a brand new hot water boiler as we speak.
“I was sat in a run down cafe in Lille and they were doing these amazing deli sandwiches and pastries and coffees in a gritty run down place and it’s why this place looks the way it does. The penny dropped. I was f*****, on my own, needed to make this money back so I just went for it.”
He used the place in Neath as a small coffee shop then moved to the unit next door to where Hot Damn is now, and opened another coffee shop.
It was while running the coffee shop that he got to know next-door neighbours Andrew and Vicky, at the then sewing shop, a friendship that would prove irreplaceable after Ryan’s next project left him in a tight spot yet again.
“I gave it up to do another coffee shop in Bridgend, where I got to meet a lot of people and people got to know me, but that went Pete Tong,” he recalls, while still doing a spot of plumbing.
“I felt I was working my a*** off for nothing, I wanted to reap the rewards more of being a business owner. So I was out on my a*** again. Next thing I know Andrew and Vicky got in touch, and off the back of knowing Vicky, they offered me this place. They’ve both been so good to me, without them this place wouldn’t have happened, they’ve been so supportive.”
But without dad Alan the wing shop would not be the place it is today as the former engineer brought the sauce recipe back with him from Zimbabwe, where he worked in the 1980s.
Hot Damn is a family affair with Alan and partner Grace also chipping in. But Ryan’s mam, Pam, isn’t as adventurous with her food.
“My mum is a textbook Welsh mam, Sunday lunch every night of the week. And her recipes are proper Welsh,” he said.
“My dad - his are gambas pil pil, piri piri chicken, carbonara. On a Friday night we’d cook and that’s how he got me into music and we’d talk about Zimbabwe or him being a tearaway. That’s where it all started really. In Zimbabwe and he’d go to this place called the Pale Bab hotel, the only place they could catch a drink and they’d have to travel god knows how long to get there every Friday night.
“And they would serve chicken piri piri and beer, and that was it. When dad decided it was time to come home he thought ‘I’ve got to have that recipe’.”
Alan’s not afraid to call out the team if the wings aren’t up to standard, but he also loves mucking in with Ryan when he can.
“Dad comes down here regularly to check up on us. He’ll point blank tell me whether it’s up to standard or not and doesn’t mince his words, he just wants the best for us and we are slightly better behaved when he’s here. He doesn’t fully support us getting blind drunk on a regular basis! Though he’s as bad, I had him in because I needed a hand one Saturday and he got p*****, he was slowing me down. I had to kick him out.”
It’s hopefully going to be a busy summer for Ryan and Hot Damn, with the shop, pop-ups at Depot, Tramshed and Forest Feastival as well as plans to deliver in Swansea.
And while the uncompromising vibe is what Hot Damn thrives on, Ryan is keen on is getting better and learning from who he calls ‘the OGs’ of the street food scene: Brother Thai and Franks.
Hot Damn are certainly making an impact on the street food scene, but with strong roots in Aberkenfig and an MO unlike anything around, the tiny shop stands out, as it should.
“We’ve been through hell, it’s been proper hard. I’m so proud of it all, not of our success, but that we’re still alive,” said Ryan as we rap up and the boiler is eventually installed.
“And we’ve managed to have kids and start families and fund those families from being maniacs - what’s not to love? Rock and roll!”