READY TO ROOST

Everyone’s favourite chicken wing food truck will set up shop in Surfers Paradise this month, writes Sally Coates

YOU may have heard the news that the Meter Maids are starting their own Surfers Paradise eatery, and now it’s time to meet the people behind the menu.

King of the Wings, husband and wife duo Dylan and Katrina Pires, are riding atop a fouryear high, finally realising their dream of having a permanent restaurant. The last time they felt this good was when they were narrowly defeated for world’s best wings ... seriously.

“Two years ago was the peak for us,” Dylan says. “We got invited to represent Australia in the world’s biggest buffalo wing festival in New York.

“Each year they pick one representative from outside America, last year it was London.

“In 2016 it was Australia and they’d seen the hype behind our brand.

“We got Logan City Council and a few businesses to sponsor us, which covered the cost to send our team.

“We cooked for 80,000 people over two days and came back with a second place trophy.”

As of March 23 those wings will be at our disposal, a selection of five flavours served out of prime Surfers Paradise real estate.

“The first is the southern style, which has been compared to the Colonel but better,” Dylan says.

“Then there’s the Portuguese crumb, dry rub, pepper lime flavour. We’ve got the American barbecue, traditional barbecue but with our own twist — quite a bit of bourbon.

“The bee sting is what we won second place in New York for. It’s a honey sesame flavour and I can’t describe it. It’s different but so good, and we use local honey.

“Then we’ve got the Chillogy, our answer to the American buffalo wing — it’s a trilogy of chillis. There’s the regular Chillogy but then we do extreme for the hot heads too, topped off with Carolina reapers.”

Dylan says a few get through the extreme Chillogy, a few struggle and a few run for the milk. While you’d assume vegetarians or any (insane) person who doesn’t like wings would be running far away from a wing-centric restaurant, the Kings have everyone covered.

“We’ll have pulled chicken sliders for people who don’t like bones, so they still get to enjoy the flavours in a brioche bun,” Dylan says. “We have a chef onboard now so we’ll be doing specials across the week.

“And we’ll have options for vegetarians as well – sweet potato wedges, spring rolls, samosas and gluten-free wing options.

“It’s a great little set up of 150 seats but also catering to corporate groups and bookings.”

Dylan says he and his team are stoked to not only have their permanent restaurant, but also call the Gold Coast home.

“We’ve been interested in starting a wing restaurant for about eight years,” he says.

“Four or five years ago we were looking into restaurants but we’ve got four kids and it wasn’t going to suit our lifestyle, so that’s when we started the food truck.

“We’re extremely excited to get to the Gold Coast. When the Meter Maids approached us it was a no-brainer. They’re a great brand, you can’t get a better location and it’s a really exciting time on the Gold Coast at the moment.”

Kings of Wings, 26 Orchid Avenue, Surfers Paradise