ROLL FOR FLAVOR

ROLL FOR FLAVOR

Aaron Chapman embarks on a new adventure with 'Dungeons & Drumstix' food truck

Story By Hunter Jones

Aaron Chapman is out by his Dungeons & Drumstix food truck by Prime Pawn in Section on Friday afternoon. Normally, he opens up shop there every two weeks. While he is not open today, someone stops by anyways and asks if he’s serving. The man states that he has seen Chapman in the food truck before but can’t seem to get in quick enough to try the food. Chapman states that he has reached a point where he will typically sell out in the first couple of hours of set up.

The food truck's start came as just a vendor for the Scottsboro Renaissance Fair in Caldwell Park. Chapman always enjoyed cooking, having cooked for the Section High School Rec League Basketball for the past two years. In July of 2024, Chapman and his brother heard about the Renaissance Fair and he wanted to try cooking turkey legs for this event, noting that nobody in the area was making them and that they were hard to come by locally.

At the event, Chapman had two smoker grills, his own recipe and a paper sign that they had come up with before the event: Dungeons & Drumstix.

“The name came about with my brother, who helped me figure it out. We’re nerds, we play Dungeons & Dragons, we play video games, we’re big, old geeks. We were talking one day and he said you need to name your truck after our game, Dungeons & Drumstix, S-T-I-X to make it different and it stuck ever since,” Chapman said.

The stand was a hit at the fair, with Chapman getting many positive comments on the food. After the event, Chapman decided he wanted to go in on this venture.

The start was obtaining the business license.  

From November to February, Chapman looked up trailers until he found one he liked in Nashville. Chapman traveled to Nashville, picked it up, brought it home and started work to get the empty trailer fully outfitted with all he would need to open up shop. He installed sinks, refrigerators, chest freezers, counters, everything he would need as well as bolting them down so they would not move.

Chapman then worked to obtain a business license, officially becoming an S-Class Corporation LLC on May 13.

With a truck, he now needed to find a location. Chapman called around to places like the Scottsboro Rec*Com, Bynum Park, the industrial parks and was denied, with many citing insurance purposes. After continuing to contact places for a spot, GameStop in Scottsboro was willing to let him set up shop for his first day out, and while visibility for his business was not the best, he made the best of it. Inside of the small trailer working a full grill in the Summer heat with no air conditioning, Chapman struggled with heat. On that day, Chapman offered a small menu, with the turkey legs and some smoked sausage with peppers and onions.

“It sold phenomenally but the heat was awful. I was there from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Chapman said. “It got so hot at one point, my grills shut off I had it set to maybe 325, they were 390. My temperature gauge was so hot out there on the asphalt that my grills were 390 by themselves… But I toughed it out and we finished it.”

Chapman would immediately work to get an air conditioned unit in the trailer, taking about nine hours to get it installed.

The next time he set up, with the unit installed, he cooked and sold 50 pounds of barbecue, 30 of which was Boston Butt and the other was smoked chicken that he shredded and pulled for plates and sandwiches as well as the usual turkey legs.

“I always have turkey legs, maybe about 15 of them,” Chapman said.

Chapman has now hit a sort of rhythm with the business side, still trying out some new things, including a Turkey Day a couple of weeks ago where he brought out about 60 turkey legs. Chapman is also actively looking for events where he believes his brand and product matches well, signing up as a vendor to the Dragon Boat Races at Goose Pond, the Fall Festival in Rainsville, the Steampunk Festival and, of course, returning to the Scottsboro Renaissance Fair.

“The support from the community has been wonderful. I would like to keep coming up here not just because of the hometown support but I want people to come back and support because they like good food,” Chapman said. “I’m seeing more and more people I don’t recognize whenever they show up. I’m good with faces but I’m noticing more and more people I don’t recognize.”

One special item Chapman talks about is what he calls the “Level Up”, where people can get a miniature and D20 dice for “fellow gamers and nerds,” a nice nod to how this business venture really started.

“It all came about because of Dungeons & Dragons. We all got together playing every weekend for hours. I’d cook for my group of six people every single weekend that we played,” Chapman said. “I’m the Dungeon Master so they literally get to sit there and play it out while I narrate the whole thing and I cook. They always call me the ‘mom’ because I always fed and made sure everybody was good.”

Visit Chapman's food truck website at dungeonsdrumstixtravelstavern.com and on Facebook at Dungeons & Drumstix.

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