Takeout Tuesday: Brooklyn Park’s Brass Rail Food Truck
In the Brooklyn Park parking lot of Mills Fleet Farm is a new dining option that’s attracting long lines in cold weather.
“We saw this on Facebook, I said ‘I’m there. We can’t wait,'” said Paul Dundas of New Hope.
It proves that in certain cases, people will push the limits in exchange for delicious food.
“Oh heck yeah, we love it,” Dundas said.
“It” is broasted chicken courtesy of The Brass Rail.
In case you were wondering, broasted chicken is cooked in a pressure fryer, where the oil cooks the meat without saturating it.
“It’s never frozen. We do our own marinating,” said Rod Knowles, owner of The Brass Rail. “Taste is the biggest thing, I guess. It’s got good flavor.”
From Grandy to Brooklyn Park
The Brass Rail is a restaurant based in the town of Grandy, roughly 49 minutes north of Brooklyn Park. Like many dining establishments, the pandemic has been a struggle for Knowles.
:Big time. I went from my summers, I was selling 130 cases of chicken a week down to maybe 50,” he said. “So it’s cut my business in half.”
To help make up for the loss, Knowles bought this food truck and debuted it at Mills Fleet Farm on Dec. 10 to considerable fanfare, selling 40 tubs of chicken in two days.
“Twenty each day, and I ran out both days,” he said.
If you talk to some of the people in line, it’s easy to find out why.
People lined up at The Brass Rail food truck on Dec. 17
“It’s fresh. It’s hot. Crispy. The flavor’s amazing,” said Dundas, the New Hope customer. “And their coleslaw is to die for. It’s so good.”
Rod’s daughter, Jackie, is the one tasked with filling all of the orders.
“A lot of love goes into making this,” Jackie Knowles said. “Almost a two-day process for us to get the chicken into a broaster.”
Braving the cold
That love is shared by the hungry customers who patiently brave the cold to get their chicken on the days when the truck camps out – usually on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
“Yeah we normally get it in the summer when we’re up north, so to get it in the winter is great,” Dundas said.
Knowles certainly appreciates the support.
“Well it makes me feel great that I must be doing something right,” he said.
He hopes to continue the operation going through the winter, just as long as people keep supporting and Mills Fleet Farm lets him stay.
“For them to allow us to suck up space in their parking lot, and as far as I know they’re not charging us, I haven’t heard,” Knowles said with a laugh. “But I just want to thank them.”
To find out when The Brass Rail food truck will be parked at Mills Fleet Farm, check out the restaurant’s Facebook page.
