Drag culture is serving up more than looks in the food scene
Death drops, lip-syncs with choreography that would make even Britney Spears jealous, and food — although the latter may seem to be out of place, some male chefs and waiters are ditching traditional uniforms for dresses, makeup and wigs to provide customers with unique experiences.
“People are just looking for something new and fun and I feel like drag brunch or a drag queen server can offer that,” said the owner of the Texas Chili Queens food truck, Edward Hambleton.
“A lot of the feedback we get is they like the food obviously, but it was a fun experience and they liked the hospitality or the super authentic interactions.”
Drag brunch started around the 1950s as a way for restaurants to bring in entertainment and for drag queens to perform during a time when homosexuality was illegal and police raided gay bars. Since then, drag queens have become a cultural phenomenon that goes beyond breakfast foods.
From the national food chain, Hamburger Mary’s to local restaurants, the food scene has become more of a platform for drag culture.
“I think (restaurants) have become such a hotspot because with the success that RuPaul’s Drag Race has had with bringing drag into more of the mainstream,” said Rhonda Jewels, a waitress at Irene’s and drag queen.
Irene’s is a restaurant and bar known for its instagrammable pink sign and strawberry cake. Inside, however, Jewels can be heard lip-syncing while strutting around the bar in a blonde wig and heels every last Saturday of the month or hosting drag bingo.
Other days Jewels typically serves customers while still in drag.
“I just have to make sure they have an enjoyable experience,” Jewels said. “It’s also bridging a gap to some people who may never have seen drag performances for whatever reason.”
Hambleton also said the ability to chat with people who are unfamiliar with drag queens is the reason he feels drag queen representation matters.
“My truck specifically, allows people to interact with someone they probably don’t normally interact with,” Hambleton said. “It gets conversations going especially at workplaces that people might not have.”
Austin is the second city with the most food trucks per capita in the U.S. according to census data, yet not a single one was completely run by a drag queen.
While some people may get their dose of drag culture by tuning in to RuPaul or going to popular clubs, they do not usually expect their drag to be served with a piping bowl of chili.
Inspired by the original chili queens of San Antonio, Hambleton set out to change that by opening Texas Chili Queens in August 2015.
“I wanted to redefine the term queen,” Hambleton said.
He is now, however, closing up shop and retiring from the service industry after becoming exhausted with it.
Prepping chili on one side of the truck and dressing up as Edie on the other, Hambleton ran the food truck by himself.
When imagining a chef, an image of a pin-up hairstyle and a checkered apron that looks like it was taken from a 1950s housewife may not come to mind, but that’s exactly what Hambleton was cooking up food in.
With sayings like a “are ya hungry” to “do you like it thick and meaty,” the character of Edie came alive dishing out various chilis and a lot of charm.
“This is just Edie at the window for the truck, it’s Ed the rest of the time,” Hambleton said. “This is a shtick you get what you get at my food truck. You get this crazy person yelling at you in a Texas accent.”
Besides working outside of offices, Hambleton loved going to family-friendly areas and interacting with kids who may have questions about his appearance.
“We do a lot of school events and kids are like ‘oh my gosh are you a boy or girl,’” Hambleton said. “I’m a Queen. That’s my response.”
While he enjoyed dressing up every day and cooking, Hambleton is unsure if people will see more drag queen workers in the future.
“The service industry is so hard anyways people aren’t going to want to add that layer of doing drag on top of it if they’re a server unless that’s a genuine expression of who they are,” Hambleton said.
Although Texas Chili Queens is closed, it’s still possible to get a taste of drag culture and food. Hamburger Mary’s is located everywhere from Los Angeles to Houston and Irene’s or Michelada’s Café and Cantina offer events here in Austin.
“We can actually bring our art form other places than just gay bars,” Jewels said. “It’s so important because it’s giving visibility to queer artists and it’s reassuring queer artists that their art is valid.”
1940’s Original San Antonio Chili Queens Chili Recipe from the research library of the Institute of Texan Cultures
Ingredients:
2 pounds of beef chuck or stewing beef, cubed into 1–2 inch pieces
1 pound of pork shoulder, cubed into 1–2 inch pieces
½ cup of beef fat cut into small bits
½ cup of pork fat cut into small bits
3 medium-sized onions
6 garlic cloves, minced
4 medium-sized ancho chilies
6 dried red chilies
1 serrano chili
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds, toasted then pounded
2 tablespoons of Oregano
1 tablespoon of dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon of vinegar (red wine, white wine, or malt)
Salt
Instructions:
- Soak the dried chilies in hot water for 20–30 minutes.
- Toss the cubed meat lightly in flour then add to a large heavy bottomed pan, along with the fat.
- Fry quickly while stirring often to brown the meat.
- Add the chopped onions and garlic and stir every 30 seconds until the onions are soft.
- Add the water and simmer gently while preparing the chilies.
- Remove the stems and seeds from the chilies and pound in a pestle and mortar or blitz with a hand blender into a paste, along with the cumin seeds too.
- Mix in the oregano and a generous amount of salt.
- Add the chili mixture to the pot with the sugar and simmer on low heat, not allowing it to boil, for at least 2 hours. If you are worried about it drying out, place a lid half-on or add a bit more water. Skim off some fat.
- Add the vinegar and salt to taste.
