Wicked Twist food truck brings southern style food to Chicopee

Wicked Twist food truck owner Allison Brown celebrates the grand opening of her new business during a grand opening event with the city on April 24.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Garnet

CHICOPEE — A long vacant space in Chicopee is getting a fresh and flavorful new start with the opening of Wicked Twist, a food truck area dedicated to breathing new life into the area through its southern-style cuisine.

The new truck and city officials hosted a ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony on April 24 to introduce the new business and community area located at 181 Center St.

Wicked Twist food truck owner Allison Brown said she moved from Georgia to Chicopee last year and “decided to go on this really wild adventure.”

Brown explained that she decided to open her food truck area in Chicopee after visiting Western Massachusetts with her fiancée, a Ludlow native.

“I was like, there’s nobody else doing my kind of food up here, might as well try it, so we decided a food truck park was going to be the answer to it,” Brown stated. “I’m super stoked about it because there’s nothing like any of my menu stuff anywhere else around here.”

Brown said her two best sellers right now are The Southern Slap — a Portuguese roll stacked with spicy fried catfish, collard slaw and crispy fried onions, topped with sizzle drizzle sauce and our Razzle Dazzle seasoning — and All the way Twisted fries, which is fries or chips loaded with sausage gravy, cheese, crispy fried onions, chicky chunks, sizzle drizzle and Razzle Dazzle.

Brown also highlighted the homemade watermelon lemonade she makes, which she said is also popular.

“Come enjoy some yummy southern food,” Brown stated.

Currently, Wicked Taste’s hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They will also be open the first Sunday of each month for what Brown called “market days.” Brown also added that once school is out for the summer, she will extend her hours.

Besides serving food, Brown said the revitalized space will allow residents to gather, artists to express themselves and families to have fun.
“We have worked really hard with the city to just kind of redo this area and turn it into something really cool. I want it to be very, very community focused, local artists, other food trucks and just doing southern cooking my way,” Brown stated.

For the grand opening event, artists were present to paint a few pieces, while many residents purchased food, hung around at the picnic tables and played some lawn games.

Brown talked about the turnout, stating, “Just having the support of the city has been huge for me. It’s so exciting. It’s very surprising. I just want to grow this community. I want this to be a really fun space for our community. That’s the biggest thing … to just bring everybody closer. I think food does that with everybody, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”

Chicopee Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa Breor talked about the newly revitalized space.

“It’s really exciting to see another new tenant here who’s got so much energy and so much drive to really keep the space activated,” Breor stated. “The city has done a really great job maintaining the space and cleaning it up for this business.”

Mayor John Vieau explained that the space used to be a former gas station that was cleaned and is now a safe space for the community to enjoy, thanks to Wicked Taste.

“Thank you for investing as a stakeholder to Chicopee and welcome to our family,” Vieau said to Brown. “I’ll share that wonderful things are happening downtown, and this is just one of them. Excited about people enjoying this space.”