WILMINGTON — The massive taquito is the shining star so far on a new food truck slinging Tex Mex fare from a couple of established restaurateurs best known for burgers.
“They’re not the baby ones people are used to eating,” Matt Grimm detailed of the taquitos from his new food truck, Gunslingers Tex Mex.
Grimm and his wife, Sammie Jo — best known for their brick and mortar, Grimmburger — started the mobile eatery in April after mulling over the concept for a while.
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“Wilmington has plenty of good Mexican restaurants,” Grimm said. “It just felt like there was nowhere to get really good Tex Mex, which I really love.”
He noted fan-favorites so far have been the steak tacos and taquitos. The latter is rolled up shredded chicken and cheese in a 10-inch tortilla, and comes with a choice of creamy jalapeno ranch, queso, Gunslinger sauce or the avo-verde salsa.
For the tacos, he shaves New York Strip steak, cooked to order with peppers and onions. They’re smothered in avocado-verde salsa, made after grilling tomatillos, jalapenos, onion, and avocado before blending.
The corn tortillas come in fresh and are grilled to order on a flat-top for tacos or are cut and fried to order for nachos and chips and salsa.
The restaurant also serves nachos, loaded fries, elote bites, chips and homemade salsa or queso. And, of course, there is a burger — Texas chili-cheese if someone is so inclined.
Burgers are a Grimm speciality, as available from their Forum eatery Grimmburger, which also started as a food truck. Its popularity escalated to such a degree that the truck was running out of room and menu items every time the Grimms set up shop, so they launched their first restaurant in the former Epic Food Company in 2024.
The Gunslinger food truck is new, double the size of the old Grimmburger truck, and even has modern-day conveniences, air-conditioning included. The Grimms roll it out every Thursday, Friday and Saturday and often rotate one of 17 employees from Grimmburger to help.
“Like Grimmburger, everything in house is made fresh with the highest quality ingredients we can get our hands on,” Grimm said.
The Grimms grind the meat for the half-pound burger and the chili is inspired by the Lone Star State — which means no beans but instead focuses on flavors of smoky chili peppers and tomato. Grimm imagines selling it as bowls on the wintertime menu.
Soon, Gunslingers will be unveiling burritos, offered in steak, carnitas, chargrilled chicken and even veggie flavors. Appealing to all palates is important to the Grimms, who also have an Impossible burger at their flagship joint.
To sate vegetarian diets, the Tumbleweed Tacos are served with crispy fried potatoes, house refried beans (sans pork fat), pickled red onion, cotija cheese and crema.
The elote bites — a fried appetizer of roasted corn, cotija, and pepper jack — are also vegetarian friendly.
Many of the items also come smothered in the Gunslinger sauce, a tomato-based condiment made with adobo chipotle to bring some heat.
Grimm said, even though the food truck is a month-in, he imagined Gunslinger would eventually have its own brick and mortar.
“And I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with a second Grimmburger location,” he added, noting fans downtown and in Monkey Junction are often urging them to send out the burger food truck again. “But it’s all about finding the right spot. We aren’t actively looking right now, but if something came up that was too good to pass up…”
Gunslingers Tex Mex can be followed here; prices range from $5 to $12.
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