Key Points
- Keshia Clark started KC’s Wing Bar with no formal culinary training.
- KC’s Wing Bar won Best Food Truck and served at the 2023 NFL Draft.
- Clark plans to get involved with the 2026 World Cup and hopes to open a restaurant.
Keshia Clark owns one of Kansas City’s most loved food trucks, KC’s Wing Bar. This year, she won Best Food Truck at the KC People’s Choice Awards and served thousands at the 2023 NFL Draft.
But it wasn’t always this good.
Getting Rolling
Just a few years ago, Clark, a mother of four, was working nights at a call center. She noticed that when she got off work, there weren’t very many late-night food options. She would swing by food trucks and liked some of the food but could never find wings cooked to her liking. So she had an idea.
Despite having no formal culinary training, Clark impressed her friends and family with her cooking. They particularly praised her wings.
“I took that as a skill that I had and just ran with it.” says Clark.
In 2017, with encouragement from friends and family, Clark started cooking chicken wings to order in her kitchen. She began small, selling to her coworkers and old classmates and catering events in her community. At first, she didn’t even have a fryer but would pan fry wings in pots & pans while two of her friends delivered food.
When she signed up on DoorDash, demand became bigger than her space could handle. She set up a ‘ghost kitchen’ renting space in commercial kitchens when they weren’t in use. Then came a small personal fryer, then another.
“I always had a specific way that I like my chicken, and there were people around me that said the same thing,”
“I used to play those phone games like ‘Restaurant Story’ and ‘Chefs Quest’ all the time,” says Clark. “Honestly, it was a lot like those games; I just kept unlocking new levels and getting new equipment as we grew.”
As word got out, Clark was approached by someone looking to sell a food truck. She held a fundraiser and with the help of a silent investor—who she has since paid back— she was able to buy the truck.
Food Truck Success and Giving Back
KC’s Wing Bar specializes in—you guessed it—wings. The food truck serves both traditional and boneless wings with a selection of a dozen sauces and rubs, including flavors like Honey Teriyaki and Carribean Jerk. There are chicken sandwiches, wraps, tenders, and sides, all at reasonable prices and exploding with flavor.
The truck can be routinely found on weekends at area festivals and their original late-night spot on 87th and Blue Ridge Blvd.
But the biggest boon to Clark’s business was getting selected to be one of three food trucks on-site at the 2023 NFL Draft. Even though Clark had just had a child three months earlier, she jumped at the chance.
Pushing through paid off. Every day of the draft, KC’s Wing Bar had a line from open to close.
With an injection of funds from the draft, Clark has taken care of a few things, like adding an air conditioner to the truck and expanding payroll. The truck now has a manager but is often staffed with friends, family members, and their kids.
Clark says offering jobs is just one of the ways she likes giving back. KC’s Wing Bar also donates food and funds to groups like G.I.F.T. and Our Village KC and just hosted a back-to-school event where the first 20 kids ate for free.
“We give back to our community. We don’t just take from our community,” says Clark.
The Road Ahead
As KC’s Wing Bar celebrates its two-year anniversary, Clark’s ambitions continue to soar. She is set on getting involved with the upcoming 2026 World Cup that will be partially hosted in Kansas City and has a long-term goal of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant that specializes in late-night wings.
KC’s Wing Bar
Visit kcwingbar.com to see the menu and truck schedule. You can also follow them on Facebook or Instagram to see updated locations and events.