By Mark Price
msprice@charlotteobserver.com

As empires go, a restaurant with four chairs and nine entrees is starting small.

But if Charlotte's Community Culinary School taught Travis Foxx and Kenta Wright anything, it's the value of thinking outside the box.

So they have.

Five days before Christmas - and in the wake of a crippling recession - they became the first graduates in the school's history to start their own restaurant. It's called The Wing Hut, and it is a two-man dream built on specialty chicken-wing sauces. Together, they are creating a story of optimism and hope for the new year.

Their plan is to make it the first in a string of Wing Huts, united under the Jay-Z hit-inspired slogan: "You got 99 problems, but a wing ain't one."

That's also painted across the front of their building, about eight blocks south of Bank of America Stadium in the Wilmore community.

"I'll admit it's a crazy time to start a restaurant, but we're doing great," said Foxx, 30, who is typically in the kitchen, while Wright runs the business side.

"Most restaurants are lucky to break even, but it looks like we're gaining."

The Wing Hut is considered a breakthrough by operators of the Community Culinary School of Charlotte, a nonprofit organization that trains jobless and homeless people to be chefs.

Most of the nearly 700 who have graduated since 1998 go to work for established restaurants or start catering businesses, said Chef Ron Ahlert, the school's executive director.

But Foxx and Wright, 29, are taking it a step further by starting a full-fledged restaurant.

"This is big for us," said Ahlert, noting the Wing Hut has already hired another student.

"Seventy-five percent of the students who come to us don't have a home. They're staying on someone's couch or with relatives or at a shelter."

Foxx and Wright were between jobs and looking for a better future when they came to the school. After graduating, both quickly found work in the kitchens of local hotels, country clubs and restaurants. Wright said he even spent some time cooking in Paris.

Both grew up in Wilmore as friends and attended the same high school, Myers Park.

Wright came up with the Wing Hut idea. It's patterned after a tricked-out wing truck - a "rolling restaurant" - that he operated along with an ice cream truck before opening the restaurant, he said. He also supplied most of the financial backing for the Wing Hut.

The two men spent about month creating 30 sauces, using skills learned at the culinary school. They settled on 14, including one hot enough "to make your nose run and sweat pop out on your forehead," Foxx said.

So far, the best-selling item on the menu is a Philly cheese steak sandwich, which Wright perfected on his wing truck.

Sides include fried pickles, fried mushrooms, fried potato wedges, fried okra, fried...well, you get the idea.

The partners have their sights set on introducing seasonal wing sauces and even bottled wing sauces. "The craziest is a cherry-pineapple glaze," said Foxx. Even the simplest of their sauces, such as the house ranch, has been altered with secret ingredients, they say.

"I'm open-minded," said Wright. "Take what you know already works, and make it better. That's how millionaires are made."
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