Let’s Eat

By Michael Lagerquist

Josh Wirig cuts a special sausage and mushroom egg bake for a breakfast group.

Cook bringing fresh offerings to Wow! Zone

After bouncing between a few area eateries during the last several years, Josh Wirig has found himself a home — and a mission — in the kitchen at the Wow! Zone.

The goal that he and Wow! Zone management have is to make it a food destination with a menu all its own.

“When I was 15, I actually started down at the old T. J. Finnegan’s in downtown Mankato,” says Wirig, 30, while seated at the bar of the family entertainment center on Mankato’s east end. “Shortly after they closed, I came up here to the Wow! Zone.”

He was brought in then to help with the stone oven pizzas,

bringing with him some of what he learned at T. J.’s. Wow! Zone has both thin crust and flat bread pizzas with a homemade sauce.

He’s been working there on and off since then but was asked back full time as their kitchen manager by owner Pam DeMarce a couple of months ago. Since then, he’s been working on developing a menu that includes more from-scratch items to help the Wow!Zone stand out in the local restaurant scene.

“I’m looking at a new burger patty,” Wirig says. “It’s just got a lot more flavor. We’ll start with sandwiches and get those taken care of. We’ll be doing some specials that rotate on either a weekly or every other week basis. We’ll try bringing steaks and better quality pastas back here.”

Although he has no formal culinary training, Wirig also has learned while working at Mayo Clinic, Bicker Inn and, most recently, The Knotty Bar and Grill in Elysian. He and his girlfriend moved to Wisconsin for one week after The Knotty closed before DeMarce called and asked if he wanted to come back.

“Josh is a great fit for us because of his personality, creativity and experience,” says Allison Jennings, general manager. “Often people don’t think about the Wow! Zone just for dining, so we want to get our restaurant and bar more known for the great food.”

Wow! Zone has a few eating areas — the bar, a restaurant, a snack bar — and does a variety of special events and parties, as well as hosts several service clubs for meetings. Right now, Wirig is working with the menu he inherited but has plans to expand the offerings.

In addition, he’s involving his cooking staff as much as possible. “Anything we can, I want to make from scratch because it’s also good for my cooks back there. It’s not just coming in to drop fries in a basket or slap a burger on the grill.”

He will need cooks with that skill set to get where he wants to go.

“I like entrees, all that good stuff, so (customers) can have an actual restaurant experience.”

A full kitchen with a large prep area will accommodate an expanded menu that includes beef and turkey commercials on Thursdays, with meat prepared on site, gravy made from the drippings and “delicious mashed potatoes.”

He’s also working on a surf and turf with steaks cut in-house and marinated in special recipes, and many items will have specialty sauces. Chicken wings will be seasoned with their own recipes as well.

Although he’s not as confident with his baking, DeMarce recently shared his chocolate cake with several league bowlers and it received rave reviews. He admits to looking at several recipes and trying things at home and taking notes on the results before bringing any desserts to the customers.

The secret for this chocolate cake was strong-brewed coffee added to the cocoa powder, he says, which brings out a deeper flavor. The butter cream frosting was more of a mix between butter cream and whipped cream, making it light and not overbearing.

“We are letting Josh have the creative freedom for new items,” Jennings says, “and I think we are hoping to have something new (for the menu) within the first quarter of 2022.”

As to what that menu will be, Wirig doesn’t have details yet.

“Anyone can just order stuff (from food distributors). I want to make something that’s the Wow! Zone.”