Don’t Be A Dinges, Take The Tour!

Whenever I am heading into Key Food on 7^th Avenue on the weekend I’m faced with a Dinges dilemma. Do I take a detour from my journey to purchase a family size bottle of ketchup and give in to the imminent lure of the Vendy Award-winning Wafels & Dinges Food Truck? Of course I do. Wafels & Dinges are freakin’ irresistible.

Wafels & Dinges aren’t just about sweets; they have savory specials (this week was chicken & gravy with those eyes-rolling-in-the-back-of-your-head waffles on top. The ice cream of the week was Speculoos. WTF is Speculoos, you ask? That’s what I was thinking too. Luckily, the folks that work at the trucks are not bungholes and will gladly explain it to you; they are chill and dig their wafel lot in life.

For those who aren’t up on the marvels of Speculoos (as I wasn’t), they are traditional Belgian spice cookies that are sometimes mashed and made into a Nutella-like spread. W & D makes their own buttery, caramel gingerbread flavored version. The Speculoos ice cream is made by Mont Blanc ice cream, which is owned by a former Jean Georges pastry chef and friend of W&D’s Belgium-born owner Thomas DeGeest. One of the ingredients listed for Speculoos ice cream is “children’s laughter”. That sounds about right.

It’s no wonder the W&D truck has become so popular that it spawned a brick & mortar store in my former East Village hood. When W&D had a cart at the 9^th street entrance to Prospect Park I would camp out in front of it bathing in a pool of my own drool. The cart is no longer there! I think a real W&D store in the slope would be a big hit. Show me the Dinges!

I’m not a W&D fan just because I like yummy, gooey stuff to cram in my face hole. They also use primarily local products (mostly from Brooklyn) and list ingredients such as “unicorn tears.”

The Ministry of Culinary Affairs in Belgium looks to Wafels & Dinges to bring real Belgium waffles to America. True dat. You can find out more inside scoop on W&D’s new official hour-long tour of their 6,000 square-foot Royal Dinges Factory at 264 Butler St. in Gowanus. Email them at dinges@dedinges.com to schedule it. Tours will be once or twice a month. The first one is this Saturday Nov. 16^th at 10 a.m. Their previous tours were $8. This one is $15. Maybe it’s because it includes Unicorn tears and Children’s laughter. I do know it includes a wafel and a premium coffee.

If you go, please let FIPS know how it was and if any Unicorns were harmed in the production of their tears.