Austin's Texas Chili Queens Food Truck Serves Up Spice and Sass

Edward "Ed" Hambleton is putting his own spin on the historic chili queens with his chili food truck, Texas Chili Queens.

Launched in August 2015, he's resurrecting the spirit of the original chili queens who served up a variety of chili dishes in San Antonio's open air plazas while musicians played for an estimated 70 years.

It was only natural given that the ladies were one of a kind, providing food and entertainment, bantering, flirting, and joking with locals and visitors who came to taste their chili from the 1860s through the late 1930s. It easily translated into drag queens dishing out spicy chili with a bit of sass in Austin, says Hambleton.

The idea came to the former elementary school teacher while he was researching chili recipes for a Thanksgiving Frito Pie (a concoction of Fritos smothered in chili and topped off with cheese and jalapenos) potluck dinner with other newcomers to Austin. Hambleton had returned to his birthplace in 2012, after living in New York for five years following graduating from college.

"I came across the history of the chili queens," says Hambleton, talking about "these exotic women sell[ing] exotic food that was spicy [to] tourists from the east," in San Antonio's military plaza during Texas frontier days. "I read 'chili queens' [and] I thought drag queens. If you close your eyes and listened to the descriptions of them they sounded like drag queens. They were kind of sassy and they developed quite a reputation for themselves."

"So, I was like, 'Oh I can combine my drag past with my culinary present and start a food truck that is uniquely Austin,'" he says.

Having done drag as well as being a personal assistant to a chef during college in New York, Hambleton began creating the recipe for the revival of the chili queens and one of Texas's original street foods with a food truck called the Texas Chili Queens.

What Makes a Chili Queen?

The Texas Chili Queens are "embodying that chili queen ethos of the late 19th century, but of course with a different kind of queen in a different kind of context," says Hambleton. "At the same time, we are still on the street; we are still selling food, but instead of real women we've got drag queens."

"There is no other food truck like mine in the world, no other drag queen food truck let alone a drag queen chili food truck," says Hambleton, proud to have brought the Texas tradition back to life while keeping with Austin's mantra to "Keep Austin Weird."

Edie and "her" small part-time staff serve up five different chilis named after Texas' biggest cities: Austin (vegan), El Paso (spicier version of the classic chili with beans), Dallas (Venison chili), Houston (pork and turkey), and San Antonio (classic Texas meat only chili) that can be altered different ways to create 25 different combinations, says Hambleton. Hungry guests can choose to have the chili served with chips, cornbread, fries, "white trash brown rice," and six types of salads.

Spicing Up Austin

Since hitting Austin's streets, the Texas Chili Queens have been a hit serving school events, community events, and neighborhood events all throughout Austin and the surrounding areas, as well as corporate lunches in office parks. No matter where the chili queens go, they draw a crowd and they are booked seven-days a week, says Hambleton, who noted the truck is starting to attract visitors from out of town.

It's "always fun for someone to interact with a drag queen on lunch break during work," adds Hambleton, who announces the truck's locations daily through social media and on the Texas Chili Queens website. "A lot of people take it in stride [and] there are some people that have more fun with it."

The Texas Chili Queens don't put on a traditional drag queen show for guests while cooking and serving, though that may be somewhere in the future. Even then it won't be the usual song and dance, says Hambleton.

"Even if we were to perform [it] probably wouldn't be a typical drag queen lip synch performance. It would be something a little different," says Hambleton. "We are not your typical food truck and we are not your typical drag queens."

Curran Nault, founder and the artistic director of OUTsider Festival, a queer multimedia arts festival and conference held annually in February, agreed, praising the Texas Chili Queens.

"We love the Texas Chili Queens!" says Nault. "First and foremost, the food is delicious, and there's no skimping on portions: it's Texas size!"

"Edie is also such a wonderful and talented chef and our audiences love seeing her at our events and experiencing her unique brand of Southern charm," says Nault, noting that Hambleton debuted the Texas Chili Queens at an OUTsider Festival pool party during the summer.

Hambleton is proud of the fact that Austin has embraced the Texas Chili Queens.