BY MICHAELA YIELDING
FOR THE OBSERVER
EAST ALABAMA — Best Friends Adam Stiff and Dickie Johnson are bringing a new food truck to the Auburn-Opelika area. The food truck, Turn & Burn, gives an elevated spin on popular street foods.
Stiff and Johnson have worked in the restaurant industry since they were 16, with them both working at Jim Bob’s Chicken Fingers on Frederick Road in Opelika. After graduating from Opelika High School in 2008, the two helped open Irish Bread Pub and the former Ma Fia’s Ristorante in downtown Opelika.
Outside of Opelika, the two have worked for Auburn University Dining. The friends decided to pursue other career opportunities before returning to the food industry with the opening of Turn & Burn.
“We know we’ve wanted to do something together for a while, and so I just started running numbers on a brick-and-mortar location,” Stiff said. “And the food truck was the one that gave us the ability to serve people in the community anywhere, especially at community events.”
The food truck allows Stiff and Johnson to have the hours, the set-up and freedom they want in their business. The name Turn & Burn is a play on the restaurant slang used to describe getting customers in and out efficiently while not compromising food and service quality.
“It’s used on a line in the kitchen when you’re really busy, and you’re turning and burning,” Johnson said. “It’s just a saying in the restaurant, and it kind of jumped out at us.”
Both Stiff and Johnson said they want to bring the level of service and product customers enjoy at upscale restaurants to the food truck business.
The best friends purchased the locally popular Franky June’s Weeny Wagon when its owners, Rick and Karen Lanier opened Bison Bistro on the campus of Southern Union.
bought the food truck from Rick Lanier, who owned the Franky June’s Weeny Wagon with his wife, Karen. The Laniers also own The Galley on McCoy, a commercial kitchen that food truckers can affiliate with for production.
Stiff explained that he and Johnson originally came to Rick about using the workspace, but after talking further Rick offered to sell the food truck to the two.
Franky June’s Weeny Wagon already had most of the set-up Stiff and Johnson were looking for, so renovations were minimal. Greenlight Signs in Opelika wrapped the food truck with the Turn & Burn logo designed by Stiff, who leads marketing and social media for the company.
Johnson said he likes to focus on developing the menu and sources for ingredients. For him, sourcing the ingredients locally has been a labor of love.
“It’s been a process,” he said. “It hasn’t been hard, but it hasn’t been easy, but it’s definitely worth it. You can see that in our product, and that’s what we want people to be able to see and taste.”
Turn & Burn sources its buns from Stinson Breads in Opelika and its meat from Auburn University Meat Lab. The food truck also gets lettuce and cucumbers for their homemade pickles from Extreme Green Farms in Auburn.
“We’re working on locally sourcing as many ingredients as we can,” Johnson said. “Essentially, our logo is elevated street food. God-given, chef-driven, locally sourced. And that’s what we stand for.”
The seasonal availability of local produce means Turn & Burn’s menu will be changed up. The menu for February consists of smash burgers — featuring “Triple Threat” burgers made with an AU beef and Conecuh sausage patty on a Stinson bun topped with house-made pickles, bacon, provolone cheese and truffle honey aioli. The current menu also includes spicy harissa tacos made with flour tortillas, AU chicken, lettuce, pickled onions and house-made feta tzatziki sauce, as well as chicken quesadillas for the kids and browned-butter chess squares for dessert.
“We’re not just going to be a traditional like Chicken finger and burger type place, we’re going to take different things from different cultures and mash them together to make one very unique food experience,” Johnson said.
Currently, the Turn & Burn food truck can be spotted in Opelika at Angel’s Antiques on Columbus Parkway and at CT Automotive on Second Avenue. Turn & Burn will be a regular at the city of Opelika’s Food Truck Fridays, which occur on the third Friday of each month, including Feb. 21.
Check out Turn & Burn’s Facebook page to stay up to date with the menu and locations.
