MADISON - Two Monroe natives are bringing Green County's fried cheese curds to Madison with a new food cart, Curd Girl, that serves both dinner crowds and late-night cravers.
Jessica Wartenweiler and Kayla Zeal, both 29, hit the streets with their curds on Aug. 1. They serve the fried delicacy with nine dipping sauce options, including buttermilk ranch, strawberry rhubarb, blackberry basil jalapeno, buffalo and sriracha honey.
"Nobody else has curds like this. People are going to flip their lids when they try this," Zeal said.
Well, almost nobody else has curds like this. Wartenweiler and Zeal aspire to make their curds like the ones the Monroe Optimist Club fries up and sells at the Green County Fair for charity - those perfectly golden, very lightly breaded, still-squeaky cheese curds.
"Everywhere we go in Wisconsin, we can get cheese curds. But they aren't anything like the Optimists. This is what everybody should be selling all the time," Zeal said. She and Wartenweiler started experimenting back in January until they had the Optimist curd down to a science.
They were experimenting in separate kitchens, since both are dedicated to full-time jobs, unrelated to food service, in different cities. Curd Girl is their hobby. Zeal is a middle school math and science teacher in Oakland, Calif., and spending her summer vacation back in Wisconsin. Wartenweiler is a patent and licensing assistant for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in Madison.
"Jess and I would email each other back and forth - 'Try putting this in the batter, try this sauce.' We did a private Pinterest board and we would pin things so we could see each others' ideas," Zeal said.
The Curd Girl partners have been friends almost their entire lives.
"Jess and I met in first grade at Abe Lincoln," Zeal said. They graduated together in 2002 from Monroe High School and both went on to study at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Their lives have taken different roads since then. Wartenweiler even lived in Chile for a year.
But they share a love of Wisconsin.
"The whole idea behind the cart, it's not just about cheese curds. It's about a celebration of all things Wisconsin," Zeal said. "Everything we've done this summer, everything we've put into this, is to make it the most true to Wisconsin."
They use as many local ingredients as possible for their dips and specialty gingerade and lemonades, Zeal said.
The cheese, of course, comes from Monroe.
In fact, much of their Wisconsin-focused business plan comes right back to Green County and its locals. They pick up their cheese curds from Maple Leaf Cheese Co-op every Thursday. The trim on their custom-built cart is barn wood from area farms. The Curd Girl logo was designed by artist (and drummer for the Jimmys) Mauro Magellan.
Wartenweiler and Zeal are working on occasionally bringing the Curd Girl cart to Monroe, too. They're currently in the planning process with Erin Buhlmann of Brennan's Market to possibly park the cart in the store's parking lot at 8th Street and Wisconsin 69.
"We'd be totally up for it," Buhlmann said.
The best way to keep tabs on Curd Girl's changing location is via Twitter (@CurdGirlCart) and Facebook (facebook.com/curdgirl). In July they posted a photo on Facebook of another classically Wisconsin, super-cheesy food (and in this case a post-workout treat): the mac 'n' cheese slice from Ian's Pizza in Madison.
"That's the only reason we exercise," Zeal said, "so we can eat these ridiculous things."
Eventually, she'd like to start a Curd Girl satellite back home in Oakland.
"I'd love to take it out to California. I don't think Californians know what cheese curds are."
Jessica Wartenweiler and Kayla Zeal, both 29, hit the streets with their curds on Aug. 1. They serve the fried delicacy with nine dipping sauce options, including buttermilk ranch, strawberry rhubarb, blackberry basil jalapeno, buffalo and sriracha honey.
"Nobody else has curds like this. People are going to flip their lids when they try this," Zeal said.
Well, almost nobody else has curds like this. Wartenweiler and Zeal aspire to make their curds like the ones the Monroe Optimist Club fries up and sells at the Green County Fair for charity - those perfectly golden, very lightly breaded, still-squeaky cheese curds.
"Everywhere we go in Wisconsin, we can get cheese curds. But they aren't anything like the Optimists. This is what everybody should be selling all the time," Zeal said. She and Wartenweiler started experimenting back in January until they had the Optimist curd down to a science.
They were experimenting in separate kitchens, since both are dedicated to full-time jobs, unrelated to food service, in different cities. Curd Girl is their hobby. Zeal is a middle school math and science teacher in Oakland, Calif., and spending her summer vacation back in Wisconsin. Wartenweiler is a patent and licensing assistant for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in Madison.
"Jess and I would email each other back and forth - 'Try putting this in the batter, try this sauce.' We did a private Pinterest board and we would pin things so we could see each others' ideas," Zeal said.
The Curd Girl partners have been friends almost their entire lives.
"Jess and I met in first grade at Abe Lincoln," Zeal said. They graduated together in 2002 from Monroe High School and both went on to study at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Their lives have taken different roads since then. Wartenweiler even lived in Chile for a year.
But they share a love of Wisconsin.
"The whole idea behind the cart, it's not just about cheese curds. It's about a celebration of all things Wisconsin," Zeal said. "Everything we've done this summer, everything we've put into this, is to make it the most true to Wisconsin."
They use as many local ingredients as possible for their dips and specialty gingerade and lemonades, Zeal said.
The cheese, of course, comes from Monroe.
In fact, much of their Wisconsin-focused business plan comes right back to Green County and its locals. They pick up their cheese curds from Maple Leaf Cheese Co-op every Thursday. The trim on their custom-built cart is barn wood from area farms. The Curd Girl logo was designed by artist (and drummer for the Jimmys) Mauro Magellan.
Wartenweiler and Zeal are working on occasionally bringing the Curd Girl cart to Monroe, too. They're currently in the planning process with Erin Buhlmann of Brennan's Market to possibly park the cart in the store's parking lot at 8th Street and Wisconsin 69.
"We'd be totally up for it," Buhlmann said.
The best way to keep tabs on Curd Girl's changing location is via Twitter (@CurdGirlCart) and Facebook (facebook.com/curdgirl). In July they posted a photo on Facebook of another classically Wisconsin, super-cheesy food (and in this case a post-workout treat): the mac 'n' cheese slice from Ian's Pizza in Madison.
"That's the only reason we exercise," Zeal said, "so we can eat these ridiculous things."
Eventually, she'd like to start a Curd Girl satellite back home in Oakland.
"I'd love to take it out to California. I don't think Californians know what cheese curds are."
