In a bright orange truck at the end of Petersburg’s Sing Lee Alley, Evan Prussack measured out the last of his waffle batter.
Prussack is the owner of Wander Waffles, one of Petersburg’s newest food trucks. And Prussack’s waffles aren’t just any old waffles, they’re made with sourdough.
“I just thought if I’m making waffles in Alaska,” he said, “it has to be sourdough.”
Prussack has been a waffle lover ever since he was a kid. Whenever his mom didn’t feel like making dinner growing up, he’d offer to make his favorite dish: waffles.
But before he became a professional waffle chef, Prussack was a traveling pastor. He said the name “Wander Waffle” was inspired by his once nomadic lifestyle.
“I’d be in an area sharing the gospel…a couple nights at a time here and there,” he said. Then, he’d move on.
One of these trips took him to Hong Kong, where street waffles became a staple of his diet.
“I had basically no money when I was there, and so I couldn’t eat out a lot,” he said. “But, the street waffle would be like $2, so that was my treat.”
That traditional Hong Kong style waffle, topped with a dollop of peanut butter, a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, stuck with Prussack.
When he decided to stop being a pastor last year, Prussack moved to Petersburg and got a job salmon seining. In the meantime, he started developing his own waffle recipe.
Prussack debuted his sourdough waffles during Petersburg’s Little Norway Festival in May. He tried out a new savory waffle recipe with cream cheese and smoked salmon. On the first day of the festival, he only sold a couple of the savory waffles. On day two, he sold over a hundred.
“It was like people started seeing other people with it, and then it just became a thing,” he said.
Since he opened, Prussack has already “leveled up” his sourdough recipe.
“Just a month or so ago, someone here in town gave me their sourdough starter, which is from the Yukon Gold Rush from Skagway,” he said, “So it’s legit.”
Serving waffles in Southeast Alaska is not without challenges. Waffles can’t pay all of the bills, so Prussack works full time at a local refrigeration company. Even with some extra help to run the truck, his work day is still book-ended by boiling blueberry sauce at 6 a.m., and batter-prepping late at night.
Supply chain issues can also add hiccups. Because his recipe uses some of the same ingredients as the Hong Kong street waffles, it can be hard to get them delivered to Alaska.
“I was just buying a little bit at a time, little bit at a time, little bit at a time, but I’ve realized that doesn’t really work, ’cause you run out of stuff and you can’t get it quick enough,” he said.
Because of these challenges, Prussack recently made the decision to only run the truck on weekends.
“ I’m not in it to make a bunch of money,” he said. “I just am in it for the relationships.”
As Prussack was beginning to clean up the truck at the end of the day, a group of kids on bikes rode up hoping to tempt their fate for a free waffle.
Prussack had just enough batter left for one more waffle, and he decided it was their lucky day.
He made them his most popular item: a waffle slathered in a decadent blueberry sauce and doused with whipped cream.
“These kids…you gotta be good to ’em or else they might prank you or something,” Prussack joked.
For Prussack, the best part about serving the Petersburg community are moments like that.
“ I’m not pretending like this is anything spectacular,” he said. “It’s just a waffle, but it’s a nice treat for people, and I want them to be able to have a pleasant interaction and positive community experience.”
