My Guy virtual bodega in Fresno offers New York-style sandwiches
“Usually we should have some music playing,” he says from behind the Belmont Avenue ghost/commissioner kitchen grill, which he shares with three other food vendors.
It’s 11 a.m. and orders are already piling up through the restaurant’s online app, which Wutangsy checks from her phone between working on the grill and fulfilling orders to waiting customers.
He combines diced onions, ground beef and slices of American cheese, which he slams on toasted French bread with ketchup and mayonnaise. It’s the specialty of the market, a sandwich version of a hamburger known as “chopped cheese”.
“Where (expletive) are you going to buy chopped cheese outside of New York?” said Wutangsy, with more than a hint of pride.
Those who know the man know that he is a self-proclaimed “New York chef”. He loves music, of course – his chosen last name is a reference to New York rap legend Wu-Tang Clan – but also art, culture and food.
It was a trip to New York that gave Wutangsy the idea to quit working for other restaurants (at one point he held cooking positions at KuniSama, Benaddiction and Chef Paul’s Cafe) and go out alone.
The way he tells it, he walked 20 miles from Manhattan to Brooklyn, through neighborhoods made famous by rappers like ODB (Old Dirty Bastard) and Mos Def.
He had 20 different sandwiches, from 20 different bodegas; New York’s version of the convenience store.
My Guy Market is a kind of “virtual bodega”.
The menu only includes four items.
There’s NY chopped cheese; a bacon and cherry pepper version called Chop Smoke; the Hippy Flip, with shitaki and enoki mushrooms that can be made with vegan cheese; and an egg with bacon and cheese, which is a bodega staple.
It’s not the only food staple you can get from My Guy Market. You can get a single roll of toilet paper, a pack of Magnum condoms, or a Bic lighter and rolling papers. It also offers a variety of snacks and drinks imported from Korea and Japan.
There are pizza-flavored chips that have been popular lately, says Wutangsy.
My Guy Market is only open for take-out orders – 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday – though times may change depending on the crowd. After nearly a year in business, Wutangsy has finally hired an employee to help out in the kitchen, but things can still go wrong.
At one point last week, he had to pause incoming orders to catch up.
Of course, Wutangsy also talks about his hometown, and there’s no shortage of community connections at My Guy Market. Fresno tech upstart Ordrslip designed the mobile app. He gets meat from Renna’s Meat Market and bread from Max’s Bakery. Most imported snacks and sodas come from Central Fish Company.
Last week, the market began selling lime glazed donuts, a collaboration with Lucky’s Donut House.
“We all take care of each other,” says Wutangsy.
And he watches over his customers.
Recently, he got into the habit of hiding linked stacks of money ($100 in one dollar bills) in carry-out bags. Sometimes he distributes the money directly, just to see the reaction. Of course, it’s a reduction in his results, but it makes him smile, he says.
“It’s fun chaos.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2023 10:38 a.m.