Owned by Northwood residents Pat Meeks, Jay Neundorfer and Casey Klein,

Despite the risky economic times, Northwood High School alums Casey Klein, Jay Neuendorfer and Pat Meeks weren’t “chicken” to start Chunkies, which opened in August 2009 at 3165 Navarre Ave., in Oregon. (Press photo by Tammy Walro)

Chunkies opened in August of 2009 in the Reed Vision Plaza, 3165 Navarre Ave., in Oregon. The take-out/delivery business is located in the building formerly occupied by Cottage Inn Pizza.

The three Northwood High School grads (both Meeks and Neundorfer are class of ‘98 and Klein, ‘97) all worked as servers in the restaurant industry at one time or another. That is the only restaurant experience the three had.

“It really is a collaboration among the three of us,” Meeks explained. “We never worked in the business end but were servers before. We all thought it was risky to open a restaurant, especially in this economy. Jay (Neundorfer) and I were talking about opening a gym but that was too expensive so we thought of this and brought Casey (Klein) in with us.”

The name, Chunkies, was the brainchild of Klein’s sister, Nicole.

“She came up with the name because of the chicken chunks,” Meeks said. “We eat them all of the time. We thought we should try it and roll the dice.”

Neundorfer added that discussed the business venture with family and friends and they all supported his goal.

“We talked about opening a business together so we did,” Neundorfer said. “We go to sports bars for just the food sometimes. There are times that I just want the sports bar food but not the sports bar crowd. Chunkies is the alternative for people who want the bar food and not the environment.”

So far, it seems there are many like-minded people in the area.

“I would say that business so far is pretty accurate as to what we expected,” Neundorfer said. “It takes time for a new place to take off. We get people in here on a daily basis who just heard about us. We get a lot more repeats then one-time visitors so that is very encouraging to us. Word of mouth is very important to us.”

The three partners have also made sure to become involved in the community. Chunkies has donated food to both the Oregon and Northwood high schools’ wrestling, football and basketball programs, Meeks said.

Chunkie’s menu is based on chicken chunks, wings, wraps and salads.

“Our chicken chunks are homemade and made with white meat,” Meeks said. “They are very lightly breaded and fried. They do not have a heavy coating like some restaurants have.”

Chunkies come in “regular,” which includes a choice of sauce, including mild, medium, hot, BBQ, honey BBQ, hot BBQ, apple cinnamon BBQ, wild berry BBQ, Teriyaki, chipotle and garlic and parmesan. Sauces are crafted by Meeks’s father, Glenn.

Chunkies also offers a “rocket” sauce for those looking to sear their taste buds yet still enjoy a wonderful flavor. “The rocket sauce is really tasty but it is the hottest barbecue sauce you are going to eat,” Meeks said.

So, what makes the sauce so hot? According to Meeks, the fiery inferno is concocted with “Ghost” peppers or bhut jolokia, a chili pepper that is recognized as the hottest in the world. The pepper is grown in the Assam region of northeastern India.

According to the Scoville scale, which measures the hotness of a chili pepper by the amount of capsaicin it contains, the Ghost pepper has 1,041,427 units. Tabasco red pepper sauce rates at 2,500-5,000 Scoville units. The jalapeño has a rating between 2,500 and 8,000 Scoville units.

“I can’t be in the house when he makes the sauce.” Meeks said with a chuckle. “It burns your eyes. I would rate our hot sauce as a six and the rocket sauce as a 15 in hotness. A lot of people order it. We have lots or repeat orders for it.”

The chipotle sauce, which is made from a smoked jalapeno, also has a good “burn” to it, Meeks said adding that the sweeter sauces tend to be more popular with the ladies.

Chunkies has also created a full list of 15 “specialty” Chunkies, including Bayou Chunkies (with Cajun seasoning); Hula Chunkies (sauce, cheese, ham and pineapple); Five-Oh Chunkies (sauce, cheese, bacon and mushrooms); to Lava Chunkies (rocket sauce, cheese, jalapenos and salsa) and Slaw and Spud Chunkies (sauce, fries, cole slaw, and cheese).

Chunkie wraps include the Classic (Chunkies, sauce, cheese, lettuce and tomato) a grilled wrap, as well as a specialty wrap.

One very popular wrap is the “Big Time,” which includes Chunkies, your choice of sauce, onion rings, fries, cheese, lettuce, tomato and bacon all artfully wrapped in a tortilla.

“A lot of heavy eaters really like it because it is very filling,” Meeks said. “We have a lot of construction workers eat it for lunch.”

Don’t feel like a sandwich? The restaurant also has a section of “Chunkie Fields,“ a.k.a. salads, which includes  the “Shack” salad (lettuce, cheese, bacon and ham with croutons); the aptly named  “Chunkies” salad (lettuce, cheese, tomato, bacon and chunks in your choice of sauce) and a grilled salad, which includes the same ingredients as the Chunkies salad with grilled chicken instead of the chunks.

Wings are also available at Chunkies in 10, 20, 30 and 50 count sizes. Wings come with celery sticks and either ranch or blue cheese dressing to bathe them in.

“We have really good sized wings, not the average sized ones found elsewhere,” Meeks said. “Our onion rings are also very popular.”

Chunkies offers daily specials. Mondays, buy one Chunkie get one half off. On Tuesdays, wings are 60 cents apiece. Wednesdays, get $1 off any Chunkie wrap and Thursdays, get free fries with the purchase of any specialty Chunkie.

Chunkies is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Sunday. The restaurant offers free delivery within a five-mile radius. For more information, call 419-698-0000.

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