Meet Max Kunik of Taster’s Table Club and Wingman Kitchens

Today we’d like to introduce you to Max Kunik.

Hi Max, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
My journey to where I am at now started in 2008 when I tried my first piece of sushi at Uchi. To back up a little, I was a peanut butter & jelly kid with a very unadventurous pallet. Then, 17 years old, I found myself at a table with my uncle(Daryl Kunik), Philip Speer, Paul Qui, and Tyson Cole where they were discussing the menu and forcing me to try out these things I would have never though about putting in my mouth. This surreal experience expanded my pallet forever and opened me up to the food world that I have grown to love and make a career out of.

After graduating St. Edward’s University with a degree in entrepreneurship I worked for Austin Restaurant Week, Favor, Austin Food & Wine Alliance, and Jaime’s Spanish Village running events and operations in each of my roles. The common theme in each company was food and I knew that I wanted to use my degree to start my own thing, that is when the idea of Taster’s Table Club came to life. My friend, Matt Wolski, and I had a monthly agreement to try out a new restaurant every month. We would always ask the waiter, “Can you give us 6 menu items that will give us the best experience.” and after doing this for a while we also saw influencer dinners happening next to us.

This is when the lightbulb popped and Taster’s Table Club was born in 2015. We offered restaurants an opportunity to showcase their menu to the general public on a slow night, Tuesdays, because everyone knows the best marketing is still word of mouth. On the membership side we were offering a chance to get out of your restaurant bubble and experience different restaurants with a group of like-minded foodies.

As Matt & I were growing Taster’s Table Club, I was also hearing from chefs and culinary entrepreneurs about the lack of shared commercial kitchen spaces in Austin. In my mind I wanted to create another business outlet for me to interact with the culinary would and hopefully help them grow their businesses. Not to go too far into all the details, Robert Strong & I opened Wingman Kitchens in August of 2019 were we have a pop-up window for chefs to test out their concepts and then many other companies use our kitchen to prep and make their products to sell in other marketplaces.

Wingman Kitchens has already worked with 30+ companies in two years and we hope to continue to be a valuable space for many others.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If any entrepreneur says they have had a “smooth road,” they are either the luckiest person ever or just lying to you. The struggle is what has made me and my businesses grow. I’m not really sure where to start with this. Taster’s Table Club has had to constantly transform with the Austin food scene, clientele, and now with the pandemic. We started as a discount dinner club, then we were in 4 cities operating this model, then we’re a virtual food experience club only in Austin, and now we are an experiential dinner club only in Austin with different offerings, such as out Bakery Box ATX that features a different baker every month and gets delivered to your door.

These were all changes we had to make in order to retain members and keep the company alive. Wingman Kitchens the biggest struggle was opening. I had never built out a space before and expected contractors to be the experts and have everything done right and on time, which I have come to understand never actually is the reality. We were 4 months delayed, way over budget, and found myself with more knowledge than I really ever cared to know about technicalities on what is needed to open a commercial kitchen facility. All of these struggles made our companies better and we are always ready for the next challenge thrown our way.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Taster’s Table Club & Wingman Kitchens?
Taster’s Table Club is an experiential dinner club that features some of the best restaurants and chefs in Austin. To be clear, we are NOT an exclusive club. To become a member you can go onto our website and either pay $10/month or $100/year, which gets you access to all of our dinners and discounts on our other offerings. When you come to a dinner expect to be seated with 8-12 food lovers and let the chef or owner treat you to a night that showcases their talents. I promise you will walk away with new restaurants to tell your friends about and with new foodie friends that you can look forward to seeing every month.

What makes us different is we want to keep the dinners small and intimate, so you can really get to interact with the chef/owner and have conversations with everyone at the table. Over the last 6 years it has been amazing to see the friendships that have been made through the club and how our loyal members boast about their experiences. As an owner there is nothing better than people talking about your company in a positive way, unprovoked. We have monthly dinners and are now offering Bakery Box ATX, where subscribers will get a box of baked goods from a different local baker every month. Think of it like a wine or cheese club, but with baked goods!

Wingman Kitchens is a shared use commissary kitchen. Think of it as a co-working space for culinary entrepreneurs. We offer affordable tiered packages based on what each company needs. It is a great starting or building block for anyone in the food industry since we have done the thing that is the biggest road block with building out the space and providing the commercial equipment. We focus on small to medium sized companies and really try to assist them in any way we can. Both Robert Strong & myself have experience on growing a food brand, and pass along the knowledge when it is requested by our clients. For the general public, I strongly encourage you to come by our counter and try out Biru Cocina Peruana and Dagum Tacos for there weekly pop-ups!

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
It is not really a secret, but people are always surprised to know that I really don’t cook very much, nor do I enjoy it. When I am constantly surrounded by amazing chefs & food, it is hard to motivate myself to cook.

Pricing:

• TTC Membership- $10/month
• TTC Membership- $100/year
• Bakery Box ATX- $50/month(ongoing)
• Bakery Box ATX 3 month subscription-$150

Contact Info:

• Email: max@tasterstableclub.com and info@wingmankitchens.com
• Website: https://austin.tasterstableclub.com/ and https://www.wingmankitchens.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingman_kitchens/?hl=en. and https://www.instagram.com/tasterstableclub.atx/?hl=en