Chef Christian Wilki Joins Crust Issues in Norwalk
There are a lot of team ups that would likely never happen in the restaurant community, but, like all things in life, timing is everything.
Chef Christian Wilki, formerly the chef de cuisine at The Cottage in Westport, is joining forces with John Nealon, owner of Crust Issues in Norwalk.
No, it’s not April, and we’re not fooling.
“It was an accident, kind of,” Wilki says. “I was four days out of a job and I didn’t really tell anybody. John called me to ask about a chef, if I knew a certain chef, and he asked me if I was working today. I told him that I wasn’t. That I had left. He asked if he could have me.”
Nealon, already a friend and a fan of what Wilki can do in the kitchen, decided to shoot his shot and it was all net.
A few days later Wilki stopped by Crust Issues thinking it could be a quick visit, but he ended up staying for a conversation for over two hours.
Wilki would return days later to observe a Saturday service at Crust Issues, which, if you’ve been, features their regular menu for dine-in and takeout, plus, their nightly multi-course supper club.
“I wanted to see how they operated,” Wilki says. “That lasted two days and I was already making their stuffed bagel bombs with lobster. I made potato pizza. I made onion ash. I had never done pizzas before. We had a lot of fun and I see a vision on where they could go. Him being a fan of mine helps and he believes in me.”
That night, specifically the night the Knicks won the NBA Championship, Wilki met his girlfriend and their friends out at Dockside, only he was slightly distracted. Instead of watching the game, he was vocalizing and jotting down ideas he had for Crust Issues.
Another thing Wilki is excited about is the prospect of paying his culinary knowledge forward while he’s here. “One day, they made tres leches here, but to me it just looked like chocolate cake,” he says. “I looked at it, tasted it, and I said, ‘That’s not tres leches. That’s chocolate cake.’ The next day, I started baking blondies with butterscotch sauce from scratch. And it’s Crust Issues, so we added Fruity Pebbles to it. I made it with the team and taught them. I’m happy to be able to teach people again.”
“She asked me, ‘What happened to taking a week, relaxing, and getting to know the place?’” he says. “I didn’t even have a beer at Dockside that night. I’m drinking water. I was up at night writing down different ideas because my mind doesn’t stop. It’s a new challenge because I haven’t done pizza before. Even when I was at Ore Hill and Swyft, I think I made two pizzas the entire time I was there! I took a Tuesday and we sold 130 pizzas and I made all of them, maybe I couldn’t remember what goes on all of them, but it was fun. It should be fun, right? If we’re here all day, let’s get along and have fun. When we’re slammed, OK, it’s time to get serious, but then we can go back to being goofy.”
Some of Wilki’s ideas, by the way, ARE NOT, to change the vibe of what Crust Issues is. For him, he wants to take it to another level by making some fresh pasta, making tweaks to existing menu items as necessary, incorporating local, farm fresh produce in where it fits, and making fun, homemade desserts since he has an extensive pastry background.
“I’m not trying to change the integrity of the place,” Wilki explains. “I would never go anywhere and jeopardize that. I like that it’s a laid-back vibe, like a hipster place in Brooklyn.”
While visiting, Wilki whipped up a very Crust Issues-esque pizza with chicken cutlet, hot sauce, red onion, herbs, sour cream, and house cured pickles. One of the early supper club menus with him at the helm features a Hot Pocket with locally sourced lamb with cheese and labneh, agnolotti filled with smoked eggplant and Sungold tomato, and a veggie course with carrots from Fort Hill Farm, pistachio gremolata, Calabrian chilis, and goat cheese. But fear not! There will still be pizza, mozzarella sticks, wings, and all the guilty pleasures you already love about Crust Issues.
For Wilki, this break from fine dining—after almost 10 years at The Cottage and at his previous stints at OKO in Westport and Rye, ROÌA in New Haven, Ore Hill and Swyft in Kent, Villa Mulino in Avon, and, if you remember, Chocopologie Cafe in Norwalk—is about accepting a new challenge and keeping it lighthearted and fun.
“I love John; he’s a great guy and he used to come into The Cottage a lot, and being here and being around him, I don’t know how we get anything done because we’re having a blast and laughing 90 percent of the day,” Wilki says. “A couple of customers recognized me already, saying how happy I looked, and that’s true. Put me in any kitchen and I’m happy. It’s where I belong. I’ve been transparent with John that I want to have my own place someday, so we’ll see where it goes. I wanted to be a chef, my parents said, since I was three years old and I worked in kitchens in Denmark as a teenager for free just to learn. Once it becomes solely about money, it’s time for me to get out. I like making people happy. This is a new challenge. It was time for me to try something new. Let’s make beautiful food and make this the best that it can be.”
60 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk
Instagram @crustissues203
203.939.7171
From breaking news and local politics to art exhibitions, live music, high school sports, small businesses, and cultural events, we celebrate the people and places that make Connecticut unique.