Deangelo Zeigler brings a little experimentation to traditional cooking, sometimes mixing chocolate and BBQ.
The interesting mix finds its way to the menu at WOW from time to time, but it has been tested time and time again.
“I entered it in a culinary cookoff,” WOW co-owner Deangelo Zeigler said. “It won us first place.”
The cookoff had Zeigler coming up with a savory entree using chocolate. He mixed dark chocolate with mustard, ketchup and Worcester sauce.
“You simmer it down really good,” Ziegler said. “It did really well.”
Zeigler has been cooking all his life. It started with buttermilk pies with his Grandma and grilling ribs with his father.
“I have always been interested in food,” Ziegler said. “I grew up in the kitchen.”
Ziegler’s wife Davetta has been around cooking much of her life. She and her family already had a catering business when she met Deangelo. Their relationship encouraged Deangelo to enter culinary school. Then the couple started getting requests from friends and family to cook items and WOW Catering started. Then came the dining room in Eclectic.
“The name just followed us,” Deangelo said.
Menu favorites emerged such as fish and chips, steak and potato, WOW Fry, wings and chicken and waffle. But one item is almost always on the menu.
“Pasta jambalaya, we can’t take that off,” Davetta said.
There was a failed attempt to remove it in Eclectic.
“Customers gave us grief over that,” Deangelo said.
Steak is the couple’s personal favorite along with a dessert.
“We love the deep fried cheesecake,” Deangleo said. “It’s addictive.”
The couple moved WOW from downtown Eclectic to downtown Wetumpka.
“We love it,” Davetta said. “People have come to us with open arms. We couldn’t ask for a better restaurant. The support from the surrounding businesses, to customers, to customers coming from Eclectic, we have an amazing following and couldn’t ask for more.”
The dining room and kitchen are all new. It allows Deangelo to concentrate on cooking and guests to stay cool and look out over downtown Wetumpka. Deangelo is looking forward to cooler weather with the new dining room with its windows and garage style doors.
“In spring and fall we will open the doors in the dining room and enjoy the beautiful weather,” Deangelo said.
It’s a space at the intersection of Hill and Bridge streets that Devatta has fallen in love with. The couple hopes customers will like it as well.
“We feel like it is a dream every time we walk in here,” Devatta said. “This is more than what we could ever imagine.”
