This Food Truck Is a Saucy Addition to the Scene

"It started with the name," says Brittney Iten, who launched the Saucy Chops food truck in 2020, which dishes up tacos, sliders, fries and more loaded with a variety of scratch-made sauces.

"I was in big beverage for forever," says Iten, who was born and raised in Colorado. "Worked for MillerCoors and Heineken. I left Denver to go to Vegas, where I was the national sales manager for Heineken. I was in Vegas for two years managing all resorts, casinos and nightlife, so a lot of big corporate food and beverage background. And that's kind of how I got into this side of things, because I was just done working for the big boys and wanted to be my own big girl."

After returning to Denver, she began doing brand marketing and sales in the cannabis industry, but when the pandemic hit, she reassessed her priorities. She moved to Florida to be near one her best friends and took some time to think about her future.

"One of my love languages is acts of service, and that's why I've always had a passion for cooking," Iten says. "Just kind of full circle, like cooking, giving and branding — all this stuff. And so the name Saucy Chops came from a cocktail conversation. ... I mean, you can only party and not do anything for so long. So, I was like, 'You know, I'm going to go back to Colorado, and I'm going to start a food truck catering company called Saucy Chops.'"
She began by doing "a shit-ton of research, and within three months, I was up and operating," she notes. "I launched in September 2020."

The menu is made up of "just stuff that I love," Iten says. "It started with the sauces. I wanted to do straight tacos, so I wanted to do a red salsa and a green salsa. I always wanted my menu names to be double entendres. My tacos are called Lickin' Tacos. ... To be eating tacos, you're going to be licking tacos. My spicy sauce, I call it Fuego Mija, which is 'hot daughter' in Spanish. And then my green salsa is called Money Sauce because it's green and it's money," she explains.

Iten soon became a big fan of cooking shows, which bolstered her confidence and spurred her to experiment with new dishes and sauces. One standout is the Smoky Porky Sliders, which have an Asian twist. "For the pork, it all starts with a sweet and tangy barbecue sauce, and then we top it with a mustard vinaigrette slaw and Korean-style cucumbers," she says.
Her favorite item is the green chile cheese fries (dubbed Saucy Frys). "The green chile is a family recipe that I've tweaked to be vegan and gluten-free, but you can add proteins. It's my favorite because I grew up on this chile," Iten notes.

Other Saucy Chops staples include the Dirty Bird, a take on a Nashville hot chicken sandwich; an elevated grilled cheese; and a version of street corn.

As Iten enters her fourth season of operation, she is optimistic about the future of Saucy Chops and has some exciting plans for the summer. "We do everything from scratch. I'm in the process of revamping my website, but we're going to start selling the sauces," she says. I'm doing a farmers' market in Glendale every Saturday, and we're going to push the sauces. I really want to focus on eventually getting into the local markets and grocery stores."

While many food truck operators dream of opening a brick-and-mortar, Iten isn't sure that's the right move for her. "I'm very seasonal. ... I might do a multi-state food truck. My folks just bought a house down in Florida, so maybe I could open a truck down there and split my time between here and there," she says.

As food truck season ramps up in Denver, follow @saucychops5280 or visit saucychops5280.com to find this truck's schedule, which includes the Wednesday edition of Civic Center EATS.

"We're just saucy. Food tastes better with sauce," Iten concludes.