The first iteration of Tim McRae’s restaurant, “Where’s the Food,” better known as WTF, was a food truck for years. From there, he was able to move to his first brick-and-mortar location. But after sharing a building with two different gas stations, McRae is now aiming for more.
He says “You know, being here at a gas station, people are coming in, they’re buying vapes, buying this, buying that…I want, when people come through that door, that they’re [only here for] WTF.”
McRae is not only a former food truck owner and restaurateur, but also an indie filmmaker, writer, and actor, involved in projects like Cooking In Yesterday’s Grease, the ReAction YouTube series, Traffic Lane, and Jesus Christ Rapstar, which is coming soon to Tubi. In addition to various films and web series, he also advertises his business through skits with his active social media presence.
WTF is still based in a Citgo gas station at 102 Washington Crossing- Pennington Rd. where it will remain until November 23rd. Afterward, it will move to an as-of-yet undisclosed location in Ewing.
The restaurant journey hasn’t always been an easy one, according to McRae. His main struggle is not the business itself, but the series of different locations.
He explains “We try and work with landlords, we try and work with people to make everything [go smoothly], but you always run into snags and it’s always the landlords trying to squeeze the restaurateur.”
While he’s currently under a non-disclosure agreement concerning the new location, McRae explains that it comes with a liquor license, which has benefits but requires time-consuming paperwork and other processes.
In the meantime, WTF is still doing steady business at the Pennington gas station. The restaurant offers comfort foods such as cheesesteaks, burgers, fries, pork roll sandwiches, and specialty items like the fish sandwich and shrimp po’boy, a New Orleans favorite of meat, vegetables and sauce served on French bread, which is McRae’s personal favorite.
McRae explains that the po’boy wasn’t always on the menu. He made it on request for a customer who then returned with five of her friends the next day. From then on, McRae’s take on the sandwich became a bestseller at WTF.
Of the recipe he says, “[It has] remoulade sauce…The taste of it comes together because we got pickles on there, we got lettuce, we got tomatoes, then you have the gulf shrimp. When they’re fried just right, those combinations of flavors are like a Mardi Gras party in your mouth.”
Cook Moises Williams, like McRae, is a Ewing native and the two knew each other before he began working at WTF. First he was a repeat customer; then he joined the team.
Asking about his favorite WTF wing sauce, Williams says “is like asking a parent to pick a favorite child.”
Longtime customer and food author Patrick Lombardi visited WTF when he was writing a food truck series for bestofnj.com in 2018. He says, “At first, you don’t know what to expect, seeing the ‘WTF?’ Not knowing, initially, that it’s ‘Where’s the Food’ and you don’t really know what kinda food…Tim and Lisa describe it as eclectic comfort food, which I think hits it right on the head.”
Lombardi says, “The staff and everybody are really hospitable, it’s a super friendly, engaging atmosphere, even just placing orders you sense the camaraderie and just the enjoyment from Tim and from Lisa and from their staff.”
Lisa McRae joined WTF to support her husband after leaving her job as a payroll manager for a nonprofit organization in 2015.
She says “I was stressing at my corporate job and it was like, you know what? I’m done stressing for someone else, let me go stress for us.”
She continues “We have enough choices for someone to find something on the menu…I usually always say you gotta come and meet Tim because he’s the crazy one.”
She, like Williams, says that other than the food, the staff and customers are the best part of working at WTF.
McRae’s personality and involvement in the entertainment industry are key components in his ambitions for the new location, which he believes could one day be a franchise.
He says, “I want to change the bar scene from you just sitting there looking at each other across the bar to actually being engaged with entertainment, having fun. I even want to do karaoke nights where I pepper the crowd with some of the entertainers that I know…because I have those kinda connections in my briefcase, so to speak.”
He continues “I’ve been patiently waiting for ten years, I’ve been in small spaces…I’m looking for a space that I can bring all of my entertainment talents together and let them flourish.”
Lombardi says “It’s their personalities, it doesn’t matter where they are. Where Tim is, he’s going to be successful.”
