Behind the Line is Foobooz’s interview series with the people who make up Philly’s dynamic bar and restaurant scene. For the complete archives, go here.
There’s been a lot of speculation and handwringing over the new Gordon Ramsay show, Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service, after it came to light that some of the restaurants involved had no clue that they were part of something that was going to be focusing on “America’s filthiest restaurants,” as Fox eventually put it in promotional materials. One of the restaurants featured in the series is Wilson’s Secret Sauce in Upper Darby, where Gordon Ramsay shot an episode of Secret Service in March. That episode just aired nationally — you can catch it on Hulu soon — so we caught up with Steve Wilson, the owner of Wilson’s Secret Sauce, to hear all about it now that the, well, secret is out.
My name is … Steve Wilson and I own Wilson’s Secret Sauce on Township Line Road in Upper Darby.
The last time I had a day off was … never, mentally speaking. What does “off” mean exactly these days? Does that exist?
I grew up in … Broomall. I’ve lived in Delco all my life. I moved to Havertown in 2004 and opened Wilson’s Secret Sauce in Upper Darby in 2018. We call this part of Delco “Upper Delco.” [Laughs]
I learned to cook … after my mom and dad divorced when I was ten. She worked two jobs to maintain a house for five kids. So I tried to make an omelet and went from there. And I always liked to grill.
My worst subject at Marple Newtown High School was … typing. I was the Class of 1988. Love is fun, sex is great, ’cause we’re the Class of ’88! [Laughs] Those were the days.
Before opening Wilson’s Secret Sauce in Upper Darby … I was a mechanic for 30 years. At some point, I changed jobs and went from six days a week to five days a week. My buddy and I always wanted to do the Garry Maddox Barbecue Challenge, so I used my new free time to do that. We took first in chicken the first year we did it and second in ribs the following year. Then my wife and I got together and started to do catering, and that turned into opening Wilson’s Secret Sauce.
Steve Wilson and Kelly Wilson inside Wilson’s Secret Sauce in Upper Darby the week before the Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service about them aired (photo by Kae Lani Palmisano)
The single best dish I make is … actually salmon. I don’t have it on the menu right now, but I do bring it in as a special. And around the holidays, I might sell 40 sides of salmon.
But if you make me choose between my ribs and my brisket … I’d have to go with the brisket. I sell a ton of brisket. It’s so good. I wholesale it to restaurants like Barnaby’s in Havertown and the Greeks in Narberth. The thing is, a lot of people do not eat pork. And our ribs are great. But a lot more people eat beef.
I became a part of Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service … basically just after I got an email one day asking me if I wanted to take part in some new Gordon Ramsay show. I asked everybody at the restaurant, and we said yes. And that was pretty much it.
One old menu item I really miss is … the Seabrisket, which won Best of Philly in 2022. It was basically a brisket cheesesteak topped with sautéed lobster and Cooper Sharp and special seasonings, served on a roll that is essentially garlic bread. It’s part of the menu cut we did with Gordon Ramsay. We’ll bring it back at some point, at least as a special. But lobster was going for over $50 per pound for what I was buying. And I was trying to make the menu more efficient and cost-effective. A sandwich that takes 20 minutes to make wasn’t going to work. But if you want to order ten of them for catering, I’ll take that order!
If you only order one side dish at Wilson’s Secret Sauce … get the baked beans. So, I make them vegetarian, but you would never know it. And then if you want to add brisket or another meat to it, you can. This way, vegetarians love it, but meat eaters can make it what they want. I don’t want to eliminate people. I want to have things on the menu when you bring a vegetarian to my barbecue joint.
The brisket platter at Wilson’s Secret Sauce in Upper Darby (photo by Kae Lani Palmisano)
The best thing about Delco is … our toughness.
The worst thing about Delco is … the traffic on Route 1 and Route 420.
The mistake most home chefs make when barbecuing is … rushing. You have to have patience. It really is all about low and slow.
Working with Gordon Ramsay on Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service was … a great experience. He has a job to do. When I met him, he looked at me as someone who was probably ready to fight. And instead, I cried. I broke. I’m under so much pressure every day. I just want my family to be proud of what we’re accomplishing. It’s hard to step back and smell the roses, which is why we bring fresh flowers into the restaurant each week.
The secret to good homemade barbecue sauce … is to avoid ketchup. Ketchup has like ten ingredients in it that you probably don’t want in there.
My favorite restaurants in Delco right now are … Pepperoncini in Havertown. He makes a bangin’ pork chop. And I love the fettuccine Alfredo and Greek salad at the Westgate Pub.
The last time I had dinner in the city was … on Mother’s Day. We went to North Third.
The last time I had a cheesesteak was … at Joey Merlino’s new spot. It was really good! Too many people salt the crap out of their steak. You can always add salt. You can’t take it away. I was recently training for the ACS Bike-a-thon, so I rode my bike from Havertown to Main Street in Manayunk to Kelly Drive to City Hall and then down Broad Street to Joey’s place and then back again. A few months ago, I wasn’t able to touch my toes. Now I can, no problem.
I met my wife Kelly … in seventh grade. We went out in ninth grade. Then we went our separate ways, and at the age of 39, we got together for good. We have two kids, one together.
Kelly’s job at the restaurant is … pretty much everything. She does so much.
When I’m not running a restaurant … I am golfing, biking, riding my Harley, taking a day trip to Wildwood, scuba diving… But mostly, I’m working in the restaurant and serving the community. I provide food for a lot of recovery organizations and charitable events. We have a thing where you can come into the restaurant and pay forward $10, and I make sure that someone who needs food gets real food, a nice barbecue platter. We provide food to a lot of first responders. And when Ian was headed to Florida, I looked at Kelly and said, “Should we go down there?” So we loaded up a 14-foot trailer with pork and brisket and bleach and water and other supplies and drove down to the Fort Myers area and started feeding people and handing things out. It turned out that one of the people we were feeding was from where I grew up. It’s a good feeling.
The furthest I’ve ever ridden on a motorcycle is … Niagara Falls. Kelly rides on the back. Somebody’s got to rub my shoulders when I get sore. [Laughs] I have a Harley Ultra Classic — the big boy – and three other Harleys and an Indian.
I got my first tattoo … in 1991, when I bought my first Harley. I got my most recent one when I won a contest on Preston & Steve, and they brought me into the studio and gave me an eagle’s head on my left forearm between the NFC Championship game and the Super Bowl.
The biggest change that Gordon Ramsay made at Wilson’s Secret Sauce was … slimming down the menu. I had 73 items. We went down to 13. And we are up to around 25 now. We have a lot of people calling and asking for things that were on the old menu. And it was really hard for me to take the burger off of the menu even though I didn’t want a burger at my restaurant to begin with, but trying to cook ten to fifteen burgers at a time can make it hard to focus on other things.
The publicity I’ve received since word got out about Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Sauce has been … overwhelmingly positive. There’s been so much support. And I’ve had a million views to my Facebook page in 90 days. So many customers have been coming in who never heard of us until they saw the stories about Gordon Ramsay being here.
The best thing about the restaurant biz is … meeting and helping people. When I go down and cook in the streets of Kensington, people are so appreciative, and they need real food. My stepdad was an out-of-control drug addict, eating 80 Percocet a day. I learned all about AA and Al-Anon when I was 13. I’ve seen so many good people go down from drugs. Hardworking people who don’t have time to finish their physical therapy so they get the pills prescribed, and soon they are addicted to heroin. Most people don’t start out wanting to stick a needle in their arm.
The worst thing about the restaurant biz is … the uncertainty, the constant fight of food costs. Do I have to replace the compressor in my walk-in? Did my freezer go down? Did my brisket order just go up $800 from one week to the next? Then there are the delivery apps. I got rid of most of them but kept DoorDash. They perform well.
When I get a bad review online … I think about it. I try to correct it, try to find out what happened on our end, what our side of the story is. But what I don’t understand is why people go on Google and Yelp to complain instead of calling me. I’m at the restaurant every day we are open. Just call me.
My secret junk food obsession is … a Whopper. It’s hard for me to drive past a Burger King without getting a Whopper with cheese.
The dining room at Wilson’s Secret Sauce in Upper Darby (photo by Kae Lani Palmisano)
When I want to relax … I take a bubble bath. No, really! Doesn’t everybody? I have a Jacuzzi tub.
One food I absolutely cannot stand is … liver.
Our kids refuse to eat … the ice cream I buy, which is butter pecan, and the pizza I order from Drexel Hill Pizza in Broomall, which is a white ham-and-pineapple Hawaiian pizza.
The last thing I ordered at Wawa was … a chicken salad Classic with American cheese, spinach, and onions. Wawa actually has good chicken salad. You get them to toast the roll, add American cheese, and then the chicken salad. Mmmm. So good.
