Many Punk Bands Share a Common Request When Visiting Dallas: Chef Justin Box

Behind every band is a chef.

At least if you’re a punk band playing in Dallas.

More than 20 years ago, Justin Box wrote to a punk band, offering them a meal when they came to town to play.

“Back in the day you could write to bands and you could send them personal letters ... and they would send stickers or maybe a tape, a CD, or if you’re lucky you’d get a T-shirt,” Box says. “I wrote to Face to Face, one of my favorite bands. I said I want to be a chef — or maybe I lied and said I was a chef — and wanted to cook for them. It was at Good Records, and I made something like chicken salad.”

This week, he made dinner for Bad Religion when they played a concert at the House of Blues on Monday.

“Coming up, I’ll be doing Authority Zero, Pennywise and the Bronx again,” Box says.

Of course he’s not getting addresses off the backs of CDs or tapes to mail them requests to cook anymore. These days, band managers are reaching out to him to cook.

As for the food, there is one common thread among the band members Box is cooking for: they prefer plant-based meals.

“Most of them are vegans, and a lot of times there are a lot of allergies or restrictions,” he says. “This is the first one that was kind of run-of-the-mill, except there’s one mushroom allergy.”

Monday’s dinner for the band was a build-your-own-wrap station with different root leaves from Profound Farms.

Other bands Box has cooked for include Teenage Bottlerocket, Rise Against, the Distillers, Terror, Propagandi, the Bouncing Souls, the Casualties, Anti-Flag, Harm’s Way, Backtrack, Jello Biafra, Vandoliers, Liberty and Justice, and the Old Firm Casuals.

“To a lot of people, this wouldn't mean anything, but these were my childhood heroes,” Box says. “I always like to respect their privacy and space. I typically show up, I feed them, I try to talk to them for a couple of minutes, say, ‘Hello, thanks for coming out,’ explain what I'm cooking, then let them do their thing.

“Everyone seems to be pretty cool. No assholes yet.”

Box — who plays in a band himself — previously worked at Cafe Momentum among other restaurants, and more recently has been a consulting chef. He’s at the helm of Lockwood Distilling’s kitchen, which is planned to open soon in Richardson.