BUFFALO, N.Y. — A new food truck has hit the streets of the Queen City with a special mission. The Bread of Heaven food truck aims to feed the hungry for free.
Its first-ever stop was outside the Martha Mitchell Center in the Langfield Housing Development Monday afternoon. True Bethel Baptist Church on East Ferry Street purchased and custom-built the truck.
“What is happening now is word of mouth,” said True Bethel Baptist Church Pastor Darius Pridgen. “We wanted the community to be involved, the community to advertise, the community to bring people out. So by doing that we are able to connect with people who we might not have had the chance to connect with if we were just in church.”
The truck will make the rounds three days a week during the summer and will use social media to promote where it can be found.
A circle of food trucks populate Niagara Square each Thursday afternoon for the local lunch crowd.
It’s not the bustling days of yesteryear but there is a new contemporary climate to the daytime streets of downtown Buffalo and this summer brings a host of activities. The farmer’s market vendors that most people wait until the weekend to line up for are available Tuesday and Thursdays along Main Street. The dozens of vendors are already offering up great local produce, flower baskets, and even great cheeses and kettle corn.
Food trucks load into Niagara Square every Thursday afternoon to feed the masses of office workers and visitors. Encircled like a grouping of covered wagons, the varying food trucks offer mid-day sustenance to those looking to take a break on one of the nearby benches or under a shady tree.
The M&T Plaza Lunchtime Concert Series is underway with great and varying acts in front of the Main Street M&T Bank location. The free performances run noon to 1pm, Mon through Fri until the end of August. This year’s performers will include the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on July 7, Big Wheelie and the Hubcaps on July 15, and McCarthyizm on July 24. The range is wider than this article would allow and the listing can be found in local branches.
The Erie Basin Marina is still a popular walking area and beautifully scenic with boats drifting in and out of the waterview. Stroll over to the Buffalo Naval and Military Park where you can tour the ships and museum and stop at the Liberty Hound for a great lunch. The nearby Canalside is bustling with activity every day with free lawn and table games and kayak and water bike rentals.
For the historically minded, tours of city hall are given each day, Monday through Friday, at noon. Meet in the lobby for this detailed look into one of the most interesting building interiors in Buffalo.
If you are looking for a bit of style while downtown be sure to stop by the summer shops at the Queen City Pop Up Shop area, located at 653 Main St. While the shops won’t be there long they are presently packed with unique clothing, accessories, gift items and housewares. Vendors include Yar Mo’s Muse, Ginametrical, and MMW Style Studio. Men will love Survival of the Gear, specializing in outdoor sports items. Live and Love Events is also on hand to help you with your event planning needs.
While the brick and mortar restaurants and shops are still active – the waves of food vendors, merchants, and musicians along with other entertainment offers a fresh energy to the up and coming City of Good Neighbors. Take a quick bus trip with the kids for something new and different to do on a weekday afternoon.
Owners Peter Cimino, left, and Chris Dorsaneo of Lloyd Taco have revolutionized the Buffalo food scene. (Robert Kirkham/News file photo)
On the fifth anniversary of Lloyd, the Buffalo taco truck sensation, let’s take a moment to appreciate what Lloyd hath wrought.
Five years ago, the street food of Buffalo was a tube-meat monoculture.
Peter Cimino and Chris Dorsaneo wanted to start a taco truck. People told them it was impossible to make a business of it, and the City of Buffalo told them it was not legal. They were too stubborn to listen. Their fans loved them for that, as well as their tacos.
So much so that when the truck’s engine failed, they appealed to their fans for repair money, rewarding them with more tacos. The Lloyd llove started to spread.
They found allies who helped them push through a food truck law that works. That led to a explosion of street food opportunities for Western New York eaters. Roast pork, sausage, vegan delights, Thai food, fried fish and Chef’s chicken parm are just the beginning. Food Truck Tuesday at Larkin Square can only hold about 30 food trucks, and it is full each week, with more trucks waiting to get their turn.
Now Lloyd continues working on its much-anticipated restaurant at 1503 Hertel Ave., originally expected to open in the spring. “We will be open as soon as possible,” Dorsaneo said Friday. “We have a lot of great things planned that have not been seen before in Buffalo. Have faith in Lloyd.”
The gates are still closed, but at its fifth anniversary party tonight at Artisan Kitchens & Baths, 200 Amherst St., a few peeks at the Wonka-esque taco delights to come will be available. Admission is $15.
Debuting are Lloyd’s takes on Nashville’s fiery fried chicken and Philadelphia’s roast pork with bitter greens sandwich, classic American tastes guest starring in a Lloyd tortilla. The details:
Just Pizza has gotten into the food truck business.
The fully equipped pizza-and-wings kitchen on wheels started selling food earlier this month.
The truck is “a staple” at Canalside’s Thursday and weekend concert venue, Larkinville, private and corporate events, and “will soon have a presence in Buffalo’s growing Medical Corridor,” said company vice president Mark D. Campanella.
Just Pizza has served events from a trailer for several years, Campanella said. The truck – equipped with Blodgett double-deck ovens, two deep fryers and a char-pit grill – went into service Aug. 6 at a Canalside concert.
In 2011, before Buffalo passed its law regulating food trucks, Just Pizza was leery of what food trucks could mean without adequate regulation.
“This could open the door for cowboys to start coming in this town,” Campanella said at the time. “It could be just a scene out of the wild, wild west.”
The food truck law that Buffalo put into effect in 2012 made sure that didn’t happen, Campanella said. From what he’s observed, food truck operators have done “a great job in working both the streets they serve as well as the venues they participate in,” he said.
Downtown workers and visitors enjoy Food Truck Thursday at Niagara Square in Buffalo on Aug. 27. John Hickey/Buffalo News
The final Food Truck Thursday of 2015 in Niagara Square was celebrated Thursday with food provided by some dozen food trucks. There also was music by Michael DeSanto.
The trucks were invited to the square this summer as a pilot project and Mayor Byron W. Brown declared the pilot a success
The food trucks are interested in returning next year, possibly more than once a week, Brown said. He said the city will consider the request.
The mayor said the food trucks did not hurt the business of nearby restaurants and the lunchtime customers enjoyed having the extra options available.
“Food, people, and music. It doesn’t get better than that,” Brown said when the lunch crowds arrived Thursday.
Chris Smith of Burlington stands outside his food truck, White Buffalo, that he plans to open Sunday on Flynn Avenue near Oakledge Park. (Photo: COURTESY PHOTO)
A food truck that will serve Indonesian street food and all-American fare with roots in Buffalo, New York, will open Sunday on Flynn Avenue near Oakledge Park in Burlington.
White Buffalo Food Company is housed in a 27-foot former bread delivery truck that Chris Smith and his business partners found on Craigslist and bought in Rhode Island. After its run as a bread truck, it was a food truck called Clam Jammers.
Smith and his partners, wife Tara Smith and friend Keith Gadwah, spent much of the summer behind the old bus station on Pine Street cleaning and fixing the truck and its equipment.
On a 95-degree day, with the sun baking the rig from both sides, the White Buffalo crew peeled away the sticker that covered the truck in Clam Jammers’ words and logos.
“Clam Jammer, that’ll fly down in Rhode Island, with tons of seafood restaurants,” Smith said. “We get it back to Vermont, we start getting all these looks.”
People think with a food truck you “roll it and go,” Smith said, adding that’s not the way it works.
“No, man, no,” he said.
The truck was converted from a bread truck to a food truck in 2010. It operated for a couple of years, before sitting idle for three until its recent purchase.
Smith is pretty sure the last time someone drove the truck, they rode around without covering the fryolaters. Two inches of vegetable oil pooled in a corner of the truck. Paper plates were stewing in the slick.
The truck is now running well, “gleaming and immaculate,” Smith said. He estimates the cost of the truck, plus repairs, cleaning and getting it in reliable shape at $45,000.
Clam Jammers food truck from Rhode Island was transformed in a Pine Street parking lot into White Buffalo Food Company, which will be parked at locations in Burlington’s South End. (Photo: COURTESY PHOTO)
White Buffalo menu will include food from Tara Smith’s native Indonesia, including steamed buns with homemade sweet chili-garlic sauce. From Buffalo comes an “American classic” called beef on weck, Smith said.
That’s short for kummelweck, a Kaiser roll sprinkled with kosher salt and caraway seek. The roll is filled with roast beef in jus with horseradish.
“It’s real simple,” Smith said. “But amazing.”
White Buffalo is a return to the food business for Smith, who cooked at restaurants — including two in Stowe — in high school and college But he and his wife owe their culinary skills to their mothers and grandmothers, Smith said.
The couple met in a Zumba class. They got together over the food at Zumba potlucks.
As a group of parents, we want to engage in open and continuing dialog. One way it occurred to us to do this—beyond the usual monthly Montessori Community Association (MCA) meeting with agenda—was to host an informal town hall meeting and food truck event. You, your friends, and family are invited to join us Wednesday, October 21, from 4:00-7:00 p.m.
Attendees are encouraged to come and present ideas, voice opinions, and ask questions. Our administrators and the Montessori Community Association board will be on hand as well as MCA leadership and other fellow parents. Children are welcome, as always.
If the turnout is large, and we hope it is, we will break down into smaller discussion groups. Groups will discuss a certain topic. At the end of the meeting, someone from each table will summarize their group’s discussion.
Proposed topics to be explored during the upcoming town hall meeting:
Food at Bennett Park: Lunch, Snacks, Farm to School grant
Standardized Testing: When, How, Why?
Teaching Peace at Montessori
Reading and Reinforcing Literacy at Home
Montessori High School Expansion
Daily Life at Bennett Park Montessori
Montessori Philosophy
What Does it Mean to Be a Focus School?
More…!
We would never do any of this during the dinner hour without food, so look for these three community-minded food trucks to be on hand, ready to serve you and your family, right on Clinton Street in front of the school. Each food truck is generously giving 10% of their proceeds from the event back to the Montessori Community Association—funding that goes to student activities, field trips, and supplies. We thank them—and you—for attending this new event for Bennett Park Montessori. Please spread the word about the food trucks to your friends and family! (Here’s a community flyer for easy sharing at work, with stores, etc.)
James the Ice Creamcycle Dude Ice cream for $1. We make people happy. https://www.facebook.com/creamcycle?fref=ts
James will be on hand from 4:00-6:00 p.m. selling ice cream!
The Betty Crockski business is for sale, according to current owners Kate Hey and Dana Szczepaniak. (Matt Weinberg/Special to The News)
The owners of Betty Crockski, the only local food truck serving Polish fare, are looking to sell the business.
Kate Hey and Dana Szczepaniak, who served their first pierogi and kielbasa outside the Adam Mickiewicz Library in March 2013, believe that they’ve reached the limit of what they can do with the mobile operation. The duo now seeks a buyer to either maintain the local food truck business or grow the operation nationally through e-commerce.
“We want someone else to be able to see [Betty Crockski] through,” Hey explained.
Although the majority of their business stems from the truck, Hey and Szczepaniak have experimented with selling packages of frozen menu items, like pierogi, at local farmers markets this year. After witnessing promising results, the owners believe Betty Crockski has national potential like that of the English Pork Pie Company — now known as Parker’s — a multi-million-dollar e-commerce company producing traditional English fare in South Buffalo.
Betty Crockski in the background, right, of the monthly Food Truck Rodeo at the Buffalo History Museum. (Don Nieman/Special to The News)
Like Parker’s importing of English products, Betty Crockski regularly orders rose water (for flavor), root vegetables and cured figs directly from Poland to give the truck’s menu authenticity and legitimacy, a tactic that, if continued, could garner commercial appeal.
For now, Hey and Szczepaniak plan to continue truck operations through November. Last year’s attempt at running the truck during the winter dissuaded them from serving long into the colder months.
Both owners have plans for the next step in their careers. Hey could only say that she’ll be involved in a Buffalo food project that’s still in development, while Szczepaniak, a CPA, will return to New York City to pursue management opportunities.
Hey and Szczepaniak said they were “humbled, honored and blessed” by the local support of their endeavor, which was powered by social media before the business even opened — they had over 1,000 Twitter followers by their first day of service. They also credit a food-inspired trip to Poland that took them to the country’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, Atelier Amaro, and reinforced the need to have native ingredients as central to their food-truck cuisine.
Like many of Buffalo’s successful food trucks, Betty Crockski was practically omnipresent at local festivals and events to build its brand, sticking to a simple menu based on varieties of pierogi, open pierogi, kielbasa and dessert morsels called Betty Bites. The deep red of the truck’s exterior helped it stand out from other food trucks. That, paired with a strong cultural connection with a large segment of Buffalo’s populace, fare crafted using native ingredients and the city’s trend of supporting startup businesses, created a loyal fan base.
The media appreciated Betty Crockski’s success, too: The food truck captured Buffalo Spree awards for “Best New Food Truck” in 2013 and “Best Food Truck” in 2014.
Customers gather around Betty Crockski at the Food Truck Rodeo outside the Buffalo History Museum. (Don Nieman/Special to The News)
“It’s because of this city — its economy, affordability and support for local business — that two entrepreneurs were able to be successful,” said Szczepaniak.
“We originally thought about starting [Betty Crockski] in New York City or another large city,” Hey added, “but Buffalo rabidly supported small business, and it was unique that, in this business environment, we were able to achieve our goals and more.”
For more information, email contactus@bettycrockski.com or call 696-2435.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A unique food truck has joined the ranks of other mobile food services around Buffalo.
This one does not serve tacos or hot dogs though — Cheesecake Guy has its own kind of menu.
Owner and operator Matthew Schelter specializes in treats for someone with a sweet tooth.
“I can’t thank my parents enough for giving me the opportunity to start our family business with the Schelter family recipe.” stated Schelter.
Schelter makes a variety of cheesecakes including his Raspberry Beret and Ninja Turtle flavors, the latter containing chocolate, caramel and crushed pecans.
On occasion, Schelter offers special flavors like Maple Bacon.
A full menu and appearance schedule for Cheesecake Guy can be found here.
The first Food Truck Tuesday of the season was very well attended. We thought it would be helpful to provide a Food Truck Tuesdays Primer, with an emphasis on “where to park?”.
The continued success of this event, including free parking (thanks to First Niagara and Independent Health) depends on everyone being respectful of the surrounding neighborhood and other cars in the parking lots. We encourage you to not park on residential streets, please park in our many free surface lots plus our ramp.
Food Truck Tuesdays for 2015 are on through the end of October from 5-8pm
For the early hour attenders, the first lot to head to is our events lot off Hydraulic Street between Seneca and Exchange Street.
The ramp will be opened by 5:45 pm. Please park in any available spot inside the ramp, including ones marked reserved.You are also welcome to park in any of our surface parking lots along Exchange St. between Van Rensselaer and Smith Street. Once inside the lots, please be careful to not block other cars in with your parking. The speed limit in the ramp and lots is 5 mph. Please be friendly to our staff helping in the lots. We are proud to present one of the only events in the region with free parking. Please do your part by being patient on busy nights.Handicap spots may be found in the ramp on the ground, second and roof levels (elevators available). We are also designating a lot across the street from Larkin Square, on the north east corner of Emslie and Seneca St. as a handicap lot. An attendant will be in this lot to be sure guests who require a handicap space can find one.A few other helpful Food Truck Tuesdays tips:
You are welcome to bring a folding chair to the event.No coolers, no outside alcohol, other beverages or food may be brought into Larkin Square.Alcohol may not be consumed in our parking lots or on the streets.There is no smoking in Larkin Square, including e-cigarettes.
Restrooms are located behind the Filling Station and in the plaza area behind the Boardwalk. There are also restrooms in the Hydraulic Hearth, and at Flying Bison.
The Hydraulic Hearth Restaurant & Brewery(across the street from Larkin Square) invites you to bring Food Truck purchased food into their restaurant to enjoy. They have a wide selection of beverages, including an on premises Community Beer Works Satellite Brewery.
Flying Bison Brewery open and hosting a few food Trucks on Tuesday nights as well.
For your convenience, a parking map is posted here. Please share a link to this post with any of your Food Truck Tuesday friends and family! See you in the Square!!
