Jackie Gaughan is just a girl with a mobile deli.
Her new food truck, aptly called Just a Girl with a Mobile Deli, opened in Freeport this week.
“We have a fully customized, innovative commercial kitchen, but it’s just mobile,” Gaughan said. “It’s the same thing you’d see in a restaurant, but it’s on wheels.”
The food truck’s main focusis sandwiches, she said. The meat and vegetables are sliced fresh daily and sandwiches are served on fresh bread from Cellone’s.
The menu includes a variety of sandwiches, ranging from the Freeport Famous Egg Salad Sandwich and the Almost Famous Ham BBQ to grilled chicken sandwiches and three varieties of grilled cheese.
The mobile deli also offers a lengthy list of signature sauces, like Smokey Chipotle Aioli — made of mayo, garlic, citrus and chipotle — and Valkyrie Sauce — made of mayo, ketchup, mustard blend and garlic.
“Everything is made from scratch. We house make all of our sides, we house make all of our sauces. Most of our salad dressings are house made,” Gaughan said.
They sell specialty beverages, including lemonade and sweet tea, which can both be infused with several flavors, like strawberry, raspberry and watermelon. Their iced coffee can also be infused with special flavors, including chocolate chip cookie dough and Irish cream.
Gaughan, who lives in South Buffalo, said Freeport needed a food truck.
“We’re one of the first in the area to have a self-sustaining mobile vending,” she said. “It’s kind of trendy. We live in an old town, so new is good.”
Gaughan said she sought community input for her business, eager to make sure she was serving what Freeport wanted.
“They were a very important part of decision-making,” Gaughan said of the Freeport community. “They were able to finalize the details and confirm the decisions we made were what they wanted. My gratitude for the community — I can’t reiterate it enough. They stand behind us in everything we do.”
Gaughan has been an active member of the community throughout the pandemic, launching an initiative dubbed Feeding Freeport to make sure her neighbors didn’t go hungry during difficult times.
The Feeding Freeport initiative served just under 24,000 free meals to Freeport residents in need — and Gaughan cooked up most of them herself.
“Doing so kind of reiterated and confirmed to myself and my family that this is what I want to do, what I need to do to be happy,” she said.
Being involved with the community and talking to customers face-to-face, she said, is a big part of why she wanted to launch a food truck. Gaughan said she’d worked as a server and bartender for years and enjoyed the interactions with people.
“I love people. It just makes me feel like it’s not a job,” she said. “We have a very fun work environment, and that’s really key for me.”
Gaughan currently has four employees, but she said she plans to add a few more.
Though Gaughan said community support so far has been uplifting, launching a business during the covid-19 pandemic came with its challenges.
Gaughan said she’d planned to launch the food truck last year, but the pandemic scrapped those plans.
“There was a bad that it backed me up a little bit, but the good is, because of covid, I was able to take an extra nine months and refocus,” she said, noting that her business won’t be hindered by current covid-19 restrictions, as people are getting food outside, where they can easily abide by social distancing guidelines.
After passing inspection on Monday, Gaughan said she hosted a small pop-up opening on Wednesday.
“The response was tremendous. So many people afforded us the opportunity to serve them,” she said, adding that she was eager for the opportunity to train staff and improve organization within the food truck.
The truck, located at 357 Freeport Road, is open with limited hours until April 1, when they’ll host a grand opening. Starting April 1, they’ll be open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. till 7 p.m.
The mobile deli offers walkup ordering, call ahead ordering and online ordering where people can select a pickup time. Beginning April 1, they’ll also be partnering with Main Street Grub in Tarentum for delivery.
Julia Felton is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Julia at 724-226-7724, jfelton@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Local | Valley News Dispatch
March 28, 2021 at 01:40AM
https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/semi-permanent-food-truck-serves-up-fresh-food-in-freeport/
Semi-permanent food truck serves up fresh food in Freeport - TribLIVE
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