Food trucks are popular everywhere these days, but there are some local businesses taking the experience to a whole new level, thinking outside the box and beyond the truck. How about a bike, a bus and a wood-fired oven?
***
Husband-and-wife team Kevin Johnson and Erin Allgood launched Embers Bakery, their mobile bread oven business, about a year ago in New Hampshire.
"Embers started out as an idea in our backyard to take our wood fired oven that we built a few years back, put some wheels on it, go on the road, bake bread, do farmers markets," Johnson said.
He did a sourdough bread apprenticeship, perfected his trade, then built the mobile oven himself with the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign. From bread, they soon added pizza to the mix, selling at public and private events and gaining a reputation for authentic Italian-style wood-fired pizzas.
***
Local
Ever seen a bakery on bicycle?
The locally roasted coffee and homemade pastries are part of the appeal of the Third Cliff Bakery Trike on Boston's Rose Kennedy Greenway.
"My dream was to open a bakery. But that was out of reach time and money-wise, so I decided to go mobile," owner Meg Crowley said.
She built her business from the ground up, crafting the cart with her dad. Crowley peddles it from Dorchester to the Greenway four days a week.
"When it's fully loaded, when I have all of the water and coffee and ice, it's 450 pounds," she said. "This is all the workout I need."
It's a life-long dream realized for this entrepreneur feeding Boston's sweet tooth.
***
Got an Ice Cream Emergency? A mobile ice cream parlour is saving lives, one scoop at a time.
Entrepreneur Debbie Arrato always wanted an ice cream parlour, so she and her husband, Tony, built one out of a bus and started bringing their sweet treats across Connecticut.
They use "stethoscoops" to serve up a variety of flavors, including salted caramel truffle, cookies and cream and raspberry sorbet. Toppings include gummy bears, M&M's, and "10cc's" of hot fudge.
