Liz and Dave are ready to set out on their own and bring their brunch concept, LateRisers Food Truck to St. Augustine. I had the pleasure of meeting the partners in life and business at the beach where they brought me a nice sampling of their signature dishes to try. I had the savory biscuit, Mediterranean panzella, and a strawberry soda. At first, I felt bad that I was the only one eating, but once I started, I didn’t care. The food was amazing and I ate it all.
What inspired you to start a food truck business?
I have been in the hospitality industry for ten years and Dave has been in it for fifteen. We’ve worked in restaurants from elite to casual, in many different types of cuisine. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some amazing chefs here in the states and internationally. Dave has worked in the front of the house in many different venues and has dealt with every type of customer; his ability to convey information to the people that prepare food is invaluable. At this point in both of our careers, we are ready to set out on our own. We feel we have the knowledge base to do something interesting.
Is your food truck meant for people who wake up late and miss breakfast?
Well, that used to be us, but it isn’t anymore. Late Risers is definitely a brunch concept. We came up with the recipes to create a menu based on the way we like to eat or things we would choose if we were out to brunch. We are focused on locally sourced ingredients so the menu will change, but we will offer breakfast, lunch, homemade sodas, juices, and dessert, as well as a local catch of the day. The brunch idea is that you can always top any menu item with an egg. We get our eggs locally from Natural Springs Dairy in Elkton. We’ve seen the chickens we get the eggs from, they are all beautiful free-range chickens, naturally, feed and no corn. The yokes are yellow and delicious.
Everything we do is from scratch, homemade biscuits, sodas, syrups, you name it. I have an opening menu on the site that is essentially for the first month and we will see how things go. The concept is small plate brunch, we wanted a menu that had something for everybody, so if a family walked up with kids, they can get a few dishes to share.
The meals will be served in an environmentally conscious way, using recyclable or compostable products and non-waxed lined paper. We are trying to do absolutely no plastic which is difficult, but we are finding some neat options. We are looking into plant ware, they are doing forks, knives, and spoons, as well as other options that are recycled from single-use products.
When did you decide to become a chef?
Michaels Genuine in Miami had opened up an outpost in Grand Cayman and I was part of the opening team. The chefs I worked with were an inspiration for me and from that experience I made the decision to go to culinary school. After four years living in Grand Cayman, I came back to the states went to school, worked a bit in the states then later moved to Australia to work in Sydney for six months and then Kingfisher Bay Resort on Frasier Island. That particular resort is what made me passionate about using local resources. Every week we did a learning meal with the guests where we would eat local cuisines such as; Emu, and Kangaroo.
What brought you to St. Augustine?
Dave and I met four years ago in the Florida Keys, we were living in Islamorada during hurricane Irma, so we evacuated to South Carolina and stopped in St. Augustine on the way up and on the way back down. We loved it so much, we decided this is where we wanted to be. The people are so nice and the beaches are so beautiful, so we moved here last November.
What did you do prior to the food truck?
Our experience together totals twenty-five years. Dave has worked the front house of many restaurants for fifteen years and is currently working at Columbia. I have been in hospitality for ten years, starting in the front house and moving quickly into the kitchen. Before the food truck idea, I had gotten a position at Hammock Beach as the Chef de Cuisine and was in charge of seven outlets. I had difficulty finding a balance between life and work, so I decided to let it go to focus on the food truck endeavor.
Where will the truck be located?
We are going to move around as much as we can, we really want to be a part of everything throughout St. Johns County. Currently, we have October booked Thursday through Sunday. Ancient City Brewhouse on Thursdays Trivia night 4:00-8:30
Coconut Barrel Saturdays 10:00-3:00
Bog Brewery on Sunday for Brunch and Brews 11:30-5:00
We would like to create special menus to go with their beers at Bog and maybe do themes for Trivia night at Ancient City. It’s an opportunity for us to work our new business into a rolling operation while we are hammering out the other areas we’d also like to be at, like the state parks.
What are your future goals for the food truck?
We want to be a part of the farmers market on Saturday and the night market as well. We love being outdoors so we would really like to be located in some of the St. Johns County parks, but we are trying to work out the logistics with the county to see if that is possible. We want to support local businesses, not only through ingredients but supporting local events as well.
What are some of your Signature items we can expect to see on the menu?
A few of your Signature dishes are the Savory Biscuit, it’s a house made Italian sausage patty made with a secret spice blend and sweet onion jam on a cracked pepper and thyme biscuit. The meat comes from Florida Fresh Meat Co.
The Mediterranean Panzella is my take on an Italian bread salad. It’s a simple dish but delicious and filling. House-made focaccia croutons with heirloom tomato, kalamata olive, herb roasted chickpeas, and my house made tahini-lemon dressing.
For dessert, we have Zeppoli, Italian-style donuts tossed in pistachio sugar with Florida orange-dipping sauce. The zeppoli is made of ricotta and I make my own ricotta, they are amazing!
Dave has created all the soda recipes and the menu will have strawberry, orange, cherry, lemon-lime, ginger, vanilla, thyme and rosemary sodas.
What's the most challenging part?
All of the pieces of starting a business that don’t necessarily come easily to us. We know how to run a restaurant, we know the day to day. It’s all the other stuff, the regulations, the licensing, all of the little moving parts that you need in order to create a business. It’s hard to stay motivated when it’s not in your natural wheelhouse. We did become members of the chamber and they’ve been great and super helpful with any concerns we had during the process. We are basically done with setting up the business and creating the systems to run it. Now we get to do the fun part…creating and testing recipes.
Who designed the truck?
We custom designed everything. We drew it out and picked every piece of a equipment in the truck. We had Sizemore Ultimate Food Trucks in Bunnell build it. It’s a freight liner diesel truck and it was fun to watch it become a kitchen on wheels.
What other services will you offer?
Being mobile is going to help us extend our services to catering. I’ve worked in every cuisine and can create special menus for events. We also want to utilize the tourist industry and offer holiday cheffing for vacation rentals and a service where we would stock the rentals refrigerator with our signature goodies. We can also do a welcome bbq or even an eight-course beach dinner. The possibilities are endless.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
Just being outside, we love playing bocce ball, paddle boarding, kayaking. We enjoy any outdoor activity. We also enjoy disc golf at the St. Johns County Fairgrounds and we are working on sponsoring one of the holes.
What are your future goals for the food truck?
We want to be a part of the farmers market on Saturday as well as the night market. We love being outdoors so we would really like to be located in some of the St. Johns County parks, but we are trying to work out the logistics with the county to see if that is possible. We want to support local businesses, not only through ingredients but supporting local events as well.
What other services will you offer?
Being mobile is going to help us extend our services to catering. I’ve worked in every cuisine and can create special menus for events. We also want to utilize the tourist industry and offer holiday cheffing for vacation rentals and a service where we would stock the rentals refrigerator with our signature goodies. We can also do a welcome barbeque or even an eight-course beach dinner. The possibilities are endless
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