September 21, 2022 • 30 mins
I sit down with Timothy Bristol of The Melting Truck to talk about the food truck he owns, The Melting Truck in Connecticut. I also talk to him about his career and the path that lead to owning a food truck. As we talked, I discovered that Tim has indirectly appeared on Restaurant Impossible, a popular show that is aired on The Food Network.
The Restaurant Impossible episode Tim appears in (Season 4, Episode 5): https://watch.foodnetwork.com/video/restaurant-impossible-food-network/stellas-italian-restaurant
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jess (00:03):
Hi, it's Jess and you're listening to another episode of
The flaky foodie podcast. Theonly show where the discussion
is delicious and there's chatterto chew on. On today's episode,
I have with me Tim. He's theowner of the melting truck, a
food truck located inConnecticut. And while we talk
about owning a food truck andhis background, an interesting
(00:25):
fact that came up is that he'sbeen on a very popular Food
Network show. So coming up rightafter the break, you won't want
to miss it. We'll talk with TimDid you know that this episode
is also on YouTube? to find itsearch for The Flaky Foodie.
(00:53):
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Or look at my show notes formore info.
Welcome back to the flaky foodiePodcast. Today we have Timothy
Bristol with us. He's the ownerof the melting truck in
(01:39):
Connecticut. So I'm lookingforward to having you on the
show. And let's talk about somegreat food.
Tim B (01:44):
All right, that sounds fun.
Jess (01:45):
Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about your food truck.
Tim B (01:49):
So the melting truck is a gourmet grilled cheese food
truck. We started in January2021. Okay, right in the middle
of the pandemic, how is that?
It's been okay. I think foodtrucks have benefited from the
pandemic because they are somobile. Yes. And it's not like a
sit down restaurant where youhave to have all these COVID
(02:11):
restrictions. Like of course, wehave people you know, if they
waited in line, you know, sixfeet, and then they had to wear
masks and all that. But itwasn't it wasn't really a
hindrance on the business.
Unless we were at like eventsthat don't happen because of
COVID like food truck festivalshappen a lot less. But you know,
you get booked for privateevents, you get booked for
farmer's markets. So it was itwas a learning experience to be
(02:34):
sure, but I don't think it wouldhave been a more difficult year
or would have been an easieryear had COVID not happened it
would I think it would have beenabout the same for us. Well, the
food truck itself like I said,gourmet grilled cheese, we do
soups, we do mac and cheese wedo you know whatever we can
think of that involves cheese.
Jess (02:54):
So what's kind of the best seller of the fan favorite.
Tim B (02:57):
We got a couple of fan favorites, the first one. And
this kind of took me by surprisebecause I just sort of like
thought it up and put ittogether. It's called the pickle
melt. And it's a grilled cheesewith just cheddar cheese and
bread and butter pickles. Andpeople were
Jess (03:14):
Very Interesting. Well yeah, you have like a little bit
of sweet and acidity with thecheese. So yeah, I can see that
working.
Tim B (03:24):
People love adding bacon to it. That's
Jess (03:27):
okay. Yeah, I can see that. But the bit of the salty
too
Tim B (03:31):
Our other big seller is something we call the extreme
melt. It's a it's a regulargrilled cheese, we call her
classic grilled cheese, which isAmerican and cheddar. And then
we add a cheddar cheese crust onone side of the grilled cheese
and as
Jess (03:46):
you're speaking my language.
Tim B (03:51):
Now I'm trying to think of any other like in the summer,
we do like a barbecue porkgrilled cheese that's really
popular in summer, but I canonly do it when it's warm enough
to turn on the smoker that Ihave.
Jess (04:01):
Yeah, I can see that. So are there any like interesting
combinations like what's yourartist grilled cheese
combination that's on the menuor that you ever had on the
menu.
Tim B (04:14):
So this is one that I didn't think once again was
going to sell well and it wassuggested to me by another
vendor at a farmers market thatwe were doing he sold spicy
jams, and barbecue sauces. Andhe's and he gave us a sample of
it was called a it was araspberry Chipotle jam. And he
told us to put it with sharpcheddar cheese and it would be
delicious. And he was correct.
And I did not think that peoplewere gonna like it but it's it
(04:38):
sells pretty good like when wewhenever we have the jam, we do
it. And it's always been likepopular like markets and stuff
like that. It's not for everycrowd, but it's delicious. It's
one of my favorite sayings
Jess Hodge (04:52):
it would be for the me crowd. I love sweet and spicy
together Oh wow, thatcombination. I did an episode on
food trends and one of the onesthat didn't make it was like on
the cutting room floor was swicyis what they called it swipes.
Yeah. Okay, but we're in Aprilthat I haven't heard heads or
(05:14):
tails of Swicy
Tim B (05:17):
I don't know trying to think of any like really unusual
real cheeses that we do thatthat I didn't think would sell
well and they do. I mean we dolike the typical stuff like we
do tomato, mozzarella and pestowe do chicken Philly grilled
cheese. Oh, and this is more ofa like a dessert sandwich. And
(05:40):
it's not technically a grilledcheese, but my wife came up with
an idea for a smores grilledcheese. That is chocolate sauce,
marshmallow fluff and grahamcracker crumbs between the bread
and you toasted like a grilledcheese. It's delicious.
Jess (05:54):
And that's vegetarian to marshmallow fluff is vegetarian.
It doesn't have gelatin, likeyour standard marshmallows. So
yes, even I can partake, and
Tim B (06:06):
we try to keep our options open with like
vegetarian stuff. And we have abunch of grilled cheeses that
our vegetarian, unfortunately,it's almost impossible for us to
do like gluten free stuff, or,or our vegan just because of the
way that the truck operates.
Like, the grill is constantlycovered in bacon grease. So like
if we if someone was likestrictly vegan and or strictly
(06:31):
gluten free because of like, youknow, they're intolerant, they
have an intolerance of wheat orflour. Like I, I can't really do
anything about that. Becausethere's always like bread on the
truck. And it's touching everysurface like, unfortunately. But
we do have a bunch of vegetariangrilled cheeses. And and a lot
of people come to us because ofthat, like they reserved.
(06:53):
They're always asking forvegetarian options.
Jess (06:56):
Awesome. So why a food truck? How did that idea kind of
come to be and, and walk methrough the steps and making it
happen?
Tim B (07:04):
Okay. I'll preface this by saying that I would never do
it again. But so a friend ofmine and my partner in the food
truck, Mike young, he came to meone day, and he knew that I
worked in the restaurantindustry and was looking to put
together a food truck. Ipreviously worked with a few
Italian restaurants. I was onthe Food Network once. Oh,
(07:28):
really? Yeah. For one of therestaurant impossible. Really?
Yeah, I was on the the episodeis called the Stella's Italian
restaurant Stella's a Thai
Jess (07:39):
restaurant, I probably have seen that. You still watch?
Quite a bit of restaurantimpossible after check it out.
Tim B (07:47):
Um, I was I was at the very end of the episode, I was
one of the line cooks the lastlike five minutes or so. And I
wasn't supposed to be like,that's a different crazy story.
But after after doing that, Iworked at a couple of other
Italian restaurants. And Iworked on food trucks for other
(08:07):
people. For a couple of years.
Like I worked on a lobstertruck. I worked on a different
grilled cheese truck. And Iworked for a french fry food
truck. Okay. And so I have afood truck experience. And I was
looking to put together a foodtruck and I just didn't have the
money. They're expensive. And myfriends. He was like, Well, if
(08:30):
you run the food truck, I'll putup the money for it. And we'll
be partners. And we did that.
And my wife jumped on boardbecause she's an accountant. So
she does our books, which isvery important and not something
that every food truck has. Yes.
Like a lot of independentrestaurant owners and food
trucks don't have properaccounting and it's absolutely
(08:52):
necessary Yes,
Jess (08:54):
or else you end up on restaurant impossible.
Tim B (09:01):
So we formed the the actual business in the summer of
2020. And we went and gotourselves a used food truck
around September 2020. We boughtit in Maryland and have it
driving all the way back toConnecticut, which was its own
nightmare. The food truckdoesn't go very fast on the
(09:25):
highway, like It tops out at 60.
So there are a lot of angrypeople behind me for several
states. Oh, wow. And so we gotit back. It was a huge it used
to be an Italian street foodfood truck. But it had all the
equipment that we needed, likeall we really need is a flat top
and a set of burners and somecoolers. And so it had all that
(09:47):
stuff. And it was relativelycheap. But what we didn't know
and what we were veryexperienced that is that making
sure that everything was inworking condition and And most
of the equipment except for thegrill itself was not. We spent a
bunch of money, either upgradingstuff, or repairing the truck.
(10:12):
One thing in particular wedidn't know about was that the
frame of the truck had a hugehole in it. Oh, wow, he was
rotted away. So we had to go andhave it repaired and have the
frame reinforced, which was nota cost we expected. We had to
(10:33):
redo the propane systems, theplumbing systems, the electrical
systems, because whoever had putthe truck together, was out of
their mind. And once we got allthat up and running, it was like
as a January 2021, by the timewe were actually able to
operate. And the there was awhole different learning curve,
(10:56):
then it was learning about allthe regulations that you have to
deal with as a food truck. Wherecan you park? How do you get
customers, all that stuff? Weeventually got ourselves signed
up to do farmers markets, doprivate events, stuff like that.
But there was a lot of eventhough I had food truck
(11:20):
experience, there was a lot ofstuff I didn't anticipate from
being on that sonar side. It's alittle different. Yeah. And some
of it. Some of its small stuff,like, where do you get propane?
And I call around to a bunch ofdifferent like fuel companies.
And everyone's like, No, wecan't do food trucks. They're a
(11:42):
liability. Oh, really? Yeah. Ilearned that nobody wants to
work like professional trades.
People don't want to work onfood drugs, because they're a
liability. And so like,literally I had to do, we had to
do a lot of work on the foodtruck ourselves. Or if we had
friends who knew certain trades,we could use them but
(12:04):
professional trades peoplegenerally don't want to work on
food trucks. I mean, and then itwas just learning like what
vendors do we want to use. Wegot a really cool vendor for
like our drinks and chips. Cool.
Oh, Joe's tea. They're prettyawesome.
Jess (12:20):
Oh, wow, and it's peach too!
Tim B (12:23):
Delicious.
Jess (12:23):
Yes. It looks delicious
Tim B (12:26):
We found we found a local bakery that would supply all of
our bread. And like
Jess Hodge (12:30):
Oh, nice.
Tim B (12:30):
A lot of a lot of the grilled cheese is having the
right bread
Jess (12:35):
It is I agree wholeheartedly.
Tim B (12:38):
So we picked out two kinds of breads, we have a
sourdough bread, and a wholewheat bread that are there. You
know, they're wide slices. Andthey're like three quarters of
an inch thick. So these are biggrilled cheeses. And and then we
just went you know, we had atasting, you figured out what
you know, what do we want toserve? We got a bunch of our
(13:00):
friends together and find outwhat they liked. And then we
just went from that.
Jess (13:04):
So why you worked in Italian food. It sounds like you
worked in a lot of differentareas. Why did you choose
grilled cheese for your foodtruck:?
Tim B (13:14):
So I wanted something that I could have a lot of
creativity with. And somethingthat provided for variety.
Because what I like to do ishave sort of a rotating menu on
the truck where if you come tothe truck here two different
things you'll have a twodifferent menus almost, that you
can choose from you can trysomething different every time
(13:36):
you go. And I think that's a lotof the appeal of grilled cheese
is you can really make it whatyou want.
Jess (13:41):
Yeah, it's a blank canvas.
Yeah, and cheese is differentbreads, different other add on
the feeling.
Tim B (13:50):
Well that's and that's one of the things I like is that
people can do whatever they wanton add ons. It's sort of a build
your own sandwich thing at somepoint. Like we have our standard
menu items on there and we havespecials, but then below that
there's just a menu of add onsyou can put on to the grilled
cheese, everything from likeonions to jalapenos, avocado,
(14:11):
bacon, chicken, like reallywhatever you want. And the
customers really like it becausethen they can I find out that
like people have very specifictastes about grilled cheese and
they're not all the same.
Jess (14:22):
Yes. So what's your favorite combination that you've
put together?
Tim B (14:27):
Well one I'm amazed that I'm not sick of grilled cheese
at this point. But my favoriteit's either the raspberry
Chipotle jam and cheddar cheesewith bacon. Or I do like me like
a standard like just shatterAmerican and tomato and avocado
I like that. Like if I'm in themood for like like a just a
(14:54):
bring you back to your childhoodgrilled cheese that's what it
is.
Jess (14:57):
Yes, tomato is is one of the best This addition is in my
opinion. So, those of youlistening today, I want to know,
what do you add to your grilledcheese? Because I'm very curious
to know. So in the combinations,
Tim B (15:14):
you know, I found out and asking people because I asked
people on like other podcasts onI like what it was, what do you
put in your grilled cheese andpeople are like, wait, you can
put more than cheese in there?
Yeah,
Jess (15:24):
I actually asked on social media. When does a grilled
cheese stop being a grilledcheese because at the time of
recording, national GrilledCheese Day, it was like a couple
of days ago. And I was I waslike, I want to, I want a
sandwich. I just want today youknow, normally a standard
grilled cheeses are all right inmy book, but I was craving
(15:45):
something a little more. So Ihad a sandwich to have
everything and cheese on it. Andso I was like, Oh, is it a
grilled cheese about cheating byposting this but it was so good.
I didn't care.
Tim B (15:58):
Yeah, we we blur the line. Sometimes, like sometimes
we'll have burgers and we'll dolike Patty melts and stuff like
that. And and we do a chickenfill email. That's It's a
chicken and cheese grilledcheese. But like, you know,
that's really you know, there'sno, it's, it's fine.
Jess (16:19):
Yes,
Tim B (16:20):
we encompass a lot of different kinds of sandwiches.
Jess (16:24):
That's awesome. So tell me a little bit. We're gonna go
back a little bit. Tell me aboutkind of your cooking background,
you said you worked in anItalian eatery before you have
any stories to share from yourbackground?
Tim B (16:36):
Sure, um, my first job at a restaurant was a Chinese
delivery guy who was Chinesedelivery. It was my first job. I
worked there for God a longtime. Eventually, they showed me
how to cook some of the foodwhich was awesome. I worked my
way up to like doing the fryersand stuff like that. And another
(16:57):
another restaurant that was inthe same Plaza as the Chinese
restaurant I worked at wasStella's Italian restaurant. And
that was where the therestaurant impossible show
happen. I was originallysupposed to be a barback. Like I
just I was a delivery guy forthem. They taught me how to make
the pizza and stuff like that.
But I wasn't really like a cook.
And when the restaurantimpossible came. Unfortunately,
(17:18):
none of the chefs knew whilemost of the chefs didn't know
fluent English, and the show hadtrouble teaching them the menu
they were supposed to do. Soliterally 10 minutes before
they're supposed to do the finaldinner service. They pulled me
in my friend, they pulled measide and said, Hey, we need you
(17:39):
to do hot and cold apps. Here'sthe pictures. Here's how you're
supposed to do it. Go do so Igot a crash course on how to
make the hot and cold apps. Andthey just put me on the line.
And Robert Irvine was in theservice window yelling at me the
entire time. Oh, wow. He wasmaking salads and whatnot. And
(17:59):
like I I guess I gave him onetoo many salads that were in
plated correctly. And he waslike if you don't make a salad,
right, I'm just gonna come backthere and beat Yeah. Oh, wow.
And I was like, Oh my god. Um,
Jess (18:10):
was it one of those things where the camera yell cut. And
then he was just like, Oh, goodjob. I shook your hand. It was
Tim B (18:16):
So he's no okay. No, he didn't care about the camera
okay.
cutting it.
Jess (18:21):
Oh,wow. So he's that intense when the cameras go goes
off too
Tim B (18:24):
Oh, yeah. Yeah, he actually is that intense. He was
that intense the entire timeuntil after the dinner service.
And then he was all handshakesand and pats on the back. Well,
while the show was inproduction, and all that he was
100% business to the point wherehe yelled at the owners like off
(18:45):
camera.
Jess (18:45):
Oh my goodness.
Tim B (18:47):
We were all sitting down after he had done like the
tasting of the food andeverything. And the one of the
owners was like our foods notthat bad. Is it? He was like I
would never eat here. Oh, wow.
He's like, but don't you worryabout that. That's my problem.
Now I'm gonna fix it. But heyelled at the kitchen staff off
camera because they were talkingshit about him when they had hot
mics.
Jess (19:09):
Oh my goodness.
Tim B (19:10):
He was like I don't have to be here. I'm doing this for
you. And a lot of the guys inthe kitchen were fooled
themselves like the head chef.
Jerry he was very full ofhimself. And you can see you can
see it in the show like he likejoking around and talking about
that how he could cook real goodand all that and he's a pretty
good cook. But yeah, the shotswere like talking shit about
him. And he brought them all inthe back and was like Don't
(19:32):
Don't do that. I'm not I'm nothere for that. But it was an
interesting show. Like the wholeproduction of it was very
interesting to learn because itdoes actually, for the most part
take place in the timeframe theysay it does.
Jess (19:47):
Okay, you always wonder if there's a little studio magic
behind that but that'sinteresting to know.
Tim B (19:52):
There's only there's only a little the whole rebuild of
the restaurant took place in thetimeframe. They said it did but
I I think the owners and the theproduction crew sort of had pre
designed what was going tohappen, but it took place in the
timeframe they say it is likethere's a little bit of like pre
production, but that's it.
Jess (20:11):
I was gonna ask Does anybody recognize you from from
the show? Have you ever had anysituations like that before?
Tim B (20:17):
No, I don't think I was on it long enough for people to
be like, Hey, you're the guyfrom the show. I'm on the only
people who know about it are thepeople I told about it? I think
like, no one's come up to me. Ifpeople come up to me now they
recognize me from the foodtruck. Yeah.
Jess (20:32):
Tell me about kind of your, your period in food trucks
after Stella's Italianrestaurant, kind of what was
your trajectory towards openingyour food truck?
Tim B (20:41):
So the food trucks I had worked on. The first job I got
on a food truck was on a truckcalled the Fribourg food truck.
And
Jess (20:51):
Fryborg like cyborg? Yeah.
Cool. Yeah. Cool name. I likeit.
Tim B (20:55):
It was the guys on it.
Were pretty fun. Unfortunately,like making tons and tons of
French fries is just grueling.
Yeah, like the process to makefrench fries is just very labor
intensive. I only worked therefor about a month or so before I
was like this making Frenchfries is not for me. But it was
a good learning experience.
Because I got to learn aboutwhat it's like to work on a food
(21:18):
truck. I got to know what it'slike to drive a food truck.
Because it is not fun at all. Todrive a food truck. They are
heavy, sometimes unbalanced. Andyou can't turn very quick.
Jess (21:31):
I was just gonna I was just about to ask how the
turning is.
Tim B (21:35):
The turning is atrocious.
And if you get a good gust ofwind, you feel it. The entire
time driving back from fromMaryland's like it was a windy
day. And the truck was justbeing pushed off. And I'd never
I'd only driven a food truck fora few miles before that. So I
got the full experience when ittook me 11 hours to get from
Maryland to Connecticut. Oh wow.
Jess (21:57):
So don't take your food truck, cross country folks.
Tim B (22:03):
Um, but yeah, so I learned I learned a lot about
like, how food trucks operate.
And what the day to day is forat least a french fry food
truck. And how many pounds ofpotato they go through. It's
insane after I left that afriend of mine knew a guy who
just retrofitted a one of thoselike small commuter buses, like
(22:26):
a maybe a 20 passenger bus intoa lobster truck. And he was
like, Oh, he was looking forhelp for the summer, the lobster
truck is going to be parked at abrewery for the summer. So it's
not like it's going anywhere. Iwouldn't have to drive it, which
is fantastic. And he was like,you know, he needs help. And I
told him you got experience. SoI worked on the lobster truck
(22:47):
for two summers. I mean, as longas they were busy, like the
first time was like early summerto late fall. And then the
second time was like late springto early fall. And that was that
was a unique experience. Becauselearning how to deal with large
(23:09):
crowds at a brewery is likeessential to owning a food
truck. If you're if you're goingto do that, like you're going to
do breweries, you're going to dolarge crowds. And lobster truck
is like the easiest thingbecause lobster rolls take like,
three minutes to make. So youcan pump out a lot of volume.
(23:31):
And you only need like one ortwo people. The problem there is
that lobster is so expensive.
You really have to watch foodcosts. And that's the problem
they ran into is that eitherportioning wasn't happening
correctly, or they were beingmisinformed about how much
lobster they were getting.
Because they would buy frozenpacks of lobster like lobster
(23:51):
claw and like shredded lobstermeat. And part of the packaging
was it was water because it wasfrozen. So every time they
opened a pack a lobster, there'dbe about in a two pound bag
would be about four ounces ofwater. And the owner was like
why am I losing so much money inlobster? Like why are we selling
(24:12):
that much? And I explained tohim I was like there's it's not
a lobster that's in there'swater that's in there too. And
you're not taking that intoaccount your food costs. And
once he did, he realized that hewas selling almost exactly what
he was supposed to sell. Butyeah, that was interesting, a
funny story from from thattrack. And one day it was like a
regular like Wednesday afternoonor something like that. And I
(24:32):
was just sitting there. Itwasn't too busy. All of a
sudden, like 50 people show upand I don't have enough lobster
like preps to serve all thesepeople at once. I immediately
threw a ton of lobster into thehot water and I was like oh my
God. What happened was is therewas like a party bus or a tour
(24:54):
bus. They came through andstopped at the brewery didn't
tell him Anyone Oh, wow. Andthey all wanted food because
they had to leave in half anhour.
Jess (25:04):
Oh my gosh, pressure.
Tim B (25:06):
And yeah, so I like worked my ass off to feed as
many of them as humanly possiblefor they had to leave. And it
was just crazy. I was the onlyperson and like the the other
person who was the manager waslike half an hour away and I
called her and I was like,there's like 100 people here and
it's just me. She's like, I'llbe there as soon as I can. But
(25:28):
it they had to leave. So most ofthem got their food, most of
them but so
Jess (25:34):
it was just was there any other variety other than like a
lobster roll?
Tim B (25:38):
We had we had lobster rolls, we had crab rolls, which
was like Maryland crab. And it'sall Connecticut style stuff. So
it's like, the lobster rolls isjust the lobster and butter. And
the crab roll is basically thesame thing. And we had clam
chowder and lobster bisque. Sothe people that couldn't get
crab rolls at the end, they justgot soup, because I ran out of
(26:00):
lobster at that point. Likethere wasn't, there was no other
lobster that was going to beready. In the amount of time.
Jess (26:05):
I was just wondering how complicated things are if you
had like, fries or a side orsomething to put together to Oh,
no,
Tim B (26:11):
no, it wasn't. There wasn't a it was just the so the
truck was laid out kind of likeit was just a big flat top grill
to grill the buttons and stufflike that heat up the laps
through the next. And that was abig steam table where you hold
the lobster, and it had a fridgeand some things. They didn't
have the capability to do Frenchfries or anything like that. But
(26:32):
it was like still, like, if youmultiply the three minutes it
takes to make a lobster roll by4050 people, there's no way you
can serve all that people inhalf an hour with one person.
And let's see after that areactually in the middle of that I
worked for this other grilledcheese truck. And that was the
worst experience. I
Jess (26:50):
know. Wow. I'm surprised you opened a grilled cheese.
Tim B (26:57):
Well, I basically told myself, that I'm not going to do
anything that this guy did. Um,he was not a nice person. And I
was how I was doing him a favorby working on the shop because
he was short staffed, he justtreated me like I knew the menu
front the back and I didn't. Hehad me to like prep for stuff,
he had way too many sandwicheson the menu to accommodate being
(27:20):
quick. And it was just not Itook away from that experience
that I would never be that guy.
Only because I would never wantto treat an employee that way.
And I would never have a menuthat's so overcrowded with food
that I couldn't get anything outquickly. And that was you know,
that was my that was my foodtruck experience before I bought
one.
Jess (27:41):
Very cool. So thank you so much for coming on and for
sharing kind of your story andmore about the melting truck. So
if somebody's in Connecticutarea. Where can they find your
truck.
Tim B (27:55):
So right now our schedule is in a little bit of a flux.
But you can find us if you're inthe Connecticut area and you're
in like Fairfield County. Youcan find us starting in the
month of May, every Thursdayafternoon at the Trumbull
farmers market. You can find ushopefully doing street vending
(28:18):
and Stratford starting in themonth of May as well on
hopefully, I think we're gonnabe Wednesdays and Fridays. And
it's all on our website. I knowI updated all the time about
where we're going to be rightnow. If someone was going to be
in Connecticut on Saturday,let's say we're going to be the
athletic Brewing Company from 12to four.
Jess (28:41):
Okay, so what's your website?
Tim B (28:44):
My website is themeltingtruckcom
Jess (28:47):
Very simple.
themeltingtruck.com And you'rethe melting chuck on all social
media platforms as well.
Tim B (28:54):
I think so. I think our Instagram is at Melton truck.
And ourfacebook.com/themeltingtruck,
and our email if anyone wants toemail me about like, local
Connecticut or private events.
It's at or it'smeltingfoodtruck@gmail.com
Jess (29:14):
All righty. Well, thank you so much for being on the
show. I really learned a lotespecially about restaurant
impossible now I'm definitelygonna go rewatch the episode
because I feel like I've seen itbefore but I just want to make
sure it's the one I remember. So
Tim B (29:31):
I recently rewatched it just to see like how well it
age, and it's somewhere inseason six
Jess (29:36):
somewhere in season six, and Season Season Six restaurant
impossible. And if I come toConnecticut, I want a sandwich
with raspberry Chipotle jam.
Tim B (29:48):
It's delicious.
Jess (29:50):
That sounds amazing. Well, I have been the flaky foodie and
you can find me on all socialmedia platforms @theflakyfoodie
the flaky foodie, and thank youso much for listening. If you
enjoy the show, treat it likegossip or the gospel and tell
(30:10):
somebody about it. And if youeat something delicious this
week, be sure to tell me on allmy social media platforms. Have
a great week everybody
Hi, it's Jess and you're listening to another episode of
The flaky foodie podcast. Theonly show where the discussion
is delicious and there's chatterto chew on. On today's episode,
I have with me Tim. He's theowner of the melting truck, a
food truck located inConnecticut. And while we talk
about owning a food truck andhis background, an interesting
(00:25):
fact that came up is that he'sbeen on a very popular Food
Network show. So coming up rightafter the break, you won't want
to miss it. We'll talk with TimDid you know that this episode
is also on YouTube? to find itsearch for The Flaky Foodie.
(00:53):
Autumn is in the air in thefirst official day of fall is
right around the corner so youknow what that means: Sweater
weather, festivals, changingleaves! Make sure that you have
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(01:16):
your first order of more than$35. Just visit my website
www.theflakyfoodie.com/offers.
Or look at my show notes formore info.
Welcome back to the flaky foodiePodcast. Today we have Timothy
Bristol with us. He's the ownerof the melting truck in
(01:39):
Connecticut. So I'm lookingforward to having you on the
show. And let's talk about somegreat food.
Tim B (01:44):
All right, that sounds fun.
Jess (01:45):
Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about your food truck.
Tim B (01:49):
So the melting truck is a gourmet grilled cheese food
truck. We started in January2021. Okay, right in the middle
of the pandemic, how is that?
It's been okay. I think foodtrucks have benefited from the
pandemic because they are somobile. Yes. And it's not like a
sit down restaurant where youhave to have all these COVID
(02:11):
restrictions. Like of course, wehave people you know, if they
waited in line, you know, sixfeet, and then they had to wear
masks and all that. But itwasn't it wasn't really a
hindrance on the business.
Unless we were at like eventsthat don't happen because of
COVID like food truck festivalshappen a lot less. But you know,
you get booked for privateevents, you get booked for
farmer's markets. So it was itwas a learning experience to be
(02:34):
sure, but I don't think it wouldhave been a more difficult year
or would have been an easieryear had COVID not happened it
would I think it would have beenabout the same for us. Well, the
food truck itself like I said,gourmet grilled cheese, we do
soups, we do mac and cheese wedo you know whatever we can
think of that involves cheese.
Jess (02:54):
So what's kind of the best seller of the fan favorite.
Tim B (02:57):
We got a couple of fan favorites, the first one. And
this kind of took me by surprisebecause I just sort of like
thought it up and put ittogether. It's called the pickle
melt. And it's a grilled cheesewith just cheddar cheese and
bread and butter pickles. Andpeople were
Jess (03:14):
Very Interesting. Well yeah, you have like a little bit
of sweet and acidity with thecheese. So yeah, I can see that
working.
Tim B (03:24):
People love adding bacon to it. That's
Jess (03:27):
okay. Yeah, I can see that. But the bit of the salty
too
Tim B (03:31):
Our other big seller is something we call the extreme
melt. It's a it's a regulargrilled cheese, we call her
classic grilled cheese, which isAmerican and cheddar. And then
we add a cheddar cheese crust onone side of the grilled cheese
and as
Jess (03:46):
you're speaking my language.
Tim B (03:51):
Now I'm trying to think of any other like in the summer,
we do like a barbecue porkgrilled cheese that's really
popular in summer, but I canonly do it when it's warm enough
to turn on the smoker that Ihave.
Jess (04:01):
Yeah, I can see that. So are there any like interesting
combinations like what's yourartist grilled cheese
combination that's on the menuor that you ever had on the
menu.
Tim B (04:14):
So this is one that I didn't think once again was
going to sell well and it wassuggested to me by another
vendor at a farmers market thatwe were doing he sold spicy
jams, and barbecue sauces. Andhe's and he gave us a sample of
it was called a it was araspberry Chipotle jam. And he
told us to put it with sharpcheddar cheese and it would be
delicious. And he was correct.
And I did not think that peoplewere gonna like it but it's it
(04:38):
sells pretty good like when wewhenever we have the jam, we do
it. And it's always been likepopular like markets and stuff
like that. It's not for everycrowd, but it's delicious. It's
one of my favorite sayings
Jess Hodge (04:52):
it would be for the me crowd. I love sweet and spicy
together Oh wow, thatcombination. I did an episode on
food trends and one of the onesthat didn't make it was like on
the cutting room floor was swicyis what they called it swipes.
Yeah. Okay, but we're in Aprilthat I haven't heard heads or
(05:14):
tails of Swicy
Tim B (05:17):
I don't know trying to think of any like really unusual
real cheeses that we do thatthat I didn't think would sell
well and they do. I mean we dolike the typical stuff like we
do tomato, mozzarella and pestowe do chicken Philly grilled
cheese. Oh, and this is more ofa like a dessert sandwich. And
(05:40):
it's not technically a grilledcheese, but my wife came up with
an idea for a smores grilledcheese. That is chocolate sauce,
marshmallow fluff and grahamcracker crumbs between the bread
and you toasted like a grilledcheese. It's delicious.
Jess (05:54):
And that's vegetarian to marshmallow fluff is vegetarian.
It doesn't have gelatin, likeyour standard marshmallows. So
yes, even I can partake, and
Tim B (06:06):
we try to keep our options open with like
vegetarian stuff. And we have abunch of grilled cheeses that
our vegetarian, unfortunately,it's almost impossible for us to
do like gluten free stuff, or,or our vegan just because of the
way that the truck operates.
Like, the grill is constantlycovered in bacon grease. So like
if we if someone was likestrictly vegan and or strictly
(06:31):
gluten free because of like, youknow, they're intolerant, they
have an intolerance of wheat orflour. Like I, I can't really do
anything about that. Becausethere's always like bread on the
truck. And it's touching everysurface like, unfortunately. But
we do have a bunch of vegetariangrilled cheeses. And and a lot
of people come to us because ofthat, like they reserved.
(06:53):
They're always asking forvegetarian options.
Jess (06:56):
Awesome. So why a food truck? How did that idea kind of
come to be and, and walk methrough the steps and making it
happen?
Tim B (07:04):
Okay. I'll preface this by saying that I would never do
it again. But so a friend ofmine and my partner in the food
truck, Mike young, he came to meone day, and he knew that I
worked in the restaurantindustry and was looking to put
together a food truck. Ipreviously worked with a few
Italian restaurants. I was onthe Food Network once. Oh,
(07:28):
really? Yeah. For one of therestaurant impossible. Really?
Yeah, I was on the the episodeis called the Stella's Italian
restaurant Stella's a Thai
Jess (07:39):
restaurant, I probably have seen that. You still watch?
Quite a bit of restaurantimpossible after check it out.
Tim B (07:47):
Um, I was I was at the very end of the episode, I was
one of the line cooks the lastlike five minutes or so. And I
wasn't supposed to be like,that's a different crazy story.
But after after doing that, Iworked at a couple of other
Italian restaurants. And Iworked on food trucks for other
(08:07):
people. For a couple of years.
Like I worked on a lobstertruck. I worked on a different
grilled cheese truck. And Iworked for a french fry food
truck. Okay. And so I have afood truck experience. And I was
looking to put together a foodtruck and I just didn't have the
money. They're expensive. And myfriends. He was like, Well, if
(08:30):
you run the food truck, I'll putup the money for it. And we'll
be partners. And we did that.
And my wife jumped on boardbecause she's an accountant. So
she does our books, which isvery important and not something
that every food truck has. Yes.
Like a lot of independentrestaurant owners and food
trucks don't have properaccounting and it's absolutely
(08:52):
necessary Yes,
Jess (08:54):
or else you end up on restaurant impossible.
Tim B (09:01):
So we formed the the actual business in the summer of
2020. And we went and gotourselves a used food truck
around September 2020. We boughtit in Maryland and have it
driving all the way back toConnecticut, which was its own
nightmare. The food truckdoesn't go very fast on the
(09:25):
highway, like It tops out at 60.
So there are a lot of angrypeople behind me for several
states. Oh, wow. And so we gotit back. It was a huge it used
to be an Italian street foodfood truck. But it had all the
equipment that we needed, likeall we really need is a flat top
and a set of burners and somecoolers. And so it had all that
(09:47):
stuff. And it was relativelycheap. But what we didn't know
and what we were veryexperienced that is that making
sure that everything was inworking condition and And most
of the equipment except for thegrill itself was not. We spent a
bunch of money, either upgradingstuff, or repairing the truck.
(10:12):
One thing in particular wedidn't know about was that the
frame of the truck had a hugehole in it. Oh, wow, he was
rotted away. So we had to go andhave it repaired and have the
frame reinforced, which was nota cost we expected. We had to
(10:33):
redo the propane systems, theplumbing systems, the electrical
systems, because whoever had putthe truck together, was out of
their mind. And once we got allthat up and running, it was like
as a January 2021, by the timewe were actually able to
operate. And the there was awhole different learning curve,
(10:56):
then it was learning about allthe regulations that you have to
deal with as a food truck. Wherecan you park? How do you get
customers, all that stuff? Weeventually got ourselves signed
up to do farmers markets, doprivate events, stuff like that.
But there was a lot of eventhough I had food truck
(11:20):
experience, there was a lot ofstuff I didn't anticipate from
being on that sonar side. It's alittle different. Yeah. And some
of it. Some of its small stuff,like, where do you get propane?
And I call around to a bunch ofdifferent like fuel companies.
And everyone's like, No, wecan't do food trucks. They're a
(11:42):
liability. Oh, really? Yeah. Ilearned that nobody wants to
work like professional trades.
People don't want to work onfood drugs, because they're a
liability. And so like,literally I had to do, we had to
do a lot of work on the foodtruck ourselves. Or if we had
friends who knew certain trades,we could use them but
(12:04):
professional trades peoplegenerally don't want to work on
food trucks. I mean, and then itwas just learning like what
vendors do we want to use. Wegot a really cool vendor for
like our drinks and chips. Cool.
Oh, Joe's tea. They're prettyawesome.
Jess (12:20):
Oh, wow, and it's peach too!
Tim B (12:23):
Delicious.
Jess (12:23):
Yes. It looks delicious
Tim B (12:26):
We found we found a local bakery that would supply all of
our bread. And like
Jess Hodge (12:30):
Oh, nice.
Tim B (12:30):
A lot of a lot of the grilled cheese is having the
right bread
Jess (12:35):
It is I agree wholeheartedly.
Tim B (12:38):
So we picked out two kinds of breads, we have a
sourdough bread, and a wholewheat bread that are there. You
know, they're wide slices. Andthey're like three quarters of
an inch thick. So these are biggrilled cheeses. And and then we
just went you know, we had atasting, you figured out what
you know, what do we want toserve? We got a bunch of our
(13:00):
friends together and find outwhat they liked. And then we
just went from that.
Jess (13:04):
So why you worked in Italian food. It sounds like you
worked in a lot of differentareas. Why did you choose
grilled cheese for your foodtruck:?
Tim B (13:14):
So I wanted something that I could have a lot of
creativity with. And somethingthat provided for variety.
Because what I like to do ishave sort of a rotating menu on
the truck where if you come tothe truck here two different
things you'll have a twodifferent menus almost, that you
can choose from you can trysomething different every time
(13:36):
you go. And I think that's a lotof the appeal of grilled cheese
is you can really make it whatyou want.
Jess (13:41):
Yeah, it's a blank canvas.
Yeah, and cheese is differentbreads, different other add on
the feeling.
Tim B (13:50):
Well that's and that's one of the things I like is that
people can do whatever they wanton add ons. It's sort of a build
your own sandwich thing at somepoint. Like we have our standard
menu items on there and we havespecials, but then below that
there's just a menu of add onsyou can put on to the grilled
cheese, everything from likeonions to jalapenos, avocado,
(14:11):
bacon, chicken, like reallywhatever you want. And the
customers really like it becausethen they can I find out that
like people have very specifictastes about grilled cheese and
they're not all the same.
Jess (14:22):
Yes. So what's your favorite combination that you've
put together?
Tim B (14:27):
Well one I'm amazed that I'm not sick of grilled cheese
at this point. But my favoriteit's either the raspberry
Chipotle jam and cheddar cheesewith bacon. Or I do like me like
a standard like just shatterAmerican and tomato and avocado
I like that. Like if I'm in themood for like like a just a
(14:54):
bring you back to your childhoodgrilled cheese that's what it
is.
Jess (14:57):
Yes, tomato is is one of the best This addition is in my
opinion. So, those of youlistening today, I want to know,
what do you add to your grilledcheese? Because I'm very curious
to know. So in the combinations,
Tim B (15:14):
you know, I found out and asking people because I asked
people on like other podcasts onI like what it was, what do you
put in your grilled cheese andpeople are like, wait, you can
put more than cheese in there?
Yeah,
Jess (15:24):
I actually asked on social media. When does a grilled
cheese stop being a grilledcheese because at the time of
recording, national GrilledCheese Day, it was like a couple
of days ago. And I was I waslike, I want to, I want a
sandwich. I just want today youknow, normally a standard
grilled cheeses are all right inmy book, but I was craving
(15:45):
something a little more. So Ihad a sandwich to have
everything and cheese on it. Andso I was like, Oh, is it a
grilled cheese about cheating byposting this but it was so good.
I didn't care.
Tim B (15:58):
Yeah, we we blur the line. Sometimes, like sometimes
we'll have burgers and we'll dolike Patty melts and stuff like
that. And and we do a chickenfill email. That's It's a
chicken and cheese grilledcheese. But like, you know,
that's really you know, there'sno, it's, it's fine.
Jess (16:19):
Yes,
Tim B (16:20):
we encompass a lot of different kinds of sandwiches.
Jess (16:24):
That's awesome. So tell me a little bit. We're gonna go
back a little bit. Tell me aboutkind of your cooking background,
you said you worked in anItalian eatery before you have
any stories to share from yourbackground?
Tim B (16:36):
Sure, um, my first job at a restaurant was a Chinese
delivery guy who was Chinesedelivery. It was my first job. I
worked there for God a longtime. Eventually, they showed me
how to cook some of the foodwhich was awesome. I worked my
way up to like doing the fryersand stuff like that. And another
(16:57):
another restaurant that was inthe same Plaza as the Chinese
restaurant I worked at wasStella's Italian restaurant. And
that was where the therestaurant impossible show
happen. I was originallysupposed to be a barback. Like I
just I was a delivery guy forthem. They taught me how to make
the pizza and stuff like that.
But I wasn't really like a cook.
And when the restaurantimpossible came. Unfortunately,
(17:18):
none of the chefs knew whilemost of the chefs didn't know
fluent English, and the show hadtrouble teaching them the menu
they were supposed to do. Soliterally 10 minutes before
they're supposed to do the finaldinner service. They pulled me
in my friend, they pulled measide and said, Hey, we need you
(17:39):
to do hot and cold apps. Here'sthe pictures. Here's how you're
supposed to do it. Go do so Igot a crash course on how to
make the hot and cold apps. Andthey just put me on the line.
And Robert Irvine was in theservice window yelling at me the
entire time. Oh, wow. He wasmaking salads and whatnot. And
(17:59):
like I I guess I gave him onetoo many salads that were in
plated correctly. And he waslike if you don't make a salad,
right, I'm just gonna come backthere and beat Yeah. Oh, wow.
And I was like, Oh my god. Um,
Jess (18:10):
was it one of those things where the camera yell cut. And
then he was just like, Oh, goodjob. I shook your hand. It was
Tim B (18:16):
So he's no okay. No, he didn't care about the camera
okay.
cutting it.
Jess (18:21):
Oh,wow. So he's that intense when the cameras go goes
off too
Tim B (18:24):
Oh, yeah. Yeah, he actually is that intense. He was
that intense the entire timeuntil after the dinner service.
And then he was all handshakesand and pats on the back. Well,
while the show was inproduction, and all that he was
100% business to the point wherehe yelled at the owners like off
(18:45):
camera.
Jess (18:45):
Oh my goodness.
Tim B (18:47):
We were all sitting down after he had done like the
tasting of the food andeverything. And the one of the
owners was like our foods notthat bad. Is it? He was like I
would never eat here. Oh, wow.
He's like, but don't you worryabout that. That's my problem.
Now I'm gonna fix it. But heyelled at the kitchen staff off
camera because they were talkingshit about him when they had hot
mics.
Jess (19:09):
Oh my goodness.
Tim B (19:10):
He was like I don't have to be here. I'm doing this for
you. And a lot of the guys inthe kitchen were fooled
themselves like the head chef.
Jerry he was very full ofhimself. And you can see you can
see it in the show like he likejoking around and talking about
that how he could cook real goodand all that and he's a pretty
good cook. But yeah, the shotswere like talking shit about
him. And he brought them all inthe back and was like Don't
(19:32):
Don't do that. I'm not I'm nothere for that. But it was an
interesting show. Like the wholeproduction of it was very
interesting to learn because itdoes actually, for the most part
take place in the timeframe theysay it does.
Jess (19:47):
Okay, you always wonder if there's a little studio magic
behind that but that'sinteresting to know.
Tim B (19:52):
There's only there's only a little the whole rebuild of
the restaurant took place in thetimeframe. They said it did but
I I think the owners and the theproduction crew sort of had pre
designed what was going tohappen, but it took place in the
timeframe they say it is likethere's a little bit of like pre
production, but that's it.
Jess (20:11):
I was gonna ask Does anybody recognize you from from
the show? Have you ever had anysituations like that before?
Tim B (20:17):
No, I don't think I was on it long enough for people to
be like, Hey, you're the guyfrom the show. I'm on the only
people who know about it are thepeople I told about it? I think
like, no one's come up to me. Ifpeople come up to me now they
recognize me from the foodtruck. Yeah.
Jess (20:32):
Tell me about kind of your, your period in food trucks
after Stella's Italianrestaurant, kind of what was
your trajectory towards openingyour food truck?
Tim B (20:41):
So the food trucks I had worked on. The first job I got
on a food truck was on a truckcalled the Fribourg food truck.
And
Jess (20:51):
Fryborg like cyborg? Yeah.
Cool. Yeah. Cool name. I likeit.
Tim B (20:55):
It was the guys on it.
Were pretty fun. Unfortunately,like making tons and tons of
French fries is just grueling.
Yeah, like the process to makefrench fries is just very labor
intensive. I only worked therefor about a month or so before I
was like this making Frenchfries is not for me. But it was
a good learning experience.
Because I got to learn aboutwhat it's like to work on a food
(21:18):
truck. I got to know what it'slike to drive a food truck.
Because it is not fun at all. Todrive a food truck. They are
heavy, sometimes unbalanced. Andyou can't turn very quick.
Jess (21:31):
I was just gonna I was just about to ask how the
turning is.
Tim B (21:35):
The turning is atrocious.
And if you get a good gust ofwind, you feel it. The entire
time driving back from fromMaryland's like it was a windy
day. And the truck was justbeing pushed off. And I'd never
I'd only driven a food truck fora few miles before that. So I
got the full experience when ittook me 11 hours to get from
Maryland to Connecticut. Oh wow.
Jess (21:57):
So don't take your food truck, cross country folks.
Tim B (22:03):
Um, but yeah, so I learned I learned a lot about
like, how food trucks operate.
And what the day to day is forat least a french fry food
truck. And how many pounds ofpotato they go through. It's
insane after I left that afriend of mine knew a guy who
just retrofitted a one of thoselike small commuter buses, like
(22:26):
a maybe a 20 passenger bus intoa lobster truck. And he was
like, Oh, he was looking forhelp for the summer, the lobster
truck is going to be parked at abrewery for the summer. So it's
not like it's going anywhere. Iwouldn't have to drive it, which
is fantastic. And he was like,you know, he needs help. And I
told him you got experience. SoI worked on the lobster truck
(22:47):
for two summers. I mean, as longas they were busy, like the
first time was like early summerto late fall. And then the
second time was like late springto early fall. And that was that
was a unique experience. Becauselearning how to deal with large
(23:09):
crowds at a brewery is likeessential to owning a food
truck. If you're if you're goingto do that, like you're going to
do breweries, you're going to dolarge crowds. And lobster truck
is like the easiest thingbecause lobster rolls take like,
three minutes to make. So youcan pump out a lot of volume.
(23:31):
And you only need like one ortwo people. The problem there is
that lobster is so expensive.
You really have to watch foodcosts. And that's the problem
they ran into is that eitherportioning wasn't happening
correctly, or they were beingmisinformed about how much
lobster they were getting.
Because they would buy frozenpacks of lobster like lobster
(23:51):
claw and like shredded lobstermeat. And part of the packaging
was it was water because it wasfrozen. So every time they
opened a pack a lobster, there'dbe about in a two pound bag
would be about four ounces ofwater. And the owner was like
why am I losing so much money inlobster? Like why are we selling
(24:12):
that much? And I explained tohim I was like there's it's not
a lobster that's in there'swater that's in there too. And
you're not taking that intoaccount your food costs. And
once he did, he realized that hewas selling almost exactly what
he was supposed to sell. Butyeah, that was interesting, a
funny story from from thattrack. And one day it was like a
regular like Wednesday afternoonor something like that. And I
(24:32):
was just sitting there. Itwasn't too busy. All of a
sudden, like 50 people show upand I don't have enough lobster
like preps to serve all thesepeople at once. I immediately
threw a ton of lobster into thehot water and I was like oh my
God. What happened was is therewas like a party bus or a tour
(24:54):
bus. They came through andstopped at the brewery didn't
tell him Anyone Oh, wow. Andthey all wanted food because
they had to leave in half anhour.
Jess (25:04):
Oh my gosh, pressure.
Tim B (25:06):
And yeah, so I like worked my ass off to feed as
many of them as humanly possiblefor they had to leave. And it
was just crazy. I was the onlyperson and like the the other
person who was the manager waslike half an hour away and I
called her and I was like,there's like 100 people here and
it's just me. She's like, I'llbe there as soon as I can. But
(25:28):
it they had to leave. So most ofthem got their food, most of
them but so
Jess (25:34):
it was just was there any other variety other than like a
lobster roll?
Tim B (25:38):
We had we had lobster rolls, we had crab rolls, which
was like Maryland crab. And it'sall Connecticut style stuff. So
it's like, the lobster rolls isjust the lobster and butter. And
the crab roll is basically thesame thing. And we had clam
chowder and lobster bisque. Sothe people that couldn't get
crab rolls at the end, they justgot soup, because I ran out of
(26:00):
lobster at that point. Likethere wasn't, there was no other
lobster that was going to beready. In the amount of time.
Jess (26:05):
I was just wondering how complicated things are if you
had like, fries or a side orsomething to put together to Oh,
no,
Tim B (26:11):
no, it wasn't. There wasn't a it was just the so the
truck was laid out kind of likeit was just a big flat top grill
to grill the buttons and stufflike that heat up the laps
through the next. And that was abig steam table where you hold
the lobster, and it had a fridgeand some things. They didn't
have the capability to do Frenchfries or anything like that. But
(26:32):
it was like still, like, if youmultiply the three minutes it
takes to make a lobster roll by4050 people, there's no way you
can serve all that people inhalf an hour with one person.
And let's see after that areactually in the middle of that I
worked for this other grilledcheese truck. And that was the
worst experience. I
Jess (26:50):
know. Wow. I'm surprised you opened a grilled cheese.
Tim B (26:57):
Well, I basically told myself, that I'm not going to do
anything that this guy did. Um,he was not a nice person. And I
was how I was doing him a favorby working on the shop because
he was short staffed, he justtreated me like I knew the menu
front the back and I didn't. Hehad me to like prep for stuff,
he had way too many sandwicheson the menu to accommodate being
(27:20):
quick. And it was just not Itook away from that experience
that I would never be that guy.
Only because I would never wantto treat an employee that way.
And I would never have a menuthat's so overcrowded with food
that I couldn't get anything outquickly. And that was you know,
that was my that was my foodtruck experience before I bought
one.
Jess (27:41):
Very cool. So thank you so much for coming on and for
sharing kind of your story andmore about the melting truck. So
if somebody's in Connecticutarea. Where can they find your
truck.
Tim B (27:55):
So right now our schedule is in a little bit of a flux.
But you can find us if you're inthe Connecticut area and you're
in like Fairfield County. Youcan find us starting in the
month of May, every Thursdayafternoon at the Trumbull
farmers market. You can find ushopefully doing street vending
(28:18):
and Stratford starting in themonth of May as well on
hopefully, I think we're gonnabe Wednesdays and Fridays. And
it's all on our website. I knowI updated all the time about
where we're going to be rightnow. If someone was going to be
in Connecticut on Saturday,let's say we're going to be the
athletic Brewing Company from 12to four.
Jess (28:41):
Okay, so what's your website?
Tim B (28:44):
My website is themeltingtruckcom
Jess (28:47):
Very simple.
themeltingtruck.com And you'rethe melting chuck on all social
media platforms as well.
Tim B (28:54):
I think so. I think our Instagram is at Melton truck.
And ourfacebook.com/themeltingtruck,
and our email if anyone wants toemail me about like, local
Connecticut or private events.
It's at or it'smeltingfoodtruck@gmail.com
Jess (29:14):
All righty. Well, thank you so much for being on the
show. I really learned a lotespecially about restaurant
impossible now I'm definitelygonna go rewatch the episode
because I feel like I've seen itbefore but I just want to make
sure it's the one I remember. So
Tim B (29:31):
I recently rewatched it just to see like how well it
age, and it's somewhere inseason six
Jess (29:36):
somewhere in season six, and Season Season Six restaurant
impossible. And if I come toConnecticut, I want a sandwich
with raspberry Chipotle jam.
Tim B (29:48):
It's delicious.
Jess (29:50):
That sounds amazing. Well, I have been the flaky foodie and
you can find me on all socialmedia platforms @theflakyfoodie
the flaky foodie, and thank youso much for listening. If you
enjoy the show, treat it likegossip or the gospel and tell
(30:10):
somebody about it. And if youeat something delicious this
week, be sure to tell me on allmy social media platforms. Have
a great week everybody
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