With full-time jobs, new food truck owners stay low-key
Julie Lee of Sweet Treats & More food truck
By Rosemary McCoy
A new food truck that’s off to a low-key start is a regular at KSFY’s Fridays on the Plaza at lunchtime downtown.
Julie Lee and her husband, Chad, started Sweet Treats & More last year, but they’re both working full-time jobs, so they haven’t been on the road much.
“We thought about it for a few years when there weren’t many around here,” she said of starting the food truck. Finally, “We just decided to bite the bullet and try it.”
Lee said they expect to be at Fridays on the Plaza for the rest of the season and to take the food truck out sometimes on Friday and Saturday nights to feed the downtown bar crowd. For now, the food truck’s look is flying under the radar. It’s a gleaming white trailer that doesn’t have the business name on it. The menu is staying simple, too.
“Initially, we started out with mini doughnuts, but we knew we wanted to expand. That’s why we added the ‘and More’ to the name,” Lee said.
Scotch egg from Sweet Treats & More
Their signature offering is a Scotch egg. That’s a hard-boiled egg that’s wrapped in a sausage patty, covered in bread crumbs and then fried and baked.
The couple are season-ticketholders for the Minnesota Vikings and discovered Scotch eggs at Brit’s Pub & Eating Establishment in Minneapolis.
“At first, it didn’t sound appealing to me,” Lee said. Eating one changed her mind, and the couple decided to add it to the menu. “We had to work on them, and we got it down.”
The Lees also make a dish they call barbecue pork Carolina. It’s waffle fries covered in pulled pork and shredded cheese, drizzled with chipotle mayo or honey mustard. They’ve also done a shredded chicken sandwich and mini corndogs.
Sweet Treats & More will be at today’s music-and-food-truck gathering outside KSFY’s TV studio at the plaza at 12th Street and First Avenue. The couple plan to serve the Scotch eggs, barbecue pork Carolina and mini doughnuts, and they might have boneless wings with a choice of several sauces.
The event runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Singer/songwriter Bridget Boen will perform, and Swamp Daddy’s Cajun Kitchen, Berke’s BBQ and Dakota Snow also will serve food.
