Asheville Food Trucks (and Trikes!) Deliver Satisfaction

These Asheville mobile businesses give new meaning to the phrase “food to-go.”

By Kathy Bradshaw on August 11, 2023

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Small business owners in Asheville are on the move. Some want to create and sell delicious food items without the expenses or constraints of a brick and mortar, or they prefer to bring their product to their customers.

Whatever their reasons, they’re getting a move on. Whether by food truck or trike, these entrepreneurs are taking their roving refreshments — from portable paninis to delicious falafel — and hitting the road.

Pop Culture

Buggy Pops is three-wheelin’ popsicles. Owner Neomi Negron makes her gourmet ice pops by hand, creating flavors like blueberry lemonade, Vietnamese iced coffee and coconut cinnamon, and sells them from a portable ice box attached to the back of a tricycle.

Negron explains that she wanted to start a business that would allow her to have her winters off, and ice pops are definitely a warm weather treat. It just followed that such a business would be best as a nomadic one.

“Starting a mobile business made sense from a financial standpoint because I always knew that Buggy Pops would be seasonal,” she says. “It didn’t make sense to pay for a storefront that would not generate much revenue in the colder months.”

Negron’s coconut cinnamon flavor is where it all began. As a nod to her heritage, she was inspired to capture the essence of the famous Puerto Rican coquito, a coconut eggnog-like beverage in frozen form on a stick.

She named her traveling business “Buggy” after the buggy/cart she’d sell her goodies from, as well as her child’s nickname. And once she figured out how to tame the beast that is dry ice, she knew that she could make a go of her ice pops to-go.

Mobile Meatless Mediterranean

Ron Jimenez is a classically trained chef, but rather than devoting all that culinary talent to the French haute cuisine he’d learned while at Le Cordon Bleu, Jimenez decided to take a very different route — and he needed a food truck to get him there.

In July 2022, Jimenez started Tahini Jar with his wife, Courtney. His goal was to serve Middle Eastern food that is healthy, meat-free and delicious, so he went plant-based and started bringing Middle Eastern fusion cuisine all around Asheville in his food truck.

Going mobile lowered Jimenez’s startup and overhead costs, but it was more than that. “In running a mobile food business, I have also come to really enjoy being able to move to where the people are and to serve multiple communities,” he says.

In fact, he hopes to eventually use Tahini Jar to help feed some of the disadvantaged in Asheville. Even though Tahini Jar has only been around a short time, the food truck is seeing enough success to keep on trucking.

“We’re continuing to build a loyal customer base and increasing in popularity,” Jimenez says.

Tahini Jar is a hit even with the carnivores. “I’m happy to say that I have attracted the attention of many non-vegetarian/vegans who report to me that they don’t miss the meat when eating my food,” he says. “That’s definitely what I’m going for!”

The Spotted Banana

Curb A-Peel

For Tasha Ashe, overripe bananas were the incentive to start her business. Her father gave her a vintage 1988 trailer and helped her convert it into a roaming restaurant; her son designed a cool, banana-centric logo; and The Spotted Banana Food Truck was born.

This food truck doesn’t just drive you bananas — cruising the streets with smoothies, açaí bowls, wraps and paninis, Ashe’s truck takes the road less traveled, using fresh, seasonal and nutritious ingredients, including organic produce straight from the farmers market and sugar-free mix-ins.

“My inspiration comes from my love of cooking and my love of health and fitness,” says Ashe, who has been working in the restaurant biz since she was 15.

“I decided to open my food truck in 2020 because I wanted to bring a healthy and affordable option to the food truck scene here in Asheville.”

Enjoy a Nonalcoholic Brew

For those looking for healthier options, a pair of Asheville companies is producing nonalcoholic beverages that feature natural organic ingredients. Better yet, none of their products contain high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, high-calorie fruit juice or artificial sweeteners.

Sarilla is a company that makes canned teas and infusion drinks, and its line of products includes lemon black tea, hibiscus green tea, lime infusions, vanilla infusions and more. Also in Asheville is Devil’s Foot Beverage Company, which makes beverages like organic ginger beer, blueberry lemonade and cherry limeade.

“It used to be that when you’d go to a brewery but didn’t want an alcoholic drink, the only thing they could serve you is bottled water,” says Ben Colvin, who co-founded Devil’s Foot Beverage Company with Jacob Baumann. “We decided to start making bubbly, tasty, sparkly nonalcoholic beverages to complement Asheville’s thriving Beer City reputation. As a result, our products today have layers of flavor.”

Colvin says his company utilizes a farm-to-can concept, with local farmers supplying the fresh strawberries, blueberries, apples, cherries, citrus zest and honey that go into Devil’s Foot drinks. Devil’s Foot started in 2017, and the beverages are now sold in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

“We currently produce about 20,000 cans each week, which means more than 1 million cans a year,” Colvin says. “We love Asheville. We live and work here, which is precisely where we want to live and work.”

– Kevin Litwin contributed to this article.