Jolie Dionisio and Nelly Cooper. Photo courtesy of Kut N’ Sow.
10:01am | Since its launch about a month ago the weekly Wednesday Lunch Truck It gourmet food truck event, located just North of Anaheim Street on Coronado in the Zaferia-South Design District, has been booming. If you’ve been there, you may have noticed that, on the South end of the street, a modest tent with a long line.
Jolie Dionisio and Nelly Cooper run Kut N’ Sow, where they sell steamed buns filled with pork belly. Now, if you’re not familiar with pork belly, think uncured bacon. It is delicious, fatty, melt-in-your-mouth porcine goodness.
Kut N’ Sow is also the only food vendor that will be participating in all 12 weeks of the Lunch Truck It Wednesdays. I had to know why.
Jolie: Nelly and I had always loved the idea of steamed buns and wanted to find a way to put our own twist on it. We made a few small batches for our families, and got some positive feedback, not to mention big smiles from our children.
Once we had the basic idea we took it to the streets. Well, almost. We set up shop in my husbands office, which is in the same area that is now the site of Lunch Truck It. We cooked for my husband and his colleagues, and collected donations and feedback. We realized that we were on to something when we developed a regular following and a line started to form every Wednesday, so we incorporated.
Sander: How has your experience been with Lunch Truck It?
Jolie: The turnouts are great and the people involved are fantastic. It is a great event for the City and local businesses. Many people dont even know how cool the design district area is. Many guests’ first response is “Wow! I never even knew this was here!” Well, their first response is “Wow! Your food!” Then on and on about the design district.
Sander: Has it been difficult to keep up with demand?
Jolie: At the very first Lunch Truck It event we underestimated the crowd and sold out really quickly. We doubled up for the next one and sold out again. It was amazing but, at the same, time we hate turning hungry customers away. The demand has been overwhelming. We cannot believe what our business has become.
Sander: When the 12 week Lunch Truck It event is over, do you plan to find other opportunities in town?
Jolie: We are always doing catering and events. We were also recently approached by another weekly event being planned in the downtown Long Beach area. The details are in the works. We also are active in our childrens’ school events, contributing this year to both the Fremont Elementary, Belmont Height Church Preschool, and Lowell Elementary events.
We really love Long Beach and are grateful for the response from the local community. We are going to keep serving delicious food. This is only the beginning of our story. Starting from scratch … literally.
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Learn more about the Kut N’ Sow saga at kutnsow.tumblr.com, ‘like’ them on facebook at facebook.com/KutnSow, and follow them on Twitter at @kutnsow.
Keep up to date about the weekly Lunch Truck It at LunchTruckIt.com.