The wheel deal
Route 6 Food Truck brings gourmet sammiches to Tatamagouche
A young man from Tatamagouche has returned home to open a little business on wheels selling locally sourced gourmet sammiches from a food truck.
Justin Yap grew up in the North Shore village, the son of grocery store owners, and left home to study culinary arts at the Nova Scotia Community College in Halifax. He worked at various restaurants and establishments in Halifax and Ontario before coming home this spring.
Now at 28 he has opened the Route 6 Food Truck out of a little white van parked on the side of the highway through Tatamagouche, which is, of course, Route 6.
“I’m a young chef with ideas – working in all those restaurants gives you an idea how to run a restaurant, and to be honest I was sick and tired of working for other people,” says Yap. “It feels great to be here in Tatamagouche. I know half the people in town and there are also a lot of new people. This is a really friendly town so we can’t go wrong.”
The young chef sources as much of his ingredients locally as possible and makes his sauces and seasonings from scratch.
“There is quite a bit of labour in making everything from scratch but this is what I love to do – I love making people happy,” he said.
Yap keeps the menu simple at just five items but plans to switch the lineup regularly.
He tries to cover different kinds of protein in his sandwiches, meaning he usually offers a beef, a chicken, a pork, plus a vegetarian and a vegan option. He also has gluten-free bread if requested.
“A small menu is easier for us, but we keep it varied by
changing it,” says Yap. “We also do some fusion cooking and some more regular sandwiches.”
Yap opened up the Saturday of the Victoria Day weekend and sold more sandwiches than expected.
Yap is also booked into events around northern Nova Scotia this summer. He’ll be at the big Food Truck Rally at MacQuarries in Truro on June 22, he’ll be at River John Days and Read by the Sea in River John and he’ll be parked in front of Tatamagouche Brewing for their Third Birthday Party. He’ll also
be parking in front of the craft brewery every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.