Home-Cooked Meals on Wheels | Palatka Daily News, Palatka, Florida

Food truck owners relish feeding the community

People line up in front of Country Girls Seafood Shack to order during Food Truck Friday in Welaka.
Greg Cumbo, owner of Tacos Gringos, stands in front of his purple food truck Monday while parked at the Putnam County Courthouse.
Customers line up outside My Mom’s BBQ during Food Truck Friday in Welaka.
Stephanie Curry stands in front of her food truck last year.
Positively Putnam FL

WELAKA – Hungry patrons packed Jefferson-Smith Park on Friday for the town’s final Food Truck Friday event of the summer.

Roughly 13 food trucks lined the park with owners ready to feed the crowd. Some of these food trucks, such as Taco Gringos, Country Girls Seafood Shack and Toni’s Bistro, are local.

Taco Gringos owner Greg Cumbo was born in Palatka, moved to Atlanta, moved back to Putnam after 30 years as a contractor and decided to open a food truck.

“I just decided it was time for a change,” Cumbo said Monday.

He calls his purple truck Barney, named after the famous purple dinosaur.

He sometimes sets up shop in East Palatka across from Dunkin’, but other times, like Friday, he takes the truck on the road.

Cumbo, who has been serving up Mexican food for a little more than five years, said the idea came to him after retiring. He said he just couldn’t just stay retired.

Sometimes, his sister will come along to his food truck stops to sell her baked goods alongside his tacos and burritos. On Monday, the duo parked at the Putnam County Courthouse. Cumbo offered fried flounder as his specialty that day and he expected to sell out of his food Monday and Friday. Cumbo said he is not the best at keeping customers updated on social media, but some of his employees, like 25-year-old Sarah Lyons, work to make the truck more technologically savvy.

“It’s been real good,” Cumbo said about his business. “Palatka’s been really good to me.”

If tacos are not the meal of choice, stop by Country Girls Seafood Shack for eats such as fish sandwiches or crab cake bites.

Owner Stephanie Curry has been open and servingPutnam County for a year. Her favorite meal to cook is a shrimp tray with potatoes and corn. Her meals are named after her two granddaughters who inspired her to start the business.

Curry and her granddaughters started making different butter sauces in her kitchen one day and the idea took off from there.

“I said, ‘Let’s just make a run of it,’” Curry said. “The support has been overwhelming.”

Another Palatka food truck owner, Toni Foster, has been cooking out of her mobile establishment, Toni’s Bistro, for a little more than two years. She said cooking is a family tradition, with her mother and her mother’s sisters owning a restaurant when Foster was younger.

Now with her own business, Foster said her favorite thing to cook is ox tail.

“It’s actually my peace of mind,” she said. “When I’m in the kitchen, nothing else matters.”

Follow all these food trucks on Facebook to keep an eye out for their next stops. Don’t forget to check out other local food trucks such as My Mom’s BBQ, which often stops in East Palatka and attends local food truck events.