Ellsworth’s food truck scene is all new this year
Throngs of tourists pass through Ellsworth every summer on their way to Mount Desert Island and coastal destinations further Down East, but the city’s culinary scene — which has become more diverse in the past decade — has lacked notable food truck options.
Salsa Shack, The Black Sheep, and Waffle ME are out to change that.
Though Ellsworth hasn’t been known for food trucks in the past, the three takeout-on-wheels eateries that have opened in the city in the past month bring more options for hungry people in the Hancock County city.
Salsa Shack
Salsa Shack opened in late May at one of the busier public places in the city — Ellsworth’s Harbor Park. A different food stand had been there for a few years but the owners decided not to reopen, leaving a vacancy. When the city put the word out that it was looking for a new food vendor, it caught Cory LaForge’s attention.
“I jumped right on it,” LaForge said about contacting the city. “It’s just a beautiful location.”
LaForge, 38, said he spent about a year working his truck before he opened. He’s worked as a chef all over — at a few places in Bar Harbor, at Sugarloaf, restaurants in Utah and Colorado and most recently at Woodman’s Bar and Grill in Orono— but has been looking to branch out on his own.
“I wanted to open my own business,” the Orland resident said. “I love talking to people and I love talking about food.”
LaForge said he researched what other options were available in Ellsworth before he decided what kind of food to serve. He loves sandwiches, he said, but his trailer is so small he didn’t have enough storage space for the buns he would have to serve.
Tortillas, however, are compact and take up a lot less room. So even though Ellsworth already has two Mexican-style restaurants — Margaritas on Main Street and Casa Jalisco on High Street — he settled on tacos. And customers have responded.
“I’ve got customers who come on a daily basis, even in the rain,” he said.
Cory LaForge holds a taco as he stands in front of his food truck Salsa Shack at Ellsworth’s harbor park on Thursday, July 6, 2023. the Orland man’s taco truck is one of three brand new food trucks that are operating in Ellsworth this summer. Credit: Bill Trotter / BDN
Salsa Shack is open Wednesdays through Sundays and expects to keep that schedule through mid-October.
The Black Sheep
The Black Sheep, which operates in an auto parts store parking lot next the intersection of Myrick Street and Route 1, is a team effort by a pair of brothers from Sullivan.
Jordan Crosby, 32, attended Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island for culinary school and, by his estimate, has cooked at easily more than a dozen area restaurants, including at Ironbound in Hancock. His brother, Lyle Crosby, is 29 and worked for a lobster wholesale business before deciding to open the food truck with his brother.
“We wanted to open a restaurant,” Lyle said, but they decided starting a food truck was an easier way to start out. So this spring they bought a brand-new trailer in Nashville and drove it back to Maine to get it ready for the summer.
The Black Sheep offers pub-style fare such as burgers, hot dogs, salads, and chicken, but tries to differentiate its dishes from other local eateries.
“Our burger with cream cheese is one of our top sellers,” Lyle said.
The Black Sheep will typically be open in Ellsworth Tuesdays through Saturdays into the fall, though the brothers will vary their schedule a little at other events, such as a few Monday appearances at live music events at Tidal Falls in Hancock.
“We’re going to try to be here as long as the weather holds out,” Lyle said.
Waffle ME
Ellsworth’s new food truck options is rounded out by gourmet waffles from a local teacher who decided to give her dream a try this summer.
Ellsworth resident Kate Kennedy stands in front of a food trailer she has purchased and is fixing up in January 2023. She plans to sell Belgian-style sweet and savory waffles from the food truck, to be called Waffle ME, from an undetermined site in Ellswrith this summer. Credit: Courtesy of Kate Kennedy
Local resident Kate Kennedy, who owns and operates Waffle ME, started promoting her new venture online in December, months before her first day of business. After months of outfitting and painting the trailer, testing sweet and savory recipes, and getting needed certifications and licenses, she opened June 15 at Timberland Acres Campground, her usual Thursday stop just across the city line into Trenton.
Specializing in Liege-style Belgium waffles, Waffle Me offers plain, vegan and gluten-free waffles with nearly two dozen options for sauces and toppings. The truck also has a selection of pre-ordained options like Cheesecake by the Ocean, which tops the waffle with fresh blueberries or strawberries, homemade berry sauce, cheesecake drizzle and whipped cream. Love Me Tender is a waffle that would be right up Elvis’s alley with peanut butter and honey drizzle, bananas and bacon crumble.
Waffle ME also makes weekly appearances in Ellsworth at a chiropractor’s office on Resort Way, behind Finelli’s Pizza, usually on Fridays but also often on weekends. Kennedy frequently posts her schedules and locations for each week on the waffle truck’s Instagram page.