Grumpy’s, the popular Downtown eatery known for its Garbage Salad, will soon be trucking the favorite meal around Toledo in its new food truck, called Grumpy’s On The Go.
Starting June 21, the Grumpy’s On The Go truck will be parked 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday at locations yet to be announced, and will be stocked solely with the eatery’s signature Garbage Salad, said the truck’s driver, Maggie Bauman, whose mother and aunt own the 30-year-old business.
“Our main seller is the Garbage Salad and our clientele is the work crowd and we can only cater to Downtown,” Bauman said. “There’s Perrysburg and Sylvania people who can’t eat Downtown on their lunch break and there’s such a demand for it. This is a perfect venue to get people what they want and they want the Garbage Salad.”
On Saturdays, the truck will be parked outside Grumpy’s at 34 S. Huron St., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., but during the week, Bauman said she is still trying to nail down locations.
“As of now it’s definitely going to be Harold Jaffe Jewelers on Talmadge Road one day a week,” Bauman said. “We would definitely like to spread out and be at different places every day.”
On Thursdays the truck will park at Arrowhead Park in Maumee and Bauman has also reached out to ProMedica about adding hospitals to the schedule.
“I’ve been in touch with the administration and right now, they are creating a system-wide policy for hospitals regarding food trucks so they said they’d get back to me in a couple weeks,” Bauman said.
Finding locations is a “tricky” business, she said, because Grumpy’s doesn’t want to “step on anyone’s toes.” Their goal is to find locations with parking lots, she said.
The food truck will sell only prepackaged Garbage Salads made at the Downtown deli.
The signature Garbage Salad comes in four varieties: regular, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free. Toppings include bacon, chicken, tomato, onion, mushroom, raisins, croutons and four cheeses. The salad comes with a homemade poppy seed dressing.
All salad toppings will come on the side of the pre-packaged salads, Bauman said. Cookies, soda and water will also be available for purchase.
Grumpy’s got the truck in March and has since been outfitting it to be ready for customers. On June 10, it was being vinyl-wrapped.
The truck also needed to pass an inspection by the health department, Bauman said.
Grumpy’s is owned by Bauman’s mother, Sara Bauman, and Bauman’s aunt, Jennifer Shemak.
Bauman is the third generation to come into the business that was started by her grandmother, Connie Horn, and her husband, Jeff, at their hardware store on Broadway Street in 1984.
“My grandparents had a hardware store and [Shemak] opened up a deli counter in back of Horn Hardware,” Bauman said. “That’s why some of the classic food is named after tools. They were doing so well with the food bar, they closed down the hardware store and opened up Grumpy’s.”
When Bauman’s grandmother died four years ago, Bauman’s mother returned to Toledo from New York, where Bauman was born and raised, to take over ownership of Grumpy’s with Shemak.
“So the third generation is coming in and growing the business in this direction [the food truck] so it’s very exciting,” Bauman said. “There’s just so much to learn from this experience. So when I found myself back in Toledo, it just made sense. It’s an incredible opportunity and I’m so blessed to have my family business.”
Bauman will announce future locations of the food truck on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
