Churro Delight Hits the Sweet Spot in Fredericton
FREDERICTON – Downtown Fredericton Garrison Night Market is proving to be quite the hot spot for both established food vendors as well as a selection of brand new vendors jumping on the opportunity to take part in one of the city’s most popular new events.
One of these brand new vendors is Churro Delight, a dessert trailer run by University of New Brunswick business student Michael El-Khoury. Churro Delight specializes in a form of the fried dough pastry that’s shaped into a bowl and served with ice cream and other toppings. The trailer’s appearance at last week’s Night Market served as their grand opening.
El-Khoury said he first had the idea to introduce the concept to Fredericton after discovering it while studying abroad in Australia.
“There was a night market in Melbourne and there was this massive line. I’d never heard the word ‘churro’ ever in my life,” he says. “What they were selling was actually churro bowls with ice cream. I tried them and fell in love. I got addicted because they were so delicious.”
After his six months of travelling and studying abroad, El-Khoury came back to New Brunswick with churros fresh in his mind. Since there was nothing quite like it being offered in the area, he shared his idea to bring the cinnamony treat to Fredericton with his family and friends.
“I thought [churro bowls] would be something unique to introduce to the city and thought this might be an opportunity with the Night Market coming up soon,” he says. “So I went full in during the school year, started it up, got my trailer about two weeks ago and we’re all set up now.”
El-Khoury says he is the first in his immediate family to get into the food industry but that he grew up loving to cook.
“My father is in the apartment business but my mom is always cooking in the house,” he says. “From a young age, I always loved cooking and helped her make pasta and we’re Lebanese so I helped her make Lebanese food.”
El-Khoury says the churro dough is made fresh every day in the Churro Delight trailer. It’s then piped into an inverted cupcake tin, cooked, frozen, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. The bowls are served to customers topped with ice cream and a variety of flavour combinations.
For its grand opening, Churro Delight served up their specialty Churro Delight bowl along with Fruity Pebbles and Oreo bowls. The dessert was a hit on its first night of operation and El-Khoury hopes to carry that success into the future.
“I hope it does pretty well and gets a good reputation,” he says. “I just want to be able to spread out creation and delicious treats. Hopefully maybe a franchise someday but that’s very far ahead. Right now, I just want to be an entrepreneur and have fun.”