Menu

Let's huddle up and share who we are as readers. What is your career role?

62561730_833118087057263_3533402915051929600_n
The Monkey Truck at King Street, Fredericton. Image: The Monkey Truck Facebook page.
Home » Food Trucks Of New Brunswick: The MonkeyTruck

Food Trucks Of New Brunswick: The MonkeyTruck

, , ,

Reading Time: 3 minutes

FREDERICTON – At Huddle, we love food and writing about food. In this week’s edition of Food Trucks of New Brunswick, the spotlight is on The MonkeyTruck. You may have seen it parked in front of the Capital Complex, where we chatted with Natalie Ramirez. The MonkeyTruck is owned by her husband Jonathan and Wahid Ayoubau.

The MonkeyTruck has been in business since July of last year. Jonathan and Natalie also own Monkey Cakes, a cupcake bakery on Regent Street.

What made you decide to open a food truck?
Jonathan and I had a food truck years ago. We did Mexican food, and then we got out of that, went into the cake business, and then we met Wahid and his brother Abdul, and they have great Syrian food. So, we decided to have this fusion of Mexican food and Syrian food and started that a year ago.
How has the response been to the food truck?
Excellent. Fredericton is definitely ready for more ethnic foods, we’re a very multicultural town. Everyone has been very open to it. And then, of course, for some clients, we are reminding them of home. We take them back to their roots.
How would you describe what you serve? Where do you get the inspiration from?
Well, it would be both backgrounds. Wahid is from Damascus, Syria, so these would be his family’s recipes. And Jonathan’s roots are from Guanajuato, Mexico, but he’s originally from California. That’s why we say it’s a twist on Californian-Mexican food. It’s the two cultures.
Image: The Monkey Truck Facebook page.
Have you found any challenges in working in a food truck?
On a daily basis, the heat. We have the shawarma machine, the grill, the oven, the front-line burners, just everything throws heat. And summertime in Fredericton, it’s pretty hot and humid. And then you stick four or five bodies in there… We’re melting most of the time. But, we have a lot of fun, we have great customers.
Is there a connection to Monkey Cakes?
Yeah, we sell Monkey Cakes here. We have Monkey Cakes uptown on Regent Street, we do custom cakes and cupcakes, and so we sell Monkey Cakes on the truck when we can when they are not melting. It’s our sister company, I guess you would say.
Do you have any plans for the future?
More trucks, maybe? Right now, we know our recipes, we know we get great reviews from our customers, so it’s just continuing on growing the business. We’re at a lot of events. This year, we’ve branched out and we’re doing weddings. We’ve done a few weddings, a few parties, like a red party. Of course, we are at the Garrison Market. Our home base is here on King Street. You’ll find us here usually on late night Saturday bar night till like three in the morning. We’re usually here on Taco Tuesday. The rest of the week is kind of played by ear depending on what else we have on the go. And we have to sleep every now and again.
So it’s usually here in Fredericton?
Pretty much. We get around to places like Woodstock, Gagetown, and Saint John.
What do you like the most about working in a food truck?
We have a lot of fun. We all get along fairly well. We have great customers. You see a lot, you meet a lot of people. We have a lot of return customers, people who come almost every day that we’re open.

Related Posts

Huddle will only approve your comment if you provide your first and last name.