Veg Out Expanding In Fredericton To Northside Market
FREDERICTON – Two entrepreneurs are growing their vegan food business from a food truck to a year-round operation with a prep kitchen and new market location.
Shelby Harnish and Patrick Stewart will be opening up a Veg Out stall with their plant-based street food at the Northside Market in Fredericton on February 15.
“We’ve definitely realized that we have a strong following of people who missed us,” Stewart said.
Veg Out has served up a variety of vegan dishes including donair and shawarma from a summer food truck at the Boyce Farmers Market and breweries. The business closed for the winter as they couldn’t run in the cold and the market doesn’t allow vendors to cook inside.
The couple launched the business shortly after going vegan when they discovered the lack of options for eating out with their new diet. It began with a stall at the Cultural Market before switching to a truck with the help of a crowdfunding campaign.
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Veg Out is hiring a few full-time employees to help with the shift to year-round operations. The business had seven part-time staff last summer and plans to have to grow to 12 part and full-time this year.
Stewart, who has a background in construction, built a $3,500 commercial kitchen in a rented garage space to prepare food for the new stall.
The year-round spot at the Northside Market will allow for greater flexibility this summer to take the food truck to festivals outside of the city.
“Part of the issue last summer was because we had a client base at the Boyce Farmers Market, we didn’t want to have to leave them if we went to an event for the weekend,” Harnish said. “Now we have the option of traveling with the truck and still having that location for local customers.”
Stewart said the food truck scene is seeing a shift from greasy to healthier, higher-price options.
“I think that people do appreciate the way that it’s going in the sense that the quality of food trucks is really going up,” he said. “You’ll notice that a lot of the more old school food trucks are starting to sell off and you don’t see them as often.”
Veg Out will be launching a fresh menu with new offerings such as a Korean barbecue taco at both locations once the food truck hits the road on May 1. The Northside Market stall will start with the same dishes as last summer until the change.
“The point of this in the first place to just show people that eating vegan doesn’t have to be you know a salad,” Harnish said.