Meals truck’s fare fits eco-friendly vibe at Jupiter’s Riverbend Park
JUPITER — Starting a business at the top of the coronavirus pandemic – in foods, no a lot less – appears a daunting job.
Not to Amanda Oswalt and Isaac Hernandez.
Right after COVID-19 wiped out Hernandez’s job, the few took their $30,000 in existence price savings to get and equip a shiny new foodstuff truck. The two previous restaurant servers very last slide opened The Magic Bowls in Riverbend Park, providing balanced foodstuff and espresso Friday by Sunday in the Jupiter natural spot that wraps all over the meandering Loxahatchee River.
“We adore remaining outdoors. We really like wholesome food. Buyers are hiking, kayaking, bicycling below. Children are enjoying. Everybody’s happy,” said Oswalt, keeping their 2-calendar year-previous son, Emilio.
Acai bowls are handheld containers loaded with pulped acai berries and other fruit. Prospects pick toppings these kinds of as granola, seeds, nuts and peanut butter. Acai – pronounced ah-sah-EE – is a purplish berry, loaded with antioxidants, that grows on palm trees in Brazil.
Standing in The Magic Bowls’ cramped truck on a the latest Friday early morning – the ceiling was built substantial to handle Hernandez’s 6-foot-3-inch frame – the pair explained enterprise is steadily rising since they opened Oct. 23, Oswalt’s 28th birthday.
“I love doing the job here. A purchaser seemed in the door the other working day and I was dancing although I was generating a bowl. We equally laughed,” mentioned Hernandez, 31.
Preserving the eco-respectful vibe in Riverbend Park, The Magic Bowls has no menus. Receipts for obtain are not handed out except the purchaser requests a person.
“As their food stuff truck title indicates, Isaac and Amanda deliver magic to Riverbend Park. The place else can you sit underneath a cypress tree along the wild and scenic Loxahatchee River, view kayakers float by and enjoy a freshly designed rooster salad wrap, açaí bowl or bullet espresso?” mentioned Rick Clegg, whose corporation, Jupiter Outdoor Middle, rents kayaks, canoes and bicycles in Riverbend Park.
A indigenous of Naranjito in central Puerto Rico, Hernandez grew up performing in the family members electric powered and plumbing small business. Oswalt grew up on her family’s rooster farm in Brownsburg, Indiana, feeding livestock and riding horses in barrel races.
The Macaroni Grill restaurant in Wellington in 2012 was the place they connected.
Oswalt was a server. Hernadez was a bartender. Oswalt experienced moved to South Florida to pursue a degree in enterprise and psychology at Florida Atlantic University. Hernandez moved to Wellington to find restaurant get the job done and reside with his brother.
Following doing work for six many years with each other, both determined they had had ample.
“I was pregnant. Just one working day I was in the kitchen having an impatient customer’s meal. The purchaser yells out, ‘Hey, what are you, in labor in there?’ I did not need to have that,” Oswalt mentioned.
Oswalt went to perform at Andrews Technology as an account government. Hernandez marketed automobiles at a Toyota dealership on Condition Road 7.
In the meantime, they contemplated a life-style alter.
The system was to open up a kayak-Airbandb-food items sophisticated on the beach in Puerto Rico.
Hurricane Maria in 2017 dashed that dream.
“I went to visit my spouse and children just after Maria strike. The mountains, after shiny inexperienced with trees, ended up brown. No streets. No communication. The mud was waistline deep. The ocean plopped a coral reef suitable on the seaside,” Hernandez said.
Visits to local dining places that served acai bowls released their notion for their have food business. Hernandez, who by then was a server for Bimini Twist, commenced experimenting with tropical, wholesome recipes at house.
Oswalt continued doing the job from the couple’s Port St. Lucie property for Andrews Technologies, a Wilmington, N.C.-based mostly firm that tends to make workforce administration application. COVID-19 eliminated her traveling to nationwide trade exhibits.
When Bimini Twist removed Hernandez’s serving task, they made a decision to consider the plunge.
“I wasn’t working. A lender would not give us a loan. So we made use of all the money we saved to purchase the food truck,” he claimed.
Even though days are very long – 5 a.m. stops at the regional fruit stand, and then scrubbing clean the truck at 4 p.m. – they aren’t complaining.
“All the things going on in Riverbend – kayaking, yoga, climbing, bicycling – make this a terrific area to be,” Oswalt.
