Selling a few different types of breakfast sandwiches cooked under a tent on a portable grill from Walmart has led to local business growing rapidly.
The growth of Breakfast Smoke food truck, whose owner considers it to be more of a diner, can be attributed to the affordability, quality and flavor of the food served at the business in a lot at 904 E. University Ave. Hours are 7:30 a.m.-noon, Monday through Friday.
“People would come and watch me cook on the grill under the tent when we first started about three years ago,” said Sammy Vardaro, the 30-year-old Boston native who owns and operates the business with his partner, Chelsea Redd, 27, who was born and raised in east Gainesville.
After serving food under the tent for a couple of months, city officials forced Vardaro to cease operations until he got the proper license to be a food vendor.
“We paused operations for about three months, started over by getting our paperwork right, and have been going strong ever since,” Vardaro said on a recent day, just after making a fresh order of chicken wings and waffles for longtime customer Sinclair Rivers.
“I’m not going to say I was his first customer, but I could have been because I started coming her when he first started out cooking under the tent,” Rivers said as he picked up his order. “Everything he serves is always good and fresh, and you can tell he has a passion for what he does.”
The business is more of a diner than a simple small food truck because he believes diners are cozier and the relationships he has with his customers are more personal than a simple transaction, Vardaro said.
“We know almost all of our customers by name, and we get to know the new customers by name.”
The menu is simple but tasty, Vardaro said, and includes a variety of sandwiches served on croissants, toast or burritos, as well as entrees served with butter biscuits and bacon and eggs, sausage and eggs, salmon and eggs, steaks and eggs, unbreaded chicken wings and eggs and unbreaded chicken wings and waffles, as well as other items, including asparagus.
“We have options for everybody,” Redd said.
Those options range in price from $7-15, according to the menu posted on the side of the food truck.
As northeast Gainesville resident Hanzel Duncan waited for his order, he said he has been coming to Breakfast Smoke for “a minute.” The small food truck is flanked by a Waffle House directly across the street and a stone’s throw away from a McDonald’s and Wawa.
“The food is real good and they feed you real good,” Duncan said. “I used to go to the Waffle House, but I put them down.”
Duncan said he loves the menu at Breakfast Smoke, especially the croissant sandwiches.
“They can make them however you want them to,” Duncan said.
His passion for cooking started while watching his grandmother cook when he was a little boy, Vardaro said.
“I just fell into cooking and the passion was always there, and I just needed the knowledge,” Vardaro said. “My love for cooking and food comes from a real place.”
Perfecting his cooking skills began while working in kitchens that led to him being hired as a private chef in Boca Raton that eventually led to him coming to the Gainesville area to work as a private chef before working for himself, Vardaro said.
The success of Breakfast Smoke is fueled by the love of the food, satisfying customers and having a good team, Vardaro said.
“Chelsea is a big part of this,” Vardaro said, adding that Redd has strong ties to the community and knows a lot of people.
“This is a common place for people to meet up,” Redd said. “We specialize in bringing together.”
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