By Cassie Jones | The Journal
A new food truck is drawing customers in with its fast casual salads and organic frozen yogurt, providing alternative options to fried food.
Green + The Grain has a weekly rotating menu of options that can be either a salad or a wrap. The price range is between $9 and $10.50 plus tax.
“Week to week there’s a new salad that we’ll try to introduce or we’ll kind of circle back and do something […] that was favorited or that people enjoyed,” said owner Tiffany Hauser. “The Cowboy, the Asian, the Berry, for sure, is super popular, so we try to rotate those three. We also have a Buffalo Shrimp Caesar that’s like super popular.”
Green + The Grain also serves Cloud Top organic signature tart frozen yogurt with an assortment of toppings, including fresh berries, organic granola and several other healthier options. A small cup is $4 and a large is $6.
Hauser said the concept is unique to food trucks and her inspiration came from the lack of healthy, on-the-go options for lunch downtown. Originally, she proposed to launch the concept into the skyway but did not get enough financing to make it happen. After a year of trying, Hauser decided to look into more feasible options.
“At first […], we weren’t sure that the concept would work because everything’s fresh, everything’s made to order, you know, we have all these stainless steel bowls, you know, there’s just a lot of logistical pieces that we were kind of unsure of, and then the more and more we kind of put it on paper, the more and more we were like, you know, we could literally be up and running in a couple of months,” Hauser said.
As the daughter of restaurant owners, Hauser has been in the industry for a long time and knows the work that goes into being successful, but has a new appreciation for food trucks.
“I think it’s just since it’s mobile, it makes everything 10 times harder because you have limited water supply, you have to hook things up to your generator in order to get power, there’s just like all these things that most people who work in a restaurant industry you know might take for granted,” she said.
Hauser also mentioned that about 20 businesses share a kitchen for cooking and cleaning, which she must reserve a time slot to use.
Although operating Green + The Grain takes a lot of hard work, Hauser said it is also really rewarding and she appreciates the flexibility and independence that comes along with it.
“My favorite thing about it is that I’m in charge of my own destiny. I like that if things aren’t going a certain way or if we’re not successful in one aspect of it then we have to regroup and rethink about it and then do something else. I like the ability to kind of create your own success towards it a little bit, just because you basically can do whatever it is that you want to do,” Hauser said.
Hauser hopes to expand the concept into either the skyway or a full restaurant in the future.
Typically, Green + The Grain can be found along Marquette or South 6th Street and South 2nd Avenue.
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