{"id":16894,"date":"2017-04-02T21:53:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T03:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=16894"},"modified":"2017-04-02T22:46:59","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T04:46:59","slug":"food-truck-mobile-bakery-almost-ready-to-hit-the-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/04\/food-truck-mobile-bakery-almost-ready-to-hit-the-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Food truck-mobile bakery almost ready to hit the street"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trailer\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Matt Melvin stands next to his Rudeboys food truck and mobile bakery, which he hopes to have on the street by early May.<\/p><\/div>\n

Late last decade, Matt Melvin, a chef and baker who had worked for a lot of restaurants, started thinking about opening his own place.<\/p>\n

But he and his wife, Maggie, were looking at an upfront investment of up $200,000, and it was a hurdle they couldn\u2019t get over. Things started looking up last year, when Brian Johnson got a hold of him.<\/p>\n

Johnson, who heard about Melvin\u2019s hopes from a mutual friend, is a partner in Collaborative Design Architects. He and two other partners, Jeff Kanning and Nick Pancheau, had started an offshoot of CDA called Arch 406 (see related story<\/a>), to provide design and contractor services for clients with smaller projects than CDA usually handles.<\/p>\n

One thing they had decided to focus on was tiny homes, but not just for living in. They wanted to build second homes and guest homes, home offices, studios and\u2014this is where Melvin comes in\u2014custom food trucks.<\/p>\n

Johnson said Melvin was a little skeptical at first, but he didn\u2019t need much convincing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt just took this and ran with it and he\u2019s really excited about it,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

The result is a completely custom-designed mobile bakery and kitchen, which Melvin hopes to have on the street by late April or early May.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure we\u2019ll be the only mobile bakery in the Pacific Northwest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Rudeboys, as the business will be called, will be making four kinds of bread to begin with\u2014ciabatta, boule (traditional French farmers bread), a demi baguette and a flatbread\u2014in addition to cookies, a flourless chocolate cake, a soft pretzel, a brioche and English muffins.<\/p>\n

The descriptions of his breads on the Rudeboys menu are mouth-wateringly detailed. Here\u2019s how he introduces the \u201cHopped Ciabatta\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cRudeboys\u2019 most complex bread. Yeast and flour bloomed with Billings\u2019 own Uberbrew Iconic Pale Ale for 18-24 hours. Then combined with local honey, hand kneaded, and placed into a scorching hot oven. Best served as a sandwich bread or with a soft cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the breads as his base, Melvin will be serving sandwiches and burgers, in addition to coconut curry pork tacos. Look for some flair in all his offerings. His \u201cDead Hippie Burger,\u201d for example, will feature two beef patties, red pepper aioli, hard salami, cheddar cheese and pork belly.<\/p>\n

Among the \u201cspecials\u201d he plans to open with is a soft-shelled crab BLT on a croissant bun with strawberry rhubarb jam, bacon and arugula, and a pizza-by-the-slice featuring sliced almonds, ricotta cheese, caramelized onion, hemp seed pesto and a beet crust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s too crazy,\u201d Melvin said, \u201cwe\u2019ll have stuff like a house-smoked pastrami sandwich.\u201d He\u2019s calling his style of food \u201cgourmet grub.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Samich\"<\/a>

Allison Kazmierski<\/p>

One of Melvin’s sandwich will be a chicken parmigiana on a demi baguette with arugula and rose petals.<\/p><\/div>\n

And he\u2019ll be making it in a 153-square-foot food truck with a full kitchen, a 48-inch range and double oven, a fryer, refrigerator, sink and prep table. The food truck will set him back about $60,000 and all his equipment will cost between $10,000 and $12,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is unheard of,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the only way we were able to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melvin worked closely on the design with Johnson, who has also worked in restaurants. Most food trucks have work areas on either side of a narrow galley, making it hard to maneuver and for workers to stay out of each other\u2019s way. The Rudeboys truck has the kitchen in front, with the prep and sales area in back, much like a restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got a front-of-the-house, back-of-the-house feel to it,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s literally a mobile kitchen,\u201d Melvin added.<\/p>\n

And Melvin, who spent nine months traveling all over the country in a 1980 Thunderbird back in 2000, loves the idea of mobility. Everybody talks about Missoula and Bozeman, Melvin said, \u201cbut Billings is leading the food culture in Montana right now. We want to take it around the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes to take his mobile bakery and food truck to\u00a0music festivals and other events around Montana during the summer, staying in Billings on weekdays. And because he plans to bake breads for sale in stores and restaurants\u2014\u201cI\u2019m not going to say no to anybody who wants my business\u201d\u2014Melvin figures that when the food-truck business is slow, he can stay busy baking.<\/p>\n

Melvin is a native of Sheridan, Wyo., who has worked in kitchens for Rocket Gourmet Wraps, MacKenzie River Pizza, the Northern Hotel and Bin 119. He also worked as the food and beverage manager for Lucky\u2019s Market and spent two years at Lilac, including a year as manager.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still there part-time, working closely with owner Jeremy Engebretson as he gets ready for Rudeboys\u2014the name a nod to street kids they called \u201crude boys\u201d in 1950s and \u201960s Jamaica.<\/p>\n

One reason the food culture is thriving in Billings is that chefs like Engebretson are so willing to share their knowledge and to encourage others who could be seen as competitors, Melvin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeremy likes to foster a good food community here in town,\u201d he said, as does Joanie Swords, the owner of Harper & Madison. She has been helping him by testing his food creations and giving him advice and encouragement. Her experience is invaluable, Melvin said, because she knows so much about food and what people in Billings like to eat.<\/p>\n

More information<\/strong>: Once Rudeboys is open for business, you can check on the food truck\u2019s location and see what\u2019s on the menu on the Rudeboys website<\/a> or Facebook page<\/a>. In the meantime, Melvin’s demi baguettes are for sale at Harper & Madison, 3115 10th Ave. N.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late last decade, Matt Melvin, a chef and baker who had worked for a lot of restaurants, started thinking about opening his own place. But he and his wife, Maggie, were looking at an upfront investment of up $200,000, and it was a hurdle they couldn\u2019t get over. Things started looking up last year, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[5703,874,1564,647,5702,5701],"class_list":["post-16894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-diversions","tag-arch-406","tag-collaborative-design-architects","tag-harper-madison","tag-lilac","tag-matt-melvin","tag-rudeboys","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16894"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16938,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16894\/revisions\/16938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}