New Food Trucks Open in Roseburg
10:41 PM · Jan 5, 2023Five food trucks have opened in Roseburg in the last few months, most of which bring something new and family-style business to the community. Honey Hill BBQ Honey Hill BBQ opened on Saturday. The Texas couple learned how to make barbecue from pitmasters in their neighborhood when they lived in a new development on Honey Hill Lane. Owner Cruz Moreno used to work in real estate, but now he and his wife Kara Moreno can work together and run the family-style business they’ve dreamed of. “I can’t go down the street and get a pound or two of brisket and that’s what I became accustomed to in Texas,” Cruz said. “I wanted to do something I loved to do. People were at my house every other weekend for these massive smokeouts. When we came here we saw the need. We have pretty good roots set down here. This is it for us. We feel like we’ve really found our new home. We want to establish our business as well.” He and his wife Kara pour their time and love into the briskets and pork butts so their customers have the convenience of picking it up when they want it instead of setting aside hours of their time to make it. “I am so proud of everyone here and what they’ve done for barbecue,” Cruz said. “It’s their own thing. It’s what ya’ll like to do and what ya’ll know. It’s something that I love to do. I really really love to cook barbecue. It’s something that I put so much time into. It’s not like anything else.” The home base for the food truck will be at the Lot in Roseburg and the secondary location will be at Lookinglass Brewery in Winston, but they want to take advantage of being mobile, so check their Facebook page if you have a BBQ craving only Honey Hill can fill. * Caffeine Hero Caffeine Hero opened on Christmas Eve in the Staples parking lot. They offer coffee, energy drinks, smoothies, freeze-dried candies, smoothies and more for a quick pick-me-up or a snack. The owners were also looking for an option to be together more after husband and owner Shawn Silvia spent seven years in the oil field, getting only vacation time with his wife, Laura Silvia, and the rest of his family. “We opened Caffeine Hero so that we could do something that was family-based,” Laura said. “He worked away from home for seven years and so that was all that family time that we missed out on. He got to come home for two weeks at a time and we didn’t want to do that anymore.” Shawn spent six days working with a friend at a similar coffee cart in Florida before making the commitment and now they are happily spending time together, rain or shine, in the cart making drinks and doing their best to cater to food sensitivities. Their syrups are plant-based and take pride in their coffee. “I already knew I enjoyed making coffee for people and stuff like that, but it was, am I gonna actually like it in this sort of a setting and stuff instead of being in my house,” Shawn said. “It was a lot of fun. I had a lot of good times and memories in that short time and I came back and said, alright, let's do it!” They will be in their spot Monday-Friday 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. and most Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. unless they have an event. * Tammy’s Breakfast Grub The breakfast food trailer opened in November in the Staples parking lot right next to where Caffeine Hero opened. Owner Tammy Haynes said they already have people racing to get there before they close and finding something they will love, even if a lot of things are sold out by the time they get there. “There is not another breakfast food truck in town,” Haynes said. “I’ve been doing customer service all my life. We aim to please and you can feel the love of the people. Last week, we ran out of a lot of stuff and people were still buying food.” Haynes is grateful to be her own boss with her little crew. She is at Staples Monday through Friday from 4 a.m. to 11 a.m. before another truck comes to take her spot in the afternoon. * The Pizza Bus Another family affair, Jeremy and Louise Ungerman run their happy little bus in front of Big 5 Sporting Goods. They bought their pizza business for the unique crust and unique sauce. “We’re obsessed with Pizza!” Jeremy said. “We had such a big following in Hawaii, so it’s hard starting over again. Hawaii shut down tourists, so we got to spend a year with just the locals, which was really cool. We got to meet our neighbors and have that old-fashioned island feel. We kind of realized we were too far away from our kids and her mom, so we had to figure out how to bring the business back here. ” The bus opened in September, but the Ungermans bought the business from friends when they were living in Hawaii in 2019. It had been around as Pizza Rovers since 2015. The business is tried and true, and the couple is part of the Roseburg legacy. In Hawaii, they used a trailer and tents but decided they needed walls when they came home to Roseburg. “We are connecting with the people in the community - they’re not just guests,” Louise said. “We’ve always considered ourselves to be community over competition. We don't challenge any other food truck we would never go set up next to somebody and try to take their business. We try to uplift and support each other. Just trying to help each other out. We’re all just trying to make a buck here.” Louise calls their food equal opportunity pizza - they can make their food vegan, vegetarian, or gluten free. They are also excited about getting into the rotations at local breweries and festivals, but their regular spot will be in front of Big 5 Sporting Goods Tuesday afternoons and will pop up at breweries around the county, so check their Facebook page. * Zack’s Bowl Shack Zack Compton built his business from nothing in the last eight months. He sells poké bowls with tuna, chicken, veggies and more from his spot trailer. He and his wife work in the little trailer together, making rice in the massive, gas-line-plumbed-in rice cooker from Japan. “I was at a friend's house and she made poké and I was like this is the best thing I've ever eaten,” Compton said. “I had eaten them before, I just didn't know what it was called. A couple months after that, I stopped doing my old job and I was like, what am I gonna do? I was like, I’m going to build a poké truck, so I built this and then I even made the design and then I made the menu and yeah, so it's basically a poke truck but my wife's like, you have still chicken because it’s Roseburg, so we threw some chicken and some veggies on the menu and there it is. The reviews have been really good. I want to do tofu and things like that, but the problem is cross-contamination.” He’s been selling out almost every day for the past few weeks and has a lot of regulars coming to the trailer. He makes the meat in the morning before opening and sells it until it’s gone. He never uses day-old meat. His wife, Stacey Compton, runs the cash register during the lunch rush and then does the grocery shopping while he runs the slow afternoon shift. They operate the trailer four days a week and are still figuring out the best days for them. “We try to keep it quick and if I have somebody taking the orders, it goes way quicker because I can hear it,” Compton said. “I can start doing it instead of like, because I'm also like to kind of a chatterbox a little bit, so I can't quit talking. So it's good to have her helping and then when it slows down she goes and does the shopping for tomorrow because we do everything fresh daily.” Compton is still working out the days, but it will be four days a week, mostly at 316 NW Garden Valley Blvd, behind the State Farm office from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Follow the Facebook page to confirm the daily location. He plans on taking his trailer to festivals and breweries too.