Page 1 of Tacos & Toboggans
Chapter One
September
The group of smiling faces that gathered around me filled my heart to overflowing. It was a beautiful early autumn day in Bells Pass, Michigan, and we were ready to offer the townspeople their favorite Tuesday lunch: Tacos!
“The dream team is back together again,” I said, offering high-fives to hype the team up. It consisted of three students learning how to operate the food truck through our local school-to-work program, alongside three mentors who were experienced and ready to help them learn the tricks of working a busy lunch hour. “How is everyone feeling today?” Once their excited chatter reached a fever pitch, I held up my hands to quiet them. “After working on the truck last week, do you have any suggestions we can use to improve things? Something that might speed up the process or make one of the stations faster or easier?”
“Nothing for me, Jaelyn Riba,” Gunner said, his excitement to work on the truck evident in how he bounced on his toes. It was cute and comical how he always called me by my full name. The school-to-work program was designed to train kids with physical and cognitive disabilities to work in theservice industry. Ivy Lund and Cameron Robbins, the program's co-founders, had tasked me with the newest adventure, a food truck.
“Having someone yell out the order as they take it,” Freya said. “That way, we can get started before the computer can print it out. It doesn’t seem like that would save much time, but shaving a few seconds off each order moves the line faster, so people don’t have to wait as long.”
“That’s easy enough,” AJ said.
“My thought was to have the most popular items prepared a few in advance,” Genesis added.
I always relied on my peer mentors to point out where we could improve each week, and they never let me down. “I’m not sure I understand. If we prep too far ahead, the tacos will get soggy.”
Genesis waved her hand to clarify. “I agree. I was thinking about the things that won’t go bad, like chips with salsa or guac. Also, the taco nachos could be ready and waiting for us to add the meat and cheese. Anything that can be prepped to near completion before adding the hot ingredient would save us a ton of time and move people through quickly. That feels important since we’re only open for a few hours.”
Understanding her explanation, I nodded. “That’s smart. The team at the test kitchen bags the chips, but having the salsa and guac portioned out and ready to go would save a lot of time. The nacho idea is great, too. We don’t have much time to do that today, but I can work on it in the background as I move between stations. It will be added to the prep sheet for next week, though. Anything else?”
Heads shook around the circle as I glanced at the clock, knowing we only had a few minutes until customers arrived.
“Great. I think we’re ready then. Today’s specialty taco is unique,” I explained. “It’s Spanish rice with chicken stuffed in a deep-fried sun-dried tomato tortilla shell. It’ll be messy, so don’t forget to include a fork with every order. Freya and Gunner, you’re on the fryer today.”
“You got it, boss!” Freya said, her enthusiasm carrying Gunner along with her toward the fryers.
“Grady and AJ, you’re taking orders at the window. Is that cool?” I asked, to which they both gave me a thumbs up, making them laugh. “AJ, please stay at the register as much as possible and ring up customers. It’ll protect your foot.”
“My foot is fine, Jaelyn,” she insisted, but I wasn’t convinced. I’d noticed how gingerly she’d climbed the two stairs to get into the truck. She’d broken her foot a few years ago, and for some reason, it had started to bother her again, even though she didn’t want to admit it. That was above my pay grade for the day, so I simply nodded.
“Genesis, will you help Holden prepare the containers? If you have time, prepare a few taco nachos, as you suggested. I’ll portion the salsa and guac on the back table and bring them up as I finish them.”
“Absolutely,” Genesis said, smiling at Grady, a first-timer on the truck. Freya, AJ, and Genesis were three of our high school senior mentors who helped the school-to-work kids stay on task and answer their questions as they learned to work on the truck.
“I’ll be here to help, so just shout out if you need me. Everybody ready?”
They all clapped once and darted to their stations, so I hopped down from the truck to put out the signs and open the window. When Ivy Lund, the owner of The Nightingale Diner and The Bells Pass Bakery, bought the food truck, she’d initially planned to use it for events and to cater weddings. That said, when it became known that the diner had a food truck, the people of Bells Pass had no intention of letting it sit idle. They even went so far as to run a contest with a local radio station to name the truck.
The winner?
The Bird's Nest.
The way everyone rallied behind the idea led Ivy to develop a bigger plan for the truck. That included two lunches a week that were planned, prepped, prepared, and served by our school-to-work program students. Lance Garland, a cook at the Nightingale Diner, also oversees the school-to-work program's teaching kitchen and assists with student training. Once the kids finish an extensive training program, they’regiven positions in the community with peer trainers who help them navigate the workplace. Truthfully, the peer trainers are also learning to navigate the workplace, just in a different way.
My role in this empire happened quite by accident. What began as me covering a shift on the food truck for Ivy when her little girl was sick had morphed into me running the two lunches weekly with the kids. I love my job as a server at the diner, but I look forward to these two shifts every week more than anything else.
Today, we were at Bells Pass Park. It offered plenty of parking and a scenic view of the gazebo for our customers. We moved the truck to different areas, from the school to the hospital to the park, but it didn’t matter where we went; hungry folks always found us. That may have had something to do with Genesis, our de facto social media guru. She made sure to post where the truck would be in fun, unique ways that drew people here by the droves. The steady sound of tires approaching told me it had worked again.
The truck’s faded and rusty exterior had been restored with a fresh coat of green paint to match the Bells Pass Christmas tree. Then the school art students designed a sign with a tiny bird’s nest at one end, featuring a nightingale singing for its supper inside. From start to finish, the truck's vibe reflected the town's spirit in all the right ways. Then Ivy seriously tricked out the interior with state-of-the-art kitchen appliances that met all food-truck standards. There were also a few extra safety precautions in place to protect everyone, given that the truck had workers of all ages. The counters looked just like the eat-in counter at the diner; there was storage that was accessible for all, and the prep area was expanded to accommodate peak season, which turned out to be far more critical than she’d realized when she did it. To keep up with the digital age, we offered multiple payment options and a system that made math and reading seamless for those who needed extra help, allowing everyone to rotate through the stations.
It took a few months, but slowly, we found a core team that enjoyed working in the truck. We allow others to try it out every week and see if they like it. Not everyone enjoys thetruck's fast-paced nature, so it’s optional. While we do as much prep work as possible, things still come up quite often that force us to pivot. With any luck, today’s pivot would be wiping the daily special off the board when it sells out. That wasn't likely, though. It usually took a few weeks for a daily special to catch on and pick up popularity. If it didn’t after two weeks, we’d relegate it to the recipe pile of failures. My concern with today's was that the rice would make it difficult to eat with the crispy shells, so I also planned to try a few wrapped in soft shells, like a burrito. Since the recipe was my grandmother’s, I wanted it to have a successful trial run. I also understood that different people show up at the truck every week, so reaching everyone who may enjoy it takes a few times.
I was barely back in the truck when lunch hour roared into overdrive as tacos and burritos flew out the window. Unfortunately, the daily special was not flying out the window. I made a note to ask Ivy if we could try it at the diner to get a little buzz going about it before bringing it back to the truck. Explaining the dish was difficult on a sign that someone would glance at for a hot second before ordering, and I should have thought of that sooner. It wasn’t a make it or break it situation, as many of our daily specials attempts had failed, but I had some extra motivation to keep this one afloat. As my family’s signature dish, sharing it with others was a way to honor my Yaya Riba.
“A daily special!” AJ called, much to my surprise. After helping Gunner load the shells, he pushed them across the counter to a man wearing a suit and tie. His hair was cut in a military style that wasn’t quite high and tight, but was close enough to tell me it once had been. The most striking part about him was his eyes. They were bright blue, almost the same color as the Christmas lights that lit up this park every season. Without a doubt, he was a stranger to Bells Pass, as I would have remembered those eyes.
Sadly, he walked out of my line of sight, and since I didn’t want to look like a stalker, all I could do was return to helping the kids keep ahead on orders. Before long, every one of those orders was for the daily special. I wasn’t sure what washappening, but we kept filling orders, my gaze glued to the clock and the pan of rice that was dwindling fast. We had to shut the truck window at exactly one p.m. so the kids could return to school for their final hour of classes, but that was still fifteen minutes away. With little left but a scoop, the crowd thinned, and before long, the park was empty. It was three minutes to one. Another successful Taco Tuesday, if I’d ever seen one.
