NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — There was a bit of a slowdown during the pandemic, but business for food trucks is once again moving in the right direction. However, the owner of a popular food truck saw her dreams blown to pieces literally, a little more than a week ago.
Marisa Celise La Rocco, the owner of the Saguaro Shack food truck, said she just feels grateful that the situation wasn't as bad as it could have been.
"It's been a wild week for sure," La Rocco said. "I thought someone drove in through the house."
But it wasn't her house creating the commotion Friday night; it was a gas explosion inside her food truck.
"All the pilot lights were off; all the propane gas was off, and they just said it was just a build-up of gas that just — it happened like a freak accident kind of thing," La Rocco said.
The explosion couldn't help but damage her neighbor's yard.
"I'm like, I just feel bad. Because, like, the fence is ruined, and he's like, 'it will get fixed," she said.
The biggest hit was taken by the Shack itself. La Rocco's been making tamales and tacos in the Saguaro Shack for a while now and has created quite a following.
"It kind of looked like my griddle and oven — they do look savable," La Rocco said, surveying the damage.
While the food has been put on hold temporarily, friends and neighbors decided to serve up a heaping portion of goodwill.
"I moved out here seven years ago, and everybody has been so kind to me," La Rocco said. "So, I've been making tamales ever since I moved out here for people I work with, or just, like — my love language is food."
She said that in the future, she'd like to see her food franchised.
"We did this all with our own money, like, we didn't have a Kickstarter or GoFundMe, like, we just worked hard to, like, get this trailer. And it's just overwhelming how many people, like, coming out and just wanting to support, asking like, 'hey can I buy some tamales off of you?' 'When's your next pop-up?'"
The future looks bright for Marisa, who plans to reopen the business next spring, in a Nashville Cidery.
"I've been in the works of getting a brick-and-mortar started inside of a craft cidery that's about to open in Nashville next year. And we were selling it to get the money to get that kitchen out," La Rocco said.
After all she's been through, La Rocco has words of wisdom for fellow Food Truck owners:
"Urge them to get that gas detector, because it's $20 off of Amazon," she said.
La Rocco said she is currently putting together a Kickstarter fund and added that there may soon be other chances to make her much-loved tamales and tacos for her community.
