BANGOR, Maine — Alex Bounds reaches for a pizza waiting on a baker’s rack to his right as Dawn Carey pieces another pie together, topping it with colorful vegetables. Bounds transfers the creation to an oven where the crust slowly takes on color and the cheese starts to bubble.
Scattered around Pompeii Pizza, which has been operating seasonally on the Bangor Waterfront since 2013, customers patiently await their lunch while enjoying the light summer breeze and warm sun.
Travis Carey boxes up a pie, hollers out a name, and another customer leaves with lunch in hand.
From October to mid-April, Pompeii Pizza is closed for business, but instead of a locked door on a brick-and-mortar building, the mobile stone-fired business is in storage. With the onset of summer, Pompeii Pizza is back, but it’s not the only food truck to call the Bangor Waterfront home — and due to approval by the city, it can expect more company in the coming months.
“The council approved the addition of a fourth spot and we’re still working to add a fifth,” Tracy Willette, Bangor’s director of parks and recreation, said recently.
On May 9, the council agreed to allow a fourth food truck on the waterfront, which already was provided for under an ordinance adopted Sept. 13, 2010. At that meeting, the council also referred an ordinance change that would extend the allowed hours and expand the number of food trucks to five. The city’s planning board approved the change last Tuesday, and the City Council is expected to have a final vote on it during its meeting on Monday, May 23.
If approved, vendors also will be allowed to remain open until midnight, an extension of two hours.
So what’s the fourth food truck? Willette isn’t telling — yet.
The newest addition to the waterfront is being kept under wraps while plans are completed. Willette said that the owners are still finishing their truck and working through the permitting process, however, they intend to open sometime in mid- to late June.
The new truck will join Pompeii and other returning trucks Wild Cow Creamery and Grammy’s Grilled Cheeses and Melts Food Truck, owned by Bob Cutler of the Family Dog in Orono.
At Pompeii, you can expect the familiar menu that has been served since its inception, along with weekly specials. Tried and true options include the perfect pepperoni pizza, a pineapple pizza with ham, pineapple and jalapeno, chicken pesto pizza, margherita pizza and the Pompeii, a combination of olive oil, sea salt, caramelized onion, Roma tomatoes, sweet rainbow bell peppers, arugula, asiago cheese and a balsamic glaze.
“We have had the same menu — the same five pizzas since we opened. That’s completely intentional,” Travis Carey, son of owners Steve and Dawn Carey, said.
Wild Cow Creamery’s food truck, owned by Sarah Wilder and her husband, Ryan Cowan, back for a fourth year on the waterfront, will have a weekly changing menu of ice creams. From classic chocolate and vanilla to more adventurous flavors such as Mexican Hot Chocolate, a chocolate ice cream with cayenne and lots of cinnamon, Zesty Orange and Lemon Heaven and even sorbets for the vegan and dairy-free folk, there’s something for everyone at the little ice cream truck.
Grammy’s Grilled Cheeses will return for a second summer on the waterfront with a selection of toasty sandwiches such as Oma’s, a combination of pastrami, sauerkraut, swiss and horseradish dressing served on rye bread, and Nana’s, a mix of buffalo mac and cheese with chicken and bacon on an artisan roll.
Owner Cutler says last year was a good start for his two food trucks.
“There’s so much going on on the waterfront. The free concerts, the Waterfront Concerts or just families enjoying the water — it’s been a great success for us,” Cutler said.
Cutler’s other food truck, The Stray Dog, will be wandering around Maine this summer, so it won’t make any appearances at the waterfront.
“The truck allows our team in the kitchen the creativity to do things I wouldn’t normally allow in the kitchen. On the food truck they can create great things,” he said.
Cutler always is looking for new ideas for the food truck, and he plans to add a lobster roll to the menu this year.
For the existing waterfront food trucks, the addition of another truck is good news.
“The more the better,” Cutler said. “I hope they park as close to us as possible.”
Travis Carey agreed.
“I know I speak for myself and my parents — we’re thrilled. Competition is a good thing, for different reasons. It keeps us sharp and competitive. It brings more people down,” Travis Carey said.
Wilder hopes that more trucks will draw more people to the waterfront.
“One of the things we’ve noticed is that a lot of people say, ‘Oh the waterfront, yeah, I don’t go down there.’ And it’s just such a gorgeous place. Getting people to realize that it’s not always jam-packed like it is when they see it for events has been a challenge. Usually there’s plenty of parking, it’s gorgeous, there’s always a breeze, there’s no bugs. It’s just beautiful down here. So getting people to realize that it’s a great place to visit is important,” Wilder said.
All three returning food trucks plan to take advantage of the extended hours on days when events are being held on the waterfront.
Pompeii’s regular hours are 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, with plans to extend hours of operation to 7 p.m. in the beginning of June. Wild Cow’s regular hours are noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, Grammy’s hasn’t yet announced regular hours for summer 2016.
