If a new food trailer’s menu features pulled pork poutine with melted local Melville cheese and caramelized onion gravy; spring-pea croquettes with microgreens; and queso frito with truffle honey and fennel pollen, it makes sense when you learn its owner has a fine-dining background — and knows his tapas in particular.
Roy Riedl, a former sous chef at Barcelona Wine Bar in West Hartford, has taken his experience with Spanish-inspired small plates and translated that style into Mercado, his new mobile catering business. “It’s…really simplistic food using high-quality ingredients and just doing a little bit to elevate it,” he said.
Riedl is a classically trained chef, but ended up in the restaurant industry “a little late,” after graduating from college and working traditional jobs. He went to culinary school and worked for Craftsteak and Barcelona, where he met his future wife – “love at first sight,” he says – and decided to leave the restaurant business again, wanting marriage and children. Though he worked subsequent sales jobs with Cintas and Sysco, “the passion never left,” and he began catering on the side.
As the catering business grew, he purchased a Chevrolet P30, thinking he’d turn it into a food truck at some point. But he realized all he really needed was a trailer hitched to a pickup, which was easy enough to navigate and bring to sites. The Mercado trailer has everything he needs to cook, including an 18-inch flattop grill, one fryolator, a six-burner stove, sink and commercial refrigerator.
“We have food truck capabilities, [but it’s] set up more like a restaurant line than a food truck.”
“Mercado,” Spanish for “market,” speaks to the market-driven nature of the food, with seasonally highlighted produce and ingredients. It’s also inspired by Plaza del Mercado in Puerto Rico, where Riedl and his wife spent their honeymoon.
“We fell in love with it,” he says. “It was very inspiring to see these places, these markets, the vibrant colors, the beautiful produce and all-around great people.”
With gourmet tapas like short rib sliders with chimichurri; duck fat potatoes with jalapeno confit and togarashi spice; and lamb meatballs with chipotle tomato sauce and currants, Riedl knows he’s trying to capture an appreciative, selective audience.
In Mercado’s first few months, he’s targeted special events like craft beer festivals (Rising Pint in East Hartford and Thread City Hop Fest in Willimantic), and the Thursday-evening Wethersfield farmers’ market.
“I’m trying to appeal to more of the foodie crowd, as opposed to people just eating for the masses. We have to be selective about where we’re going and where we’re marketing ourselves.”
He’ll also be a weekly vendor at the Coventry Regional farmers market on Sunday mornings. “I’m excited about that [event]; it’s right up our alley. I’m excited to develop relationships with farmers.”
As a first-time business owner, Riedl says the experience is challenging – “I’m HR, I’m payroll, I’m accountant, I’m chef, you name it. I’ve got to do everything” – but he’s found the experience rewarding. “I love being an entrepreneur. I never thought I’d say that about myself, to be honest…I’m really enjoying learning how to run a business.”
>>Mercado parks at various special events and will be a weekly vendor at the Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market. For more information, visit mercadofoods.com or follow on facebook.com or @MercadoEats.
Look for a profile of a new food truck each week through summer in Thursday’s CTNow section, and follow the series, with photos and video, at courant.com/foodtrucks.
