Dan Szabo wasn’t looking for a food truck, but one came to him anyway. A friend who was moving to Florida wanted to unload the vehicle, and he thought Szabo could use it for the private catering branch of his retail seafood business. But Szabo didn’t want it, not at first.
“He said ‘Hey, come take the truck’ and I’m like, ‘What am I going to do with that thing?'” Szabo recalls. “I said I already had something set up with a trailer [for catering.]”
That night, Szabo went home, turned on the TV and saw an episode of Food Network’s “Food Truck Wars” competition show. He called his friend back. “I said, ‘I’ll be over tomorrow to get the truck’.”
Five seasons later, Szabo’s Little Red Seafood Truck has been a “saving grace” for his business. The Shelton retail shop that’s been in his family for 42 years “is not like it used to be,” he says, when, generations ago shoppers would pick up their baked goods, meat and fish at separate local markets. While the store on Howe Street is only open Fridays and Saturdays, the truck is on the streets or at special events several days out of the week, and Szabo says his summer is filling up quickly with bookings.
On weekdays, Szabo’s Seafood parks at various spots in New Haven — you’ll frequently find the red truck in front of the Apple store on Broadway, or at Church and Wall streets. Truck specialties include a lobster roll with lemon garlic butter and fresh, battered-to-order fried shrimp, scallops and Atlantic haddock with a side of crinkle-cut fries and coleslaw. A salmon burger is hand-packed with ground fish, fresh dill and Vidalia onion, served on a toasted bun with dill sour cream. There are also fried fish tacos on flour tortillas with sweet cabbage slaw, and a quarter-pound sirloin burger for landlubbers.
At $15, the Connecticut-style hot lobster roll is a splurge, but it’s one of the truck’s most popular items — Szabo says he’ll sell as many as 150 of them in one day at a food truck festival. The preparation of buttered lobster meat on a grilled hot dog roll is the “only way” to serve the delicacy, he says, dismissing the idea of a cold lobster salad roll with mayonnaise.
“Do you want to pay [$15] for celery and onion, or do you want straight lobster?”
This spring and summer, Szabo’s is booked for nearly three dozen special events, including festivals, appearances at Connecticut breweries, farmers’ markets and other outdoor gatherings.
“It’s like seven months of knowing we’re going to have really good work coming,” Szabo said. “I dream about this time that’s coming. It’s been so slow in the winter.”
>>Szabo’s Little Red Seafood Truck parks weekdays at various spots in New Haven, often in front of the Apple store on Broadway, or at Church and Wall Streets, and at various summer festivals. Information: szabosseafood.com; @SzabosSeafood.
Look for a profile of a new food truck each week through summer in The Courant’s CTNow section, and follow the series, with photos and video, at courant.com/foodtrucks.
