Thirty-five years ago, Steve Ellenberg started Bagel Works and ran a catering business out of it from the start.
Ellenberg sold Bagel Works in December 2018, but he continues running the catering business — Ellenberg Experience Catering — out of Bagel Works. The catering company provides “the vast majority” of kosher catering in the Kansas City area, he said.
Now he’s gone mobile with Ellenberg Experience Catering’s Vaad-supervised kosher food truck. He first used it in August for private events. When it’s not in use, the truck is stored at the Chabad House Center of Kansas City in Overland Park.
His wife, Denise Ellenberg, said the family “had a vision of expanding opportunities for kosher food in the Kansas City area.”
“We acquired this kosher mobile kitchen for catering and concessions, special events and private parties,” she said. “We’ve been working on it for several months.”
The food truck is capable of catering weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and other events. The Ellenbergs will have the food truck’s grand opening from noon to 5 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Hy-Vee store at 95th Street and Antioch Road. The store has a large kosher section, so the Ellenbergs thought it would be a great place to officially launch their truck. They will offer a variety of kosher barbecue items at the store, along with items including shawarma, falafel, hot dogs, french fries and beverages.
“This is a very unique opportunity for the Kansas City area because most cities don’t have kosher food trucks available,” she said. “It’s unusual especially for the Midwest. … There’s a huge demand for this in our community and we wanted to satisfy that need.”
The food truck will be able to regularly provide meat and parve items. It also will serve recurring items including chicken and Mediterranean and Mexican foods on select nights, Steve said.
The truck can function as a mobile kosher kitchen or a concession stand. When not cooking in the truck, he has access to several kosher kitchens in the Kansas City area. The truck can offer everything the catering business offers except dairy items. It has a refrigerator, a freezer, a full grill, two fryers, a convection oven and a hot box for prepared foods.
The Ellenbergs’ daughter, Blaire Ellenberg, is creating a Facebook page for the truck (facebook.com/ellenbergexperience), which will list upcoming special events and menus, and they hope to eventually provide email notifications of events for customers.
“Growing up as the daughter of a caterer and pitching in to be a part of it — word of mouth is something that’s really amazing in this community,” she said.
The truck will have a working kosher supervisor at all times, including during food preparation and when the truck is in operation.
Rabbi Yitzchak Mizrahi, the Vaad’s executive director and rabbinic coordinator, “is fully behind us,” Steve said.
“He approves of the ingredients used and who the supervisor is,” he said. “We have a rotating list of people he approves.”
The Ellenbergs have had calls from the St. Louis area asking whether they’ll take the truck on the road outside of the Kansas City area, which they plan to do at some point after establishing it here.
“There’s a lot of excitement about it,” Blaire said. “Here, this is a unique experience. Our entire family has been involved in this process.”
The Ellenbergs decided the time was right for the food truck because “the opportunity just kind of landed in our lap,” Blaire said.
“The food truck was for sale,” she said. “It’s a dream to make a mark on the community.”
They see the truck as a vehicle “to expand the scope of kosher food that we can offer to people in our community and beyond,” Denise said, “because there’s such a need out there for outstanding, creative and quality kosher menu items that we want to be the ones to offer to people.”
“And this is so unique that it will really expand our catering business,” she said. “Generally, when people think of kosher catering, they think of standard Bar Mitzvah fare. There’s no job too small or too large for us to take on.”