INTERLOCHEN - Finding places to eat can be difficult but with food allergies it can become even harder. A food truck in Northern Michigan has found a permanent spot for people to enjoy gluten free food and each other’s company.
“So, we hope that they just experience a really nice casual atmosphere,” said Dunne. “You know, we just want everybody to feel at home here. Like come as you are. Stay as long as you want and leave, you know, happy and feel included.”
Toby Dunne is the owner of De Food Truck, which opened a few years ago, but Dunne has been operating a food truck close to twenty years. The menu features a taste of his heritage from the Netherlands and from Asia where he spent time travelling. Dunne cannot eat gluten so he made his truck 100% gluten free.
“So, I’ve celiac and colitis myself, and, I don’t think you can taste the difference if you do it right,” said Dunne. “And I’ve proven that over the last three years with this particular truck. And so, we’re lactose free now too. Which helps a lot of people that have severe allergies that can get sick really easy from any kind of cross-contamination. So, it was easier to just take it out altogether.”
Dunne says people would travel around Northern Michigan to find his food truck, so they can eat their food without worries of allergens. And on top of that he just wants to serve people healthy food.
“I hope that people can see that. It’s pretty easy to make really tasty food that’s gluten free, because there’s just no need for the gluten in a lot of foods,” said Dunne. “And, plus we use fresh local produce. We use Lakeview Hill Farms and Anavery Farms. One of our main suppliers is on Our Family Market in Honor. We get all our meat and fish from them and get slaughtered in specially for us. We try and have everything organic if we can.”
De Food Truck makes their fries homemade in house. They use a very specific potato. Dunne says they are complicated to make, but he can’t stop now.
“We really care. I cook still because I love it, and I love to cook good food for people. I feel that being fresh is a little different than a lot of people around here.”
Now De Food Truck has found a permanent spot in Interlochen. They are hoping to create a space for people to hangout away from their phones. Dunne purposely chose not to put Wi-Fi in the space so people focus on spending time together instead. De food Truck welcomes anyone who is stopping by for food or community.
“We were looking for some land for a while to build a nice community hub,” said Dunne. “This is the property that we chose because Interlochen is so central. So, we are close to Traverse. We’re close to Leelanau. We’re close to Benzie, even Frankfort and the Kingsley area where we have a lot of customers. So, we really wanted to find a spot that was really central. And luckily, we found this finally.”
Dunne has plans to create the ideal community hangout. The area already has tables, chairs and a fire pit. He is hoping that by adding in a speaker system student from Interlochen Center for The Arts can stop by and share their talents. And down the road, Toby is looking to preserve their land. He is hoping to create walking trails to enjoy the beauty of Northern Michigan.
“We want people from the academy to kids to feel comfortable to come down, bring some instruments, do some playing, you know, have an open mic feel,” said Dunne. “We’ll have another little PA system put in to make that possible, but we want people to be able to come and enjoy and just, you know, we’re going to put up some signs for, with history, both native history and, the train depot history here.”
Dunne wants the space to become the community hub. He is hoping to acquire permits for a Boardwalk through their land.
“We want people to just feel comfortable, come and hang out because their friends are having some dinner here,” said Dunne. “They don’t have to buy dinner. They can just hang out and listen to some music and just enjoy the atmosphere and have a nice spot to hang out. “
Click here for more information on De Food Truck.