A mother-daughter duo has started a dream food business with a purpose. All the food is gluten-free and vegan. I learned how to make one of their agua frescas and their OG roll.
“When we say that we want to be role models in our community, what we mean is just showing up for our customers and other small business owners and everyone else in the community,” said Jessica Ryan, Co-owner of Roll Model. “And the ways that we want people show up for us.”
Roll Model Food Truck is starting its first official year in Frankfort. Both mother and daughter, Jessica Ryan and Abigail Hoege began by bringing their dishes to the farmer’s market. Now they are making the rolls on demand at the Menus on Main food truck circle.
“We’ve been dreaming of having a food-based business for decades at this point. And we started getting to the point where we were like, okay, this might be a dream we can actually bring to fruition,” said Ryan. “We were already kind of enmeshed in the local farming community and, with other small businesses, working out of Grow Benzie Kitchen. I think when you live in a community like ours that is very small and you have people that are trying to be entrepreneurs and trying to have these successful mom and pop businesses, you have to support each other.”
They want people to see them as roll models in the community. Whether it be eating healthy, being kind to one another or giving back to the community. All the food is fresh produce that they aim to get locally.
“We like to think that we’re almost doing fast food, but there’s nothing bad in it for you. It’s all locally sourced, whole ingredients. Whenever we can, we utilize what is in season. We’re using local farms from that too. We have done strawberries like a strawberry lemonade, basically where we were using local strawberries or raspberries. We’ve done peach and blueberry peach. We’ve done some good combinations too. So, it’s been super fun.”
One of their fresh drinks on the menu is the agua fresca. Which is fresh pressed juice with sparkling water. They can make the drink a ‘dirty soda’ by adding in coconut creamer. Ryan and Hoege often play with recipes so they can add new items to their menu.
“Sometimes we have an idea and we try it out and, like, we nail it down right away,” said Ryan.
“And that is just, like, the coolest thing ever,” said Hoege.
“We were coming up with our smoothie recipes,” said Ryan. “We were in the kitchen one day and like both times we’re like, okay, we’re going to do a green smoothie. We’re going to do a berry smoothie. And she’s like, I have some ideas. And she made a green one and it was just like she just nailed it. Like the amount like to fill the cup properly. The taste of it was spot on. And we’re just like, yeah, this is awesome. I just think that doesn’t happen with not everything. But it’s exciting when it does.”
They say their favorite part of the job is being together.
“We have a really nice synergy,” said Ryan. “We don’t really require a lot of communication. We just like, we vibe really well. So that’s a really fun part of the job is like just getting in and getting our hands in the food and creating. So, there’s all these aspects of, like there’s a creative element. There’s us getting to spend time together and like to do our thing and obviously providing our community with really good food.”
Their menu includes build-your-own rolls. Which are vegetable and tofu filled rice paper rolls. Their motto is heart center artful cuisine. Hoege showed me how it’s done. We add our sesame seeds, carrots, Greens, Rice noodles, mint, basil, tofu, And peanuts. Then we are ready to roll.
The last step is adding their peanut sauce. Ryan and Hoege are hoping they inspire other mother-daughter duos to start something together.
“I would just say, just go for it the sky’s the limit,” said Ryan. “I think I think honestly, I can’t really imagine anyone else I would want to have as my business partner.”
