TASTE
Amber and Pieter Slusser , parents of head chef Payton Slusser , opened Blue Stone Pizza to replace another pizza business that lost its mobile oven .
services , the concept of “ fast food ” has expanded to new horizons .
The nick of time
The reputation of Taste Restaurant and Wine Bar precedes itself well beyond its Plymouth locale . Rated by Zagat as one of the top restaurants in America , Taste is multi-course fine dining rooted in the foothills where much of its award-winning wine list is sourced .
It was this connection with the wine region that drove B & E Hospitality Group , the parent company that encompasses Taste and several other establishments in Amador County , to commission a food truck . Taste a Go-Go was ready to set up shop at a local winery in spring of 2020 , but plans changed that March when virtually all operations came to a halt , and pandemic shutdowns forced B & E Hospitality to lay off nearly 50 employees .
“ When we got the food truck , we were able to bring back some of that team ,” says Tracey Berkner , co-owner of B & E Hospitality . By May 2020 , Taste a Go- Go was parked at the corner of Highway 49 and Main Street in Plymouth , serving up casual comfort food beside the tasting room at Prospect Cellars . The “ fresh and local mobile kitchen ” continued to frequent that spot and others until
November 2021 , when the food truck went on hiatus to allow B & E Hospitality to focus on its newest addition , Taste Mobile Kitchen . Berkner says the new food truck will be parked at a to-bedisclosed winery and offer wine pairings with “ fun and classic ” small plates that better reflect Taste Restaurant ’ s gourmet seasonal cuisine .
With its range of eateries now providing full-service dining , counter service-only and mobile offerings , B & E Hospitality is well positioned to handle whatever trends may follow . “ Every day , it ’ s crazy . I can be jumping on the food truck on the corner , taking orders for burgers , doing social media and taking photos … then head over to Taste to open up a $ 100 bottle of wine for a multicourse dinner ,” Berkner says .
She emphasizes that her customers ’ needs differ greatly between venues . “ While a lot of people are fine and happy they don ’ t have that full interaction , there are people that really want that and crave it . They want full service at bargain basement prices ,” she says . “ The cost of doing business has exponentially risen over the last year-and-a-half , and there are a lot of challenges that come with that . … You kind of have to adjust the business model to be able to continue .”
Dakota Morlan is a freelance contributor for Comstock ’ s and other publications , as well as editor of the Calaveras Enterprise , a newsweekly in the Mother Lode region . She has won California News Publishers Association awards for her investigative reporting on crime and the COVID-19 pandemic . Read more at dakotamorlan . com . On Twitter @ DakotaNMorlan .
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34 comstocksmag . com | January 2022