Meet the Mayo duo turning the humble spud into a food truck success
There’s something special happening in Mayo’s county town. Two young men are having a go at a unique business venture which is the first of its kind in Mayo. And now, they have a vision of their food truck becoming known outside the county.
For James Basquille and Conal Murray, the pair have always had a business mind as Conal explains: “Since we’ve been kids, we’ve been making bits like Christmas wreaths and gifts like that, so I suppose we’ve always been selling bits and pieces.”
The 24-year-old pair from Castlebar are running their new venture Spudhut and over the last six months, the business has been making huge strides, from Market Square, Castlebar to MacHale Park, the duo are serving up a real treat for customers both young and old.
In summary, the pair serve baked potatoes from their mobile hut while customers can avail of unique toppings on their spuds such as chicken curry, pulled pork, chilli con carne, tuna and sweetcorn or the plain and simple, the classic cheese and beans. There are also other toppings such as cheese, coleslaw, crispy onions while a range of different sauces are available.
Speaking exclusively to The Mayo News, Conal explains where the idea originally came from: “So I was working in the construction industry and James was on his college placement in England.” The market for baked potatoes is huge in England as popular food caterers such as ‘Spudman’ and ‘Spudbro’s’ have racked up millions of followers on social media while some people have travelled hundreds of kilometres to try these unique spuds. Conal admits: “It’s absolutely huge over in England and we said, who better to enjoy spuds than the Irish. Myself and James were on the phone for a few weeks and then we decided to go for it.”
Daunting
Entering a brand new venture like this was no doubt daunting but with plenty of support, the young men gave it a go. Conal, who had 18 months experience as a chef, used his expertise well, while for James it was an unknown but one thing for sure is that the Castlebar duo gave it a right go and have not looked back since, as their next step could be serving spuds to people outside Mayo with the streets of Galway city being a possibility.
“We get our spuds off a Wexford company called Slaney Farms, who are a family run business and then we collect the spuds off Lavin’s here in Castlebar,” Conal explains. Keeping it local is important to the pair as all their meat comes from local Castlebar butchers, Gilligan’s. One can only assume that the pair go through a lot of potatoes each day as visitors from across Mayo visit the popular food truck and that is entirely accurate. When asked, how many spuds they go though, Conal explains: “Roughly on a daily basis, it varies from 80-120 kg of spuds.”
Starting out, like everything there were challenges. “At the beginning, our oven gave us a few problems, but thanks to help from my brother and mother, it worked out while we were renting another kitchen in town. We actually went over to England on a day trip to collect a brand new oven and until then, it was all hands on deck. Our new oven actually holds five times the amount of spuds as the previous one so it’s a huge boost,” James explains.
The dynamic duo have long working days ahead of them, while they serve food Friday, Saturday and Sunday generally. Speaking about the long days, the pair explain how it works: “On Thursday’s, we collect our spuds, then wash them followed by wrapping them in tin foil before cooking them in the oven. Friday morning, we collect the fresh meat from the butchers and then the madness begins early in the morning.”
Preparation
After a few hours of heavy preparation, the duo get set to open their hut to the public at lunchtime: “We serve then from 12 noon until six in the evening or if all spuds are sold, we might have to finish early.”
Explaining the biggest challenge the pair have faced so far is knowing the amount of food they need to cook, as Conal explains: “Judging the amount of food to put on each day is a big challenge because there are a lot of different factors including the weather.”
For now, the duo will be serving spuds until the end of June while in the Summer, you can catch the bright yellow food truck at events such as The Cong Food Festival, The Newport Festival, The Erris Show, The Bonniconlon Agricultural show, The Ballina Salmon Festival and the Swinford Agricultural show.
The pair have also travelled to Kilmeena in recent weeks where they serve their food outside the Buckfield Inn Pub, which has gone down a treat for many people. Looking ahead, you can book the food truck for private hire also with the pair having recently provided food at a Sixtieth birthday party. Be sure to follow James and Conal on their social media pages, spudhutcastlebar.