ELKTON – Having celebrated its grand opening earlier this week, any time is an effective time to maneuver on to the most recent enterprise to open its doorways (trailer) to prospects within the coronary heart of Elkton’s historic district.
“It is simply an journey proper now,” mentioned Melissa Wyant, a Shenandoah Valley native and proprietor of Melissa’s Candy Tea and Sliders, “however I am trying ahead to assembly new folks and seeing the place this goes.”
Wyant launched into her journey as a small enterprise proprietor final June when her husband discovered a used automotive trailer on the market. They spent the subsequent few months outfitting the trailer with hardwood flooring, a cushty kitchen counter, a fridge, and a serving window, and even employed a sprig paint artist to design a vivid however easy emblem on the facet.
“Every part else went fairly rapidly and easily,” Wyant mentioned.
Elkton residents might have observed some tender openings throughout the metropolis’s fall and winter occasions, providing previews of the menu, however Melissa’s Candy Tea and Sliders formally opened for the primary time on Tuesday.
Whereas the soar into the meals truck enterprise appears sudden, Wyant had been speaking about beginning his personal operation for a number of years.
“And it actually all occurred over candy tea and a ham and cheese sandwich,” Wyant mentioned. “I do not know what I do otherwise, however everybody goes loopy for my candy tea.”
For Wyant, cooking is an intuition that was instilled in him from an early age. She remembers spending hours within the kitchen together with her mom and grandmother (meals had been nearly all the time ready at dwelling because the household could not afford to eat out), which became hours spent in her personal kitchen feeding a rising household.
And regardless of having all kinds of careers, Wyant serves as proof that it is by no means too late to start out one thing new.
Whereas her youngsters had been nonetheless school-age, Wyant labored at Elkton Center as a cafeteria employees, a place she held for almost 16 years. When she was introduced with the chance to start out educating at Constructing Blocks Preschool in McGaheysville, she jumped at it.
Nonetheless, after Covid closed the varsity for an prolonged interval, Wyant determined it was time to start out a daycare in her dwelling, and ran it for 3 years earlier than pulling the set off on opening her personal meals truck.
Menu gadgets at Melissa’s Candy Tea and Sliders embody quite a lot of bite-sized sammies, together with Melissa’s well-known ham and cheese sandwich, breakfast sandwiches, soups, espresso, candy tea and a number of other kid-friendly choices.
Wyant’s favourite is the rooster parmesan sandwich, full with chicken rooster tenders, parmesan and provolone cheese, and marinara sauce served on a sandwich-sized bun.
“I’ve all the time cherished working with meals and kids,” Wyant defined. “Even doing this permits me to consider the youngsters. [as I plan menu items specifically for them]. “I actually am my greatest critic, although, and certainly one of my greatest fears in beginning the meals truck was whether or not or not folks had been going to love the meals I make.”
No matter Wyant’s fears, greater than 70 folks stopped by that first chilly day of winter to strive their candy tea and sandwiches.
Along with serving reasonably priced breakfasts and lunches, Wyant additionally sells branded cups for $10 every, which will be refilled for a complete yr for simply zero.25 cents per fill.
Melissa’s Candy Tea and Sliders is open seven days every week from 7 a.m. to three p.m. and will be discovered at 220 West Spotswood Path in Elkton or on the Melissa’s Candy Tea and Sliders Fb web page.