Mac & Meats Food Truck keeps it simple and all homemade in travels across central Pa.
When Julie Singer, a former massage therapist and nurse, was looking for a post-retirement source of income and something to fill her time, she and boyfriend Matt Eger listened to friends and family.
“I’ve made macaroni and cheese for years and people have said to me, ‘you need to sell this,’ ” Singer said. “And, (Eger), they’ve said that about his sausages for years. I’m the one that bugged him for the food truck and he said, OK, let’s do it — and we did it.”
Four years ago, Singer and Eger launched the Mac & Meats Food Truck, traveling with Singer’s daughter around Centre County and to some of central Pennsylvania’s largest seasonal events to serve up specialty macaroni and cheese bowls, sandwiches and more.
The top-seller on the food truck’s limited menu, as well as Singer’s personal favorite?
“The macaroni and cheese bowl with hot sausage, onions and peppers is our number-one seller,” she said. “Right behind that is the buffalo chicken bowl. We also have buffalo chicken wraps, hot sausage sandwiches ... and at Grange Fair we do specialty sandwiches, like a pork belly sandwich, and Matt makes his own bologna, so he does fried bologna sandwiches, and they’re awesome.”
Beyond specialty items offered at Grange Fair, the Mac & Meats Food Truck menu also expands to include limited items like shareable plates when the food truck sets up shop at area wineries and cideries.
“When we do wineries or cideries, we do shareable items, so, for example, we do nachos, but they’re not regular nachos. I make homemade nacho cheese, and we put our hot sausage on top, with onions, peppers and then salsa, sour cream and jalapeños,” Singer said.
While the food truck travels to J.L. Farm and Cidery about once monthly, and has appeared at select events throughout the summer, such as the Jana Marie Foundation’s Drive-in Diner at Nittany Mall, Singer said she and her family have acutely felt the lack of large events this year.
“We’ve tried other things, but it’s just hard, and it’s hard with the kind of food we have. We don’t make our food as people come up. We have to guess-timate how many people are coming and then we prepare our food and then we serve. We don’t have frozen stuff we can take out and deep fry,” she said.
Everything they serve is homemade, even the meats and the sauces.
Moving forward and looking into the future, Singer said she has no aspirations to open a brick-and-mortar Mac & Meats location. She says she’s satisfied with the food truck life and her post-retirement venture has been primarily a way to pay her bills, travel and spend time with Eger. However, Singer said she would like to take the food truck to at least two big events per month. She also offers catering for weddings, birthdays and other events, and has catered weddings for upward of 400 people.
Her favorite part of the job? “Meeting the people and people saying, wow, ‘this is really good macaroni and cheese.’ It justifies all the work.”
Find the Mac & Meats Food Truck menu and stay informed of the food truck’s upcoming locations, on Facebook, at @MacMeatsFoodTruck. More information about the food truck can also be found on the Centre County COVID Concessions Facebook page.