LONG BEACH — The corner of Sid Snyder and Pacific has been abuzz in recent weeks, thanks to the arrival of two new food trucks that hope to leave their own unique mark on the peninsula food scene.

Long Beach Dragon Bowls and B & D’s Food Hut opened their doors — er, windows — in February, located on the same lot as the Taco Shack and diagonal from the go-kart track.

Their arrival is part of an effort to turn the large, once-vacant lot into a hub for an assortment of cuisines.

The response thus far has easily exceeded the expectations of the food trucks’ operators, who have already expanded their hours to keep up with the demand of their customers.

Long Beach Dragon Bowls is open Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and B & D’s Food Hut is open Thursday-Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Long Beach Dragon BowlsOperated by Indus Johnston, a well-known chef who previously helmed The Cove’s kitchen, Long Beach Dragon Bowls offers Asian fusion cuisine — and a heaping portion of love.

Johnston, who served four years in the U.S. Navy after graduating high school, got his start in the industry as a teenager working at Salumeria di Carlo, a from-scratch sausage shop in Portland that was a pioneer in the region’s specialty meat movement. There, washing out casings that the sausage would be grinded into, is where he said his love of food began.

Later, in 2009, Johnston attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland. And while he learned a lot about fine dining, he said it ended up being something he didn’t need to do.

“I had all of this cooking experience in restaurants, but I thought ‘Oh, if I go there then I’m a chef, right?’ But it’s not,” he said. “The school’s actually for kids right out of high school, not for veterans who’ve been in the industry.”

Pull Quote

‘You eat with your eyes first, then you smell it and then you taste it, right?’

Chef Indus Johnston

For Johnston, the appeal of operating his own food truck is being able to take ownership over the whole process and have creative control of the dishes that are being served. He cited “Chef,” a critically acclaimed 2014 film directed by and starring Jon Favreau, where a head chef at a fine dining restaurant leaves his position to open his own food truck, as the inspiration behind opening Long Beach Dragon Bowls.

“I’m very fortunate to have really good friends and a support network that have helped me get this far,” he said, noting that the City of Long Beach’s recent changes to allow food trucks to operate in the city also played a crucial role.

At Long Beach Dragon Bowls, the name of the game is bringing the best ingredients Johnston can find — not necessarily the most expensive — to create all-star dishes. “I like fusion. I like taking the best flavors of different parts of the world and bringing them together.”

“You eat with your eyes first, then you smell it and then you taste it, right? I’ve found in my career as a chef that you have to ‘taste’ everything,” he added.

The food truck’s hallmark dish is, of course, dragon bowls. The dragon bowls are essentially noodle bowls with homemade bone broth that is married with an asian glaze and the customer’s choice of protein — brisket, pulled pork, chicken or shrimp.

“That’s what I love,” Johnston said. “It’s just good. If you’re sick the bone broth just does something for you, and if you’re feeling down it feels like it hugs you from the inside.”

Aside from dragon bowls, the food truck also offers banh mi sandwiches — with any of the aforementioned proteins — and a variety of daily specials. Recent specials include a ribeye meatball sub, pineapple pork-fried rice, red coconut curry, hot chicken wings, and a prime rib melt.

As Johnston puts his heart into his offerings, he says the love he has received from the community has been overwhelming. He also praised the lot’s owner, Kaarina Stotts, for her perseverance in making these food trucks a reality.

“The local support is everything, especially in a small community like this,” Johnston said. “It’s a dream realized, and it couldn’t be more fitting.”

B & D’s Food HutOperated by Brent and Dawn Wheeler, who semi-retired to the peninsula in 2018, B & D’s Food Hut serves gyros, teriyaki and more — including a smash burger that started out as a daily special but has become so popular that it’s now a fixture on the food truck’s menu.

Food, and the food industry, has played a large role in both of the Wheelers’ lives. Brent learned how to cook at a young age from his mother — who was a chef herself and had trained under a French chef — and was a longtime senior food vendor for Vancouver and Clark County, while Dawn was raised in the industry — her grandmother owned a restaurant, and Dawn has previously managed fast food restaurants.

The Wheelers took the plunge to open their own food truck for a number of reasons.

Financially, they said a food truck is more cost effective than a brick-and-mortar location and comes with lower overhead costs.

But the ability to bring new dishes and cuisines to peninsula residents and visitors was also at the forefront of their collective mind.

“We really want to be able to offer a variety of [dishes] to people that they don’t have here on the peninsula and the surrounding areas,” Brent said, recalling how he partnered with a diverse array of food vendors in Clark County to secure coveted spots at big events. “I don’t want to take from anybody else; I just want to add to it, bring people to the peninsula and keep them here, instead of having people get frustrated [by long wait times at restaurants] and go to Seaside or Astoria and they don’t want to come back here and stay in the hotels … Having more variety is going to keep more of the money in Pacific County.”

Gyros, without a doubt, qualify as a unique offering on the peninsula. With either a lamb-beef blend or chicken as protein options, B & D’s Food Hut’s gyros are served with lettuce, tomato, onion, feta cheese, Greek tzatziki sauce and seasoning on pita bread. Brent learned how to make gyros from a fellow food vendor during his time in Clark County, and received that friend’s blessing to serve the gyros he taught him how to make on the peninsula.

“I want to bring in different things, and the logistics of getting the products [for gyros] are hard; that’s why you don’t see them in smaller areas,” Brent said. “You see them in the centralized I-5 corridor where you can get the supplies, not out here. But I didn’t want to do anything that was a repeat of what everybody else is doing. I wanted to go in my own lane and give back to the community, and that’s why we’re doing it.”

The early response from the community has been exceptional, they said.

“We’ve gotten really good feedback from the community, and it just feels like they’re really appreciative of us being here,” Dawn said. Brent echoed that sentiment, saying the response has been “extremely good.”

Both Johnston and the Wheelers said it’s been great to see people connecting and co-mingling in the large gravel lot as they wait for their orders. And with spring on the horizon, they’re hopeful that the parking lot will fill out even more.

“We just want to serve good food to people, make them happy and create memories through food,” Dawn said.