Seventeen months ago, Julia Rigney told a stranger that she wanted to sell elotes. In August 2022, her Mexican street corn business, Elote Alebrije, opened. Elote Alebrije celebrated its first anniversary this past weekend. To commemorate the date, Rigney opened her mobile food kitchen at the LEAP Kitchen in Roanoke.
Rigney spends many weekends selling her Mexican street corn at local festivals, vendor events, and marketplaces. She sells her corn on the cob, skewered with a stick. That’s different from the way most Mexican corn vendors sell elotes in this area, Rigney says.
Rigney’s elotes are grilled, then coated with mayonnaise and rolled in cotija cheese. Rigney then sprinkles each ear of corn with a variety of seasonings or toppings. Her traditional elote, named el Jefe, features a drizzle of hot sauce. Other elote recipes call for crushed doritos, hot cheetos, or local honey and cinnamon.
Preparations for each event begin early in the week with corn orders, deliveries, and shucking. On festival day, Rigney rises at 5 a.m. and leaves the house at 6. She likes to be onsite to grill her corn early.
On a recent Friday morning, Rigney could be found at the LEAP Kitchen, shucking 5 boxes of corn to prepare for the weekend ahead. She says each box holds about 40 ears of corn and takes about 40 minutes to shuck. That’s if she’s focused, she says.
Rigney diligently checks each ear of corn for worms and mold. She is particular about the quality of each piece of corn she serves, making sure to remove as many silks as possible and using only the top quality corn in each box.
“When it is a little more wet, the husk comes off a little less clean,” she says.
That’s just one of the things that Rigney has learned in her first year in business.
The biggest lesson? How to prepare elote.
“When I started planning for my business, I’d never eaten [elote] before,” Rigney says. “Of course, I had seen it and I knew what it was,” she adds.
Yet, fresh produce has been a staple in Rigney’s family for as long as she can remember. Corn is just an extension of that.
She says she grew up with a unique blend of traditions. Her father grew up in San Fernando, Mexico. Her mother was from Rocky Mount, Virginia. She recalls family dinners that consisted of fried chicken, macaroni salad, tortillas, and refried beans. It was a perfect blend of both cultures, she says.
“Corn was the one thing that really tied both of my cultures together,” Rigney says.
Rigney’s Rocky Mount grandfather tended a large garden when she was a child. Some of Rigney’s favorite memories involve helping him pick the fresh produce, including the corn.
“In Mexico, corn is life. It is used in a lot of life-sustaining foods there,” Rigney says.
Rigney’s business has sustained her through some tough times.
She’s had the general growing pains, learning which seasons are best for street vendors and which are not. After a drop in sales late last fall, she has determined that her business will be seasonal now, she says.
Elote Alebrije was born out of fertile soil. In March 2022, Rigney attended a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) event for female entrepreneurs. She had no business, and she had no income.
Rigney had lost her job the day prior to attending the March event. She had also been struggling with mental health at that time, she says. To top it off, her grandfather had passed away just a few months before, in December 2021.
Rigney was struggling. She needed a change.
Rigney tells of event attendees asking her, “what’s your business?” She had no answer for them, until she thought of corn. Corn – the crop that had sustained her father’s family for generations. The crop that her grandfather had grown and her mother had canned. The crop that had been served to a young Rigney at multitudes of family meals. The crop that she says gives life.
So Rigney turned to corn.
Now, she’s as busy as she wants to be. She booked events nearly every weekend this summer, double-booking two events in the same day on occasion.
Rigney enjoys the freedom she finds in setting her own schedule.
“I like that I get to do my own thing,” Rigney says.
Elote Alebrije’s next planned event is Taco Fest on September 9 in Elmwood Park. After that, elote fans can find Elote Alebrije at GoFest in October.
About the LEAP Kitchen
The Local Environmental Agriculture Project (LEAP) Kitchen provides resources such as space, equipment, and guidance to start-up restaurants and food businesses, according to their website. The kitchen, located on Patterson Avenue in Roanoke, is fully licensed by Virginia departments of health and agriculture. Food vendors and restaurateurs can join the organization by paying monthly or annual dues.
