A popular food truck has added to their business with a brick and mortar location, sharing fresh ingredients and signature sauces diners have come to know and love.
Lazy Bulldog Food Truck & Bistro
Platinum: Best Family-Friendly Restaurant, Best Place for Lunch, Best Place to Visit 24/7/365, Best Food Truck, Best New Restaurant
Gold: Best Chef (Brandon Stinnett)
Silver: Best Hollins/North County Restaurant and Burgers
Lazy Bulldog Food Truck & Bistro has a lot to celebrate this year. Not only did owner Brandon Stinnett open their restaurant location this year, but readers awarded the business multiple platinum, gold and silver wins in a variety of categories (see below for full list) in our 2023 Dining Awards, including Best Food Truck and Best New Restaurant.
Stinnett, who spends 70-80 hours a week keeping the business running as efficiently as he can, says it’s “an overwhelming honor” to be recognized by readers in such spectacular fashion. “To see the recognition from my community and fans is just truly heartwarming,” he says. “It’s just indescribable. It means a lot to me because I truly do think of the customers that come to eat with me as family, and I try my very best to treat them that way from the moment they walk through the door.”
With a variety of menu options, he says you can always find meals to satisfy everyone in the family. Using the freshest ingredients and produce, everything is made from scratch, including the signature sauces and aiolis. The food truck, which you’ve probably seen around town at festivals, breweries, hospitals, schools and more, recently celebrated the opening of its brick and mortar spot, and after a brief closing due to staffing issues and running the trucks during catering season, they reopened the front doors. Stinnett says as soon as they reopened, it was like they “never missed a beat,” as everyone came out to support them. Opening up the bistro allowed the community and fans to come and eat with them throughout the week, and give Stinnett a way to connect with customers even more. “The response has been overwhelmingly great!” he exclaims. “I want everyone to know how much I appreciate and love them from the bottom of my heart.”
COVID, of course, was a hindrance for so many small businesses, and Lazy Bulldog was no exception. Because his business did not qualify for any of the government loans, he had “literally zero safety nets through COVID or this year.” But he says they chose a different path, focusing on the community with high hopes that they would support the business when able. That focus included feeding children and first responders in the community for free, as well as zero deposits for teachers and hospitals. They also tailored the menu for more affordable items (especially critical with the rising cost of products), and after all was said and done, the support they received in return was greater than anything he could have expected.
Stinnett says that while his personal journey has taken him all over the country to many cities and towns, he swears people here are “the absolute best.” To him, Roanoke is such an inviting city, with a community that comes together in times of need. “We didn’t try to hurt each other’s businesses when times were tough; we supported one another, and I feel that says a lot about our people and the city.”
For Stinnett, it’s the people who make the job and hard work worth it. While he describes making a dish for someone as a “high anxiety feeling” because he always wants it to be perfect and for them to enjoy it, watching them eat a dish he created and seeing their smile of satisfaction is “100% the best part of my job!” For him, that moment is motivation, and why he’s always trying to improve himself in every aspect of what he does. “I truly hope everyone can feel the passion of what I do and the love in every bite!”
If he has anything more to share with his customers, it’s that they are always welcome in his business and “regardless of what path of life you live, you will always be treated like family when you come through my doors. I appreciate you, more than words can describe, and I wish you a beautiful life!”
Lazy Bulldog Food Truck & Bistro
5524 Williamson Rd, Unit 18
chefbrandon@lazybulldogfoodtruck.com
