by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
Some people gripe and moan after working a 12-hour day, but for Stephanie Green, one of the three food vendors near the Southbank construction site whose typical work day lasts a whopping 20 hours, there’s no time for that.
This attitude may come as a shock to many, as most people have come to expect the commonplace hot dogs, chips and sodas from their trusty nearby Downtown food stand. After all, how much effort can it take to keep hot dogs hot and sodas cold?
A typical day for Green usually begins at 4 a.m. when she starts to prepare the food for that day’s run. She arrives at her usual spot at the Southbank construction site around noon, where construction workers from The Strand, The Peninsula and San Marco Place, as well as employees from nearby businesses, quickly form a line.
Green’s is a different sort of concession, though, and you won’t find her standing behind a food stand. Instead, you’ll find her leaning out the window of her signature green soul food van — one that her customers have come to know quite well — handing out home-cooked dishes like collard greens with chicken or pork chops with potatoes. According to Green, it takes more than just a few hours of prep time for what she’s serving up.
“This really is the next best thing to going home and making a real meal for yourself. It’s delicious,” said Raymond Perkins, one of Green’s regulars. “It’s affordable, close and it’s more healthy than picking something up from a fast food place.”
After Green leaves the site for the day, she’s on her way to pick up fresh ingredients for the next day’s menu and stays up until about midnight prepping the items that will be cooked the next morning.
The business of curbside food vending is one that Green is new to. It all started about three months ago when Green had the idea to share some of the already sizable meals she was making for her family at home with others in the community.
“I was already used to cooking for a big family so I decided, ‘why not cook for everyone else?’ ” said Green.
She created a review plan and submitted it to the Health Department and received approval from the City to set up shop. Green says she chose the Southbank after driving by and speaking with people in the area who seemed like they’d be receptive to the idea of having a place to buy soul food close by. The Southbank construction site has been a popular spot for vendors in the past year. One of Green’s neighbors, Joann Rozenko, is known as the veteran vendor in the area and has been at her current location since the 2005 Super Bowl.
Although she’s doing a good business, Green says she’s currently spending more of her own money keeping the business going than she is making.
She hopes to eventually become licensed to serve food nutritionally fit for people with diabetes and hypertension and then maybe later one day open a restaurant. For right now, she’s content with sharing her cooking with her “Downtown family.”
“I’m just starting out, so I’m really new to this all,” she said.
When asked what a good day is like as opposed to a bad say, Green said, “Truthfully, a good day is if anybody shows up because I love cooking and that’s all there is to it.”