The first thing Steve Tornello will tell you about his lunch business at Hemming is that it is not a hot dog stand.
“It’s a mobile food vending unit,” he said.
Tornello designed and built the 24-square-foot self-contained kitchen out of necessity. After the shipping company where he had worked for 25 years downsized and told him to take a hike, Tornello spent two years looking for another management position.
After sending out hundreds of resumes, Tornello said one day his wife suggested that he might go into business for himself and open a hot dog stand.
Actually, he said, cooking was his first career, having worked at the age of 14 at a concession stand at a stock car race track near where he grew up in New Jersey.
College took him to Cocoa Beach, where he worked at a pizza restaurant. The culinary industry eventually took Tornello all over the country, opening and managing almost every type of food service operation from fast casual and burgers to fine dining and steak houses, he said.
When he started exploring the possibility of getting back into the business, Tornello said he shopped around for a food cart, but couldn’t find exactly what he was looking for, so he researched the regulations and designed his own mobile kitchen.
“It took me months to build it. I worked on it a few hours a day while I looked for an executive position,” he said.
Tornello threw an Azar sausage on the grill for the first time at Hemming Plaza a few weeks ago. He also sells traditional all-beef hot dogs, Philly cheese steak sandwiches and meatball subs with homemade sauce.
“I know about food and I think this has more potential than any other business I could have started,” he said.
Located at Monroe and Hogan streets two blocks from the new Duval County Courthouse, Tornello sets up shop at 11:30 a.m. Monday-Friday.
Tornello and his custom kitchen are available for private parties and events. He said customers can call 316-5640 to place a takeout order and it will be ready when they arrive.
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