Homewood residents start food truck business

Wendy Treadwell has, as she describes it, the “gift of hospitality” – she loves to invite people into her home, feed them and enjoy their company. With the help of her husband Ben Treadwell, Wendy is putting that gift on wheels.

The Treadwells are starting the Bendy’s Cookies and Cream food truck business this spring. The idea started years ago, when Wendy saw a make-your-own ice cream sandwich business in California. As she worked in the Southern Progress test kitchen and at Heavenly Donuts, the idea of a similar business stuck in her mind.

“As I got, I guess, stronger in my cooking skills, I thought, ‘Well maybe we could try this,’” Wendy said.

After they got married in 2014, the Mayfair area residents began to seriously pursue the idea. They bought a food truck in South Carolina in January 2015. Ben, who works as an accountant at a nonprofit in Anniston, spent months renovating the truck and installing the equipment in the evenings and weekends.

Meanwhile, Wendy has been testing her recipes. She said they are starting with a list of homemade ice cream flavors, including standards like vanilla and chocolate and originals like cinnamon brown sugar, cookie butter, strawberry buttermilk, peanut butter and banana pudding. They will also sell cookies – with flavors including snickerdoodle, chocolate chip, sugar, triple chocolate, oatmeal and pretzel toffee – along with specialty items like brownies, cobbler and a pound cake based on her aunt’s recipe.

Each of these can be bought individually, but Wendy said customers can make a sandwich with their choice of ice cream and cookies, or add a scoop of ice cream on top of their specialty desserts.

Wendy has tested these recipes on her friends and family, but she’s looking forward to the response from customers who have never met her.

“I’ll probably cry when the first person I don’t know actually buys something… because everybody that’s tried it is people we know and they’re not going to be like, ‘This stinks,’” Wendy said with a laugh.

The Bendy’s truck will be at the Art in the Hills event in Vestavia on April 9 and West Homewood Farmer’s Market, which will be held on Tuesdays beginning in June. The Treadwells are also hoping to participate in the Pepper Place market downtown and the Food Truck Round Up at the Summit on May 7.

To find out where Bendy’s Cookies and Cream will be setting up shop, visit them on Facebook.