Sweet treats now on wheels

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, Wendy Treadwell is putting that gift on wheels.

The Treadwells started the Bendy’s Cookies and Cream food truck business this spring. This month will mark their first major event, but 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 Treadwell said.

“She had come up with that idea for the name – Cookies and Cream — long before I even met her,” Ben Treadwell said.

After they got married in 2014, the Mayfair area residents seriously began to pursue the idea. They bought a food truck in South Carolina in January 2015. Ben Treadwell, 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 Treadwell has been testing her recipes. She said they are starting with a list of homemade ice cream flavors, including standards such as vanilla and chocolate and originals such as cinnamon brown sugar, cookie butter, strawberry buttermilk, peanut butter and banana pudding. They also will sell cookies — with flavors including snickerdoodle, chocolate chip, sugar, triple chocolate, oatmeal and pretzel toffee — along with specialty items such as brownies, cobbler and a pound cake based on her aunt’s recipe.

Each of these can be bought individually, but Wendy Treadwell 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 Treadwell has tested her recipes on friends and family, but she said 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 Treadwell said with a laugh.

The Bendy’s truck will be at the West Homewood Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays beginning in June, and the Treadwells said they are also hoping to participate at the Pepper Place Market in the Lakeview District. Other events on their calendar include the Food Truck Round Up at the Summit May 7 and Alabama Outdoors’ Party on the Porch.

“We’re just gradually looking for events to do,” Wendy Treadwell said.

With Ben Treadwell still working in Anniston, the Treadwells said they won’t be parking the Bendy’s truck in different spots to serve desserts during the weekdays, because Wendy Treadwell can’t run it alone. However, Ben Treadwell said they would like to bring the truck to parks on weekends, cater at parties or weddings or even find a dinner truck to park with on evenings during the week.

Ben and Wendy Treadwell said they are hoping that the Bendy’s truck can eventually become a full-time job for them both or lead to a brick-and-mortar store. Since Wendy Treadwell has lived most of her life in Homewood, she said she’d like to open their cookies and ice cream shop in her hometown.

“I’ve always just wanted to own my own business in general, so I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing something built and complete and working,” Ben Treadwell said.

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