Local food truck to open permanent Charles City location

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

A popular Charles City-based food truck is settling into a permanent location.

Joe Low, owner of All About Cheesesteaks, is busy working on moving in to the Gilbert Street building formerly home to Taco John’s and most recently Max’s Delicatessen.

“This became available so we decided to come indoors,” said Low.

A New Jersey native, Low decided to bring a taste of his home to Iowa three years ago, serving up cheesesteaks from a trailer before moving up into a food truck.

Rather than putting the food truck away for the winter as he has been, Low is taking the next step in his business. He plans to open All About Cheesesteaks and More on Nov. 1, marking the start of year-round service.

With the permanent location, Low plans on expanding his offerings beyond what his food truck has traditionally served. Along with making the limited-time chicken cheesesteak a full-time menu item, Low wants to expand his menu into pastas and deserts.

Utilizing his Sicilian family’s recipes and sourcing his ingredients from the East Coast, Low wants to offer more of the Italian-American experience to the community.

Hours for the business are still tentative, and will depend on staffing, but Low plans on being open on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., except Tuesdays, with the possibility of early morning Friday hours to serve breakfast sandwiches. Weekend hours are on the table as well, but haven’t been definitively set.

Staffing the new restaurant will be a deciding factor on the operational hours but Low is confident that he will find the necessary help.

“We have a lot of people that help us with the food truck and I think that will transition here,” said Low.

If successful, Low hopes that he will be able to continue to grow, expanding his staff enough to operate both the restaurant and the food truck by the time the next season comes around.

This will be the second businesses to open at the Gilbert Street location this year. The building was previously home to Max’s Delicatessen, which opened in January and announced its closure earlier this month.

“It was a great run and met a ton of lovely people and it was truly a joy sharing food with you all,” wrote Max’s owner Zolton Zorzi on Facebook. on Sept 8.