WILKES-BARRE — When Wilkes junior Toon De Schepper moved here from Belgium six years ago, people often asked him about Belgian waffles.
“But there would never be real Belgian waffles around,” he said. “Everybody knew about them and knew they were good even though they never really had a real one.”
De Schepper decided to do something about it. He teamed up with his roommate, Wilkes University junior Bill Berry, and started the All Belgium food truck.
On Tuesday, De Schepper and Berry sold Belgian waffles for $5 each on Wilkes University’s campus on South Main Street outside the Karambelas Media and Communications Center.
De Schepper described the one type of Belgian waffle they sell as “rich, flavorful, sugary and chewy.”
“It’s good enough to eat it by itself but then we also offer toppings,” he said.
Customers can add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for $1 and one topping for $1 and an unlimited amount of toppings for $2.
Toppings include Oreo crumbles, Biscoff crumbles, Biscoff spread, Nutella, whipped cream, bananas, strawberries, maple syrup, powdered sugar, peanut butter and chocolate sauce.
De Schepper, 23, who is majoring in sports management, and Berry, 22, who is majoring in financial investments, said making the Belgian waffles is easy.
“We get the dough shipped from Belgium in already pre-made dough balls so we don’t have to prepare the dough,” De Schepper said. “It’s shipped frozen. All we have to do is make the dough rise and put it in the waffle iron for a couple minutes.”
The two students, who both play on Wilkes University’s ice hockey team, took a road trip to Virginia where they bought a used 1999 Ford ice cream truck and they turned it into their food truck.
“We redid the whole inside of this truck,” De Schepper said.
Berry, who is from Connecticut and has experience working in a restaurant kitchen, said when De Schepper told him his idea to start a Belgian waffle truck, he loved it.
“I love Belgian waffles and I thought they would sell here,” Berry said. “I wanted to help Toon out and I wanted to be a part of it.”
De Schepper and Berry created a Facebook page and Instagram account for the All Belgium food truck announcing they will be in the same location 10 to 1 Wednesday. On Thursday, the truck will be at the Farmers Market on Public Square from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on South Main Street.
On Friday, the truck will be on South Main Street from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. They’ll also sell waffles in front of Senunas’ Bar & Grill on North Main Street midnight to 3 a.m. this weekend.
They will continue selling them in downtown Wilkes-Barre as the month goes on and they expect business will be brisk when students return to Wilkes University’s campus.
Denise Allabaugh is a business writer for The Citizens’ Voice. Contact her at dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2115 or @CVAllabaugh on Twitter.
