Armed with a new, custom made food trailer, Ed & Sharon’s Restaurant and Catering proprietor Bill Dinges will be catering to the lunchtime crowd in downtown Merrill starting May 9. The can’t-miss-it red food trailer will be parked on Poplar Street in the vicinity of Merrill Ace Hardware and the city of Merrill parking lot from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Thursdays during the summer.
The menu will feature hot turkey, hot beef and BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, cole slaw and beverages.
Over the winter, Dinges constructed the new food trailer to replace the converted bus he had been using as a vending vehicle. The “chicken bus” will continue to see service for catering jobs, while the red trailer will now be visible downtown and at local events such as Crazy Days, Fuddfest, the Lincoln County Fair and Merrill’s Labor Day celebration.
“It’s been a three-year process,” said the second-generation owner of Ed & Sharon’s. “Even before my dad passed away, I always wanted to do concessions.”
In 2008, Dinges loaded up his hot beef and turkey and headed to Fuddfest for his first concessions experience.
“I liked doing it,” he said. “It brought me out of the kitchen so I could be face-to-face with the customer more.”
The new trailer allows for more convenient operation of the concession business, while providing more efficient service to customers. For Dinges, having a separate vehicle for concessions is an important step in diversifying his business, which includes the restaurant and banquet hall at N1294 Hwy. 64 in the town of Corning, and the catering service.