A popular Tamaqua restaurant invested in a food truck, which will be ready to hit the road in the coming weeks.

In addition to its home on West Broad Street, La Dolce Casa now has a mobile aspect and can bring its wide variety of Italian food to many hungry consumers across the region.

“It was always in the back of my mind, to have one, to use it for catering and specialty events,” said owner Alfie Picone. “But since we got hit with the pandemic, I wanted one more than ever.”

Picone said his restaurant does many outdoor catering events.

“This summer, we have a lot of outside catering events, which we will use it a lot for those,” said Picone. “We had so many different phone calls already from people to see if we can go to different events. And I’d like to do that, but I want to make sure that I am 100% ready and that I don’t overbook myself.”

There have been ups and many downs for local businesses since the pandemic started, which played a factor in Picone’s decision to invest in his new food truck.

“They’re not cheap. But seeing the direction that we’re going - we were closed for many months at the beginning of the pandemic,” Picone said.

Food trucks are a trending component of the restaurant industry. According to census.gov, the number of food truck services almost doubled from 2008 to 2013. In 2018, those businesses employed over 16,000 workers.

Pennsylvania was marked as one of 10 states that combined to supply well over 50% of the total number of active food trucks in the country. In 2018, census.gov reported that Pa. had 224 mobile food service establishments.

“To have something like that is such a relief,” said Picone. “We can accommodate more people. If something happens that we have to shut down again, we can always use it as an outside thing to create more business and please more customers.”

From baked ziti and meatballs to fried appetizers, it sounds like Picone’s truck can cook and serve almost anything.

“This is truck was custom made for that reason and that’s why it took longer. We have a stove and an oven in there that we can cook anything. We have a fryer and a sandwich table,” said Picone.

“I wouldn’t say we could do 100% of the same things we can do at the restaurant, but we could do 80% of it.”

Definitely pizza.

Attached to the food truck will be another mobile unit for hungry patrons looking for a quick slice.

“We want to do big and better,” Picone said. “Not only the food truck, we bought a trailer with a wood-fire oven that will be attached to the food truck. We can make wood fire pizzas on the go.”

Picone will ease into scheduling over the summer, but he said the truck will be serving the public at Tamaqua’s Summerfest, which will return after a one-year hiatus on Father’s Day weekend in June.

“You reinvent yourself - you try to adjust to the new normal,” said Picone. “You cannot let it intimidate you. You have to be cautious, but you can’t give up in life. You have to keep fighting and pray to god every day to keep you strong and whatever you wish for will come true. If you believe in yourself and work hard, you can do anything you want.”