Mocha Street is a new food truck located outside Green Room Brewing in Jacksonville Beach, but it is taking a unique approach and looking to reinvent mindset often associated with bar food.
Twelve years ago, the family-owned restaurant called Mocha Rita’s Deli opened in Jacksonville on Philips Highway and now the family has decided to start a second venture, this time in the form of a food truck, which began January 15.
“The most flavor always comes out of small kitchens,” said, Chef Lipsky, who oversees Mocha Rita’s Deli. “I’m not sure how somewhere along the line, the industry set the bar at edible. We feel that is unacceptable and together we can raise the bar and raise awareness much quicker. Tastes buds high fiving each other tends to make for a great add-on to any day.”
The family also decided to open Carved Catering seven years ago.
“Years later, now we’re at the Beach with our first mobile unit,” said Amy Divido, director of operations and creative sales at Mocha Street. “This is the first time we are expanding and bringing in employees and outside chefs that aren’t friends and family. It’s awesome to see the growth.”
One of the unique catering aspects that has been brought into Mocha Street, is the offering of a custom-chef experience for customers.
“Our specialty is creating anything from scratch and getting creative with it by figuring out what our customers really want,” Divido said. “We’ve had customers want different meats imported from Chicago and wanted us to create a recipe that was Chicago-based. We also get a lot of origin requests, such as families from Europe that want a European dish.”
The mobile unit was an idea that became a reality thanks to a partnership devised between the restaurant and Green Room Brewing, which is allowing them to use the space in front of their building.
“They wanted to keep their dog-friendly bar but also have a great food option for their customers,” Divido said. “We do incorporate the catering, because every Friday the chef will come in and make one of our catering dishes as a scratch-kitchen entrée to be our dinner special for the weekend.”
Other than the weekend specials, the rest of the menu is all deli-based items.
However, even with the deli-style they strive to remained focused on using ingredients that are made from scratch and that come from local sources.
“If it’s not locally sourced, then of course it’s going to be products that have no preservatives, no hormones, and no color dyes,” Divido said. “We don’t sell soda out of our kitchen or play with corn syrup, or any of those cancerous that are put into food to make them last longer.”
Behind all the measures Mocha Street is taking in its approach is the goal of creating healthier food options with the hopes that people will in turn notice the results by feeling better after eating the food prepared.
Part of that approach is not just the preparation of the food itself, but also taking it a step further by creating a scratch kitchen awareness committee, which is designed to create awareness by educating individuals about the food they are eating and the choices that exist for a healthier lifestyle.
According to Divido, bar food is commonly thought to be greasy and fried, but at Mocha Street the belief is that this does not have to be the case.
“It’s all about educating,” Divido said. “Once our customers are aware that we’re providing a fresher ingredient, they begin to see the value of what they’re getting. It’s all about creating a new mindset.”
