Laura Peters

lpeters@newsleader.com

STAUNTON - One of Staunton's food trucks is putting down some more permanent roots with a storefront on Central Avenue in Staunton.

The Salvadoran food truck Gloria's Pupuseria owners John and Gloria Gerber have been fixing up the former small restaurant space on the corner of Central Avenue and Pump Street, which has been home to IC Wings and Mike Lund's Lundch and catering operation.

Previously, the food truck had found a spot on the corner of Lewis and Baldwin streets during the fall of 2015. The truck has also appeared at the Staunton's Farmers Market and Redbeard Brewing Company in Staunton.

Gloria's Pupuseria takes up space in downtown backlot

The Gerbers have been operating their food business since 2013. Before getting the physical truck in 2015, the duo did a makeshift canopy serving station where they prepared food for customers for two years. They've been looking for a place to open a storefront for some time and had previously looked at the location they will inhabit a few years ago.

"We considered several other spaces that we liked, but each of those places required a major re-build, and the addition of a lot of very expensive equipment," the Gerbers said. "Several years ago we looked at Mike Lund's place when he was preparing to move to Springhill Road and we actually made an offer at that time. Sadly for us, the landlord had already made other plans."

It wasn't until a recent visit from Lund himself that the couple thought about that location.

"When Mike Lund recently came to see us at the Staunton Farmers' Market and told us that the place was available again, we made the call that very day and the place was ours," they said. "Needless to say, we were overjoyed. The place was equipped with the most expensive pieces of professional restaurant equipment, most notably the commercial-sized range hood. We felt like this new space was the perfect next step for our small family-run business.

"We started in our little station wagon, then bought a trailer to pull and then we found our food truck, and now our little business has outgrown our house," they added. "Although the space is limited, we will have some seating available, and, as always, we will be ready for take-out orders. The space will also provide us the room to operate a commissary kitchen for our food truck, and we will continue using our big yellow food truck to support the Staunton Farmers Market, participate and cater local events and we will continue to support local businesses like RedBeard Brewery on Friday nights."

The food truck and shop, offers Salvadoran food, which includes pupusas, tamales, fried yuca, fried plantains and more.

But, what is a pupusa? It's a thick handmade corn tortilla stuff with a variety of things such as pork, beef, cheese, chicken and veggies.

The new restaurant spot is just up the street from a new taco place expected to open in the coming months, Chicano Boy Taco, and near the newly expanding farm-to-table cafe The Store. Pupusa lovers should be seeing the store opening in late fall.

"We still don't have a scheduled opening date, but we are hoping to be ready for the public at the beginning of November," they said. "For updates and to check on our progress, folks can always check our Facebook page, Gloria's Pupuseria. We are so incredibly grateful to this wonderful community, because it is their loyalty, love and support that have enabled and inspired us to make this next step."

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Follow Laura Peters@peterslaura and@peterpants. You can reach her at lpeters@newsleader.com or 213-9125.