I might get accused of overstating, but I really don’t care. This latest creation from the great team at Big Bon is going to be a great addition to Savannah’s food scene. Why? Any opportunity to present diversity in what we Eat and Like in this town is a good thing. This food truck is going to change week to week.
Here’s a portion of my conversation with Kaye Heritage of Big Bon Bodega. You can hear the entire conversation on our podcast by clicking here.
JB: Before we get into your new project, how have you been? How would you describe your 2020?
Kaye Heritage: We are doing great. Staying busy. My son just got married, so I gained a daughter. We are super excited about that. We held it at Service Brewing. Miss Sophie from Mighty 8th catered it. S he does a great job. My 2020 can be described in three words. Compassion, courage and resiliance. Our locals pulled us through.
People were buying 1 bagel and putting a $100 tip on it so our staff could survive. We had friends all over the country on line ordering a sandwich and leaving a large tip. It was just amazing despite some dark times.
JB: There was a lot of that around town. So great to hear. So tell us about this new project. It’s called Big Bon Ghost Kitchen, right?
KH: To sum it up, it’s like an Air BnB of food trucks. The intention of Big Bon Ghost Kitchen is to highlight the culinary gems of Savannah. Very often the Executive Chef of the fine dining restaurant get all the accolades. It’s their menu that the sous chefs are executing and the whole team rally behind their Executive Chef.
There are so many sous that love the Service industry and serving people, but they don’t get the opportunity or the platform. So, the intention of Big Bon Ghost Kitchen is to be that platform. Where they don’t have to worry about overhead. Getting a trailer. Getting a restaurant. They can truly come like a playground. Have fun cooking whatever their heart and creativity desires.
These are the guys that are grinding in these kitchens. We want them to have a voice.
JB: So who can we expect to see and when?
KH: Well our first is this weekend (March 13th). It’s two sous chefs from a local fine dining restaurant. They want to make an awesome New Orleans style crawfish boil, shrimp boil. Po’ Boys. You name it.
JB: I think this is a brilliant idea. I think it’s a wonderful thing that you are doing. Like you said these guys execute the idea that the boss of their kitchen has but I’m sure they like to be creative on their own. If they can do it once or twice a year, I think that’s awesome. At the end of the day, it’s a nice opportunity to grow.
KH: Someone laughed at me when I said I want Big Bon to be a playground for culinary creatives. It is possible.
It’s not a long term commitment after one event. What I would really love to do is to sub contract these amazing chefs and create unique catering experiences. So that Savannah can have not just the regular catered food. So you can have these amazing sous chefs from fine dining restaurants.
The 2nd one (pop up) can I share it with you?
JB: Oh, I already know. I spoke to her. Savannah’s best donuts. It’s Natasha Gaskill who is a flippin’ rock star of a baker here in Savannah. She does donuts. She used to do them behind her house.
KH: She is coming back, y’all. Making her amazing donuts for you at the Bodega. (March 20th). She’s coming in at midnight making dough and proofing it all night.
And another exciting part is we are going to have delivery with Sav Takeout. I was talking to Stephen (Owner of SAV Takeout) and I asked him ‘can we do delivery for a pop up?’ and he said ‘sure!!’
So we are going to do delivery service for the pop up food as well.
JB: Where is the central location where people can get information? This is all brand new for you guys. Not a lot of infrastructure. Where can people information and your calendar?
KH: Currently just Instagram CLICK HERE for now. Sometimes word of mouth can be more powerful than anything else. Eventually it will be housed under our main bigbonfamily.com website but we are still working on that.
The beauty of this is everyone can have a voice. It doesn’t have to be a brick and mortar. I’m excited. Savannah is so special. We have such a special food community. It’s been such a hard year, let’s have some fun.
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