NEWS

Food trucks, ice cream bus, move into Seabrook

Angeljean Chiaramida
Sunday Barbeque will open this weekend at 58 Lafayette Road, the site of Seabrook Tire. The owners are Erin and Steve Candiano.

SEABROOK – The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t stopping two sets of entrepreneurs from opening businesses in town this month, and both should tempt local palates.

For about 20 years, Erin and Steve Candiano offered barbeque meats from their smoker and food truck to thousands of hungry patrons at fairgrounds throughout the region. Shirl Ross and William Shaheen are just starting their homemade ice cream and sweets business, made and sold from their newly renovated Manchester Transit Authority bus.

Soon the Candianos, and Ross and Shaheen will set up shop at two different spots along Route 1, all while adhering to COVID-19 safety requirements. Sunday Barbeque will open this weekend, 1 to 9 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday, at 58 Lafayette Road, the site of Seabrook Tire. Chubba Wubba’s Sweets and Refreshments Bus will open no later than next weekend, when it pulls into Seacoast Shopping Center at 270 Lafayette Road.

For decades, Candianos followed Seabrook-based Fiesta Shows at the region’s fairs and carnivals, setting up their meat smoker and food trailers to serve patrons of historic festivals like New Hampshire’s Hopkinton Fair and Massachusetts’ Topsfield Fair. This year, however, the pandemic closed summer and fall fairs, leaving those who earned income from fair concessions in the lurch.

Seabrook residents, the Candianos also own Carmelo’s at Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts, which was allowed to open June 1. But the financial impact of the pandemic’s fair and carnival closings and restrictions intensely affected them, she said, and those who earn all their income from concessions.

Fortunately, while having one of their vehicles serviced at Kevin Hatem’s Seabrook Tire, her husband, Steve, and Hatem cooked up an idea that offers the Candianos an income opportunity, and gives residents a new barbecue treat. When Hatem heard about the impact COVID-19 is having on the Candianos’ business, he offered his location at 58 Lafayette Road (Route 1) as a place for the couple to bring their smoker and food trucks on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Candianos received approval from selectmen Monday. They will hold a soft opening this Saturday at the Seabrook Tire site, with their official opening Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Erin Candiano said they hope to be open Saturdays and Sundays from then on until at least fall. And, if all goes well, they may be returning.

The smell of smoked meats should be an enticement for those driving around the traffic circle at Seabrook’s Town Hall.

“People will be able to see their meat cooking in the smoker,” Erin Candiano said. “Most people have never seen that before. We serve smoked brisket, ribs, pulled pork, chicken, Italian sausages, and we make our own baked beans and coleslaw.”

And the Candianos make their own rub and barbecue sauce.

“It’s a secret recipe,” she said. “If I told you the ingredients, I’d have to kill you.”

For massage therapist Shirl Ross and lobsterman William Sheheen, Chubba Wubba’s Sweets and Refreshments is a new venture the Seabrook couple can do together, and one they had discussed for years. Last year, they acted, buying a Manchester Transit Authority bus at auction in November, spending the months since renovating it complete with installing a kitchen.

After passing inspection and getting their OK from selectmen this week, Ross said, the bus is about ready to pull out of its station at their South Main Street home.

“We’re unique,” Ross said. “We’re not an ice cream truck, we’re an ice cream bus. We make everything from scratch. We make regular custard-based ice cream and non-dairy ice cream that’s really delicious.”

That’s not all the scratch-made goodies Chubba Wubba’s plans to offer. There will be coffee, muffins, doughnuts, cookies, pretzels, brownies, granola, low-sugar protein bars and smoothies.

Ross said they will be open every weekend and more days of the week may be added.

Owners of both Chubba Wubba’s and the Sunday Barbeque said they’ll adhere to COVID-19 social distancing and sanitation requirements to keep service safe. Owners and servers will wear masks, they said, and they encourage patrons to do the same.

Chubba Wubba's Sweets and Refreshments Bus, owned by Shirl Ross and William Shaheen, will operate in the parking lot of the Seacoast Shopping Center at 270 Lafayette Road.