SOUTHINGTON — Owners of a food truck specializing in gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches plans to open a shop in Factory Square this spring.
Larry Tapley and James Brown have run the Kraftwich food truck together for more than a year. They’ve been working to build out their Southington location, which they’ll call The Lab.
“We take a lot of classics and put our own twist on stuff,” Brown said.
“It’s all experimental recipes that we want to try that may not be found anywhere else,” Tapley said.
Brown was the former head chef for Sherman’s Taphouse, which has a location on Center Street in Southington. Tapley worked in a factory but after working on his cousin’s food truck realized he wanted to make a switch.
It was Tapley’s cousin, one of the owners at Hardcore Sweet Bakery in Factory Square, that suggested the location. Hardcore Sweet Bakery owners Jeremy and Nicole Braddock opened their Southington location last year.
Comfort food
The Kraftwich menu was based around foods that would pair well with beer since the food truck was often at breweries.
One of the crowd favorites was a beer-braised short rib grilled cheese sandwich. Brown said another popular item was his play on a Monte Cristo sandwich.
“We did smoked Swiss cheese, smoked turkey, ham and we did a beer-battered French toast batter,” he said. The dip was Bourbon and maple syrup.
“People loved it,” Brown added.
Kraftwich also offers burgers, wraps, fries, tater tots, rib bites and fried cauliflower.
The Lab menu will follow that of the food truck closely but Tapley and Brown are looking to experiment and offer unique items.
Factory Square
The owners hope to open The Lab in early April and have been working on the space at 168 Center St. since October. It’s between Rosie’s Royal Chocolates and Hardcore Sweets Bakery on the first floor of Factory Square. The location is in the main common area, which was a selling point for Brown and Tapley.
In addition to the traffic already generated by Factory Square businesses such as Witchdoctor Brewing and Escapism CT, they liked the QR system where customers anywhere in Factory Square can order from any of the businesses in the building with their smart phones.
Someone sitting in Witchdoctor can order a sandwich from The Lab on their phone, Tapley said.
“They never have to leave. We have food runners that’ll bring the food right to them,” he said.
Tapley expects that Kraftwich customers will also visit their Factory Square location, adding to the foot traffic that’s already generated by the building and the nearby Farmington Canal Heritage Trail.
The two factory buildings have been slowly transformed from its former industrial use to offices, shops, and other businesses.
The larger of the two buildings, which overlooks the walking trail, now has around 70 percent of its 80,000 square feet of retail and office space rented out by businesses such as Perkatory Coffee Roasters, Montana Nights Axe Throwing and GameCraft Arcade, while the Annex Building has around 20,000 square feet, 6,000 of which is occupied by Paul Gregory’s which recently moved from another Center Street location.
[email protected]: @JBuchananRJ