Hot Potatoes! This Local Food Truck is a Gluten-Free Favorite

“Janell and I have always been passionate about cooking. I’ve been passionate about cooking my whole life,” says Lucas Walgren. “But she was diagnosed with celiac about ten years ago. She’s very sensitive and would have reactions even if there was cross-contamination. At that time, everything that was gluten-free tasted like cardboard. Absolute garbage. And you could not find any good soul food or comfort food that was gluten-free.”

Today, the husband and wife team are in their third season of running the Wandering Potato food truck, a completely gluten-free mobile eatery that serves loaded baked spuds and generates smiles across Colorado.

How it Started

Their path to the truck started long before they ever dreamed of owning one. Lucas and Janell first met working in restaurants. “We actually met bartending,” Lucas says. “We opened up a restaurant, not our place, but [Pennsylvania-based chain] Quaker Steak and Lube. We worked together for about two years and really built a relationship.”

The couple eventually married and built their lives together, and both moved on to other jobs. Lucas pursued opportunities in construction and marketing while Janell continued bartending. Around 2019, his entrepreneurial spirit took hold and led him to develop a mobile CBD store. “My sister used to have a retail marijuana store in Washington State. I’ve always been a big advocate for natural, holistic healing, and with my sister in that industry, she was always giving me suggestions, samples and research. CBD was huge in Colorado, and nobody really knew what it was. So we were more of an educational truck showcasing Colorado CBD products. We were successful, but then the market got saturated, and we plateaued,” explains Lucas.

That slowdown with the CBD truck coincided with the pandemic, and Janell, who was bartending at the airport at the time, was laid off along with many others. This sudden shit forced the two to rethink their future. “We have thirty years combined experience in the food industry. We’ve always wanted to have a restaurant. We were like, ‘Do we keep the truck, or do we sell the truck?’ We couldn’t really afford the initial build out, but finally we just said, screw it. We gathered up all of our savings and literally just went for broke. We found an outstanding fabricator, Cory Mack of Mobile Kitchen Fabrications, and they turned it around,” Lucas says.

With Janell having lived with celiac disease for years at this point, the couple knew they wanted to launch a gluten-free food truck. After all, they had been perfecting gluten-free cooking for some time and loved tricking their family and close friends with comfort food gluten-free style. “I grew up in a household where it was all old-school cooking, old-school recipes. Just good comfort food. My grandma taught me how to cook,” Lucas notes. Channeling that style of cooking, the couple developed more than just a collection of successful gluten-free recipes – they had the foundation for a menu that could travel.

What’s on the Menu

The baked potato became their signature, a vessel for comfort food that anyone could enjoy. “We chose to do this food truck, and we chose to do potatoes because every cuisine on the planet has a potato dish,” Lucas says.

The menu emphasizes creativity, flavor and accessibility. The Wandering Potato is known for its Colorado-style green chile, a constant on their menu offered in both pork tenderloin and vegan versions, which Lucas describes as a “Colorado classic that everybody knows.” Beyond that, the couple rotates baked potato specials inspired by global cuisines and comfort food favorites. From kalua-style pork, a traditional Hawaiian dish, to a deconstructed shepherd’s pie and Mississippi pot roast, the creations are inventive and hearty. “One thing we like to do, depending on the venue, event or just our customers’ palates, is make three to four potatoes that fit that genre or event theme,” says Lucas. There is even a breakfast baked potato for morning events called the Pippin Second Breakfast. “It’s a couple of eggs, thick-cut hickory-smoked bacon, and we serve it with maple syrup.”

“Everything we serve is fresh, and we make sure no one leaves feeling like they’re missing out,” Lucas explains. “The secret behind a good baked potato is making sure it’s perfectly baked, fluffy and airy, not dense or chunky. You want a baked potato that almost feels like you’re eating mashed potatoes. The key to our potatoes is making sure that we put enough butter and cheese on there so when you do get to the skin, it’s something that you actually enjoy.”

Although the menu changes depending on the season, the event and the availability of fresh ingredients, the goal is always the same: to provide food that people crave, that makes them smile and that is safe for everyone to eat. Pro tip: One item that is always available on the “secret menu” is called Bacon Me Crazy. “It’s a traditional baked potato and we overload it with bacon, butter, cheese, scallion, and then add our house-made bacon-infused sour cream,” Lucas says.

The Wandering Potato also champions local businesses through its rotating selection of hot sauces. “One of the big things we really are about is promoting small businesses and local products. We line up four different local hot sauce companies, and we love offering variety,” Walgren says. The truck offers a range of options, from mild and flavorful to hot sauces that deliver serious heat.

How to Find It

Lucas and Janell are slowly transitioning to running the truck full-time. Currently, it operates three to four days a week in the off-season and up to six days a week during the summer. Fans can follow the weekly schedule on Instagram @thewanderingpotatofoodtruck or check the monthly calendar at thewanderingpotatofoodtruck.com.