"Enterprise has a really popular management training program that a lot of people do coming out of college," says Mary. "We both ended up at the Denver International Airport location. We both basically just started, and yeah, we kind of had a crush on each other. Nick was very professional, though; he didn't want to do anything until we were working at different locations."
After a year and a half, Mary left Enterprise to pursue roles in recruiting and marketing while Nick continued to climb the corporate ladder — though he had other long-term plans. "I studied entrepreneurship in college, so I always wanted to start my own business," he explains. "When I started at Enterprise, the goal was to only be there for, you know, three to five years, learn as much as I can about management and running my own business, and then take a step back and start our own."
While the couple dated and worked their different jobs, one thing that they always did together was cook. When the pandemic hit and he was laid off from Enterprise, "I was sitting on unemployment applying for different general manager positions and stuff like that for different companies," says Nick. "And then I kind of realized, wow, I'm on unemployment. I have all this time to put a business plan together and look at different ideas. ... This is the one time I'm gonna get out of the corporate space and start something on my own."
Mary was the first to suggest starting a food truck. "Since it was COVID, a lot of people couldn't go into physical restaurants, so there was definitely a need there," she says. "And then the concept of a sports-themed sandwich food truck kind of just came to me, because I've always been good with words and clever names for things. So that's how it was born — it was really mostly through the name."
The couple began experimenting with sandwich recipes for Fanwich in their home kitchen. "For a while, we were just messing around with it," Mary says. "We're not formally trained chefs, but we cooked together a lot and just kind of taught ourselves. We knew what tasted good, and we knew that we wanted to do sandwiches that weren't just your typical, like, Philly cheesesteak type of thing. We wanted to do sandwiches that no one else had done before, that kind of had different themes and different ingredients that we like."
One of their signature creations is the MVP, a pork and pineapple sandwich with an Asian-inspired twist. "We cook our pork in soy sauce and pineapple juice, and then we top it with a fresh-cut, seasoned pineapple ring and some sriracha aioli for spice," says Mary. "When those items started coming together, we were like, wow, we've got some really good stuff. We knew it was something that we could actually do."
Nick found a food trailer fabricator in Georgia and, with the help of his father, drove down to pick up the custom-built trailer. Fanwich's first day was May 22, 2021 — and it was a whirlwind. "We told his parents, 'Hey, we're gonna have a soft opening. Like thirty people total.' We ended up with 75 people. It did not go great," Mary admits.
The Coach is a country-fried steak sandwich topped with white country gravy and served on a toasted brioche bun.
Fanwich
One of the favorites on the menu is the Coach. "It's a country-fried steak sandwich — fried steak with white country gravy on it. That's it. It's very simple, but it's delicious," says Nick. "Another great menu option is our smothered fries. Our green chile queso is really good."
The Herolds hope to launch a second trailer next summer and may expand the menu, too. But no matter what the future holds, they love sharing a business and pride themselves on attention to detail, using quality meats and offering top-notch customer service.
For more information and to find Fanwich's schedule, visit fanwichfoodtruck.com.
