Door County’s Takeaway Lunch Box

Charlotte Baierl and Marcus Trana are definitely from the Millennial Generation. They’re in their early 30s, educated and childless, and this summer they embarked on a career where they could make their own schedules, live where they want and experiment with something new.

The couple opened a food truck, all the rage in cities such as Portland, Ore., New York City and Los Angeles. They call it Nistebox – which Baierl said is a mashup of Norwegian and English words that roughly translates to “takeaway lunch box.”

“We were looking for a way for me to come back to Door County, because I’m from Brussels and I’d been in Norway for five and a half years and it was his turn to come over,” Baierl said. “We had our minds set on things, maybe getting the old Patio Drive-in Motel, but we realized we didn’t have enough money for that.

“A friend just made a joke – ‘are you going to open a food truck?’ We decided we are. We’re going to open a food truck.”

Although they’ve both worked in restaurants, neither Baierl or Trana are experienced chefs. Baierl studied anthropology in school, and Trana made his living as a musician in Norway, where they met and spent the last five years.

“Even if you count my experience working at the Countryside Diner in Brussels when I was 14, we don’t really have that much experience,” Baierl said. “We’re learning what we can do in that space because everything has to happen within that trailer.”

The Nistebox menu is pretty basic. They have burritos made with vegetables from Sully’s Produce and Steep Creek Farms, occasional side dishes such as Adirondack potato soup and often feature special Norwegian meatball sliders that hark back to Trana’s Scandinavian homeland.

Baierl said those sliders are a lot like burgers, and they really draw a crowd.

“If we’ve had a lull of people coming for burritos all we have to do is go on Facebook and mention we’re going to have the special [sliders] and they all come back,” she said. “Like clockwork. It’s wonderful.”

Through the summer, Baierl and Trana opened Nistebox three days a week in Sturgeon Bay and took the truck to festivals around the county. They’ve been well received, especially in the city, where they opened during Steel Bridge Songfest.

“They have been really nice to us there,” Baierl said. “They want more young people doing things and urban stuff. They want it with open arms, so they got it.”

Baierl and Trana aren’t sure what form Nistebox will take next summer. They may just open the truck on Fridays, or may expand to a permanent restaurant and send the truck to events around the county. But whether they rely on the truck or not, Baierl said their presence has opened up people’s eyes to the kinds of meals that can come out of a food truck.

“It’s not just greasy hot dog water,” she said.

In exchange for the city’s hospitality, Trana and Baierl try to keep prices affordable and occasionally open for late night hours to feed the hungry crowd with no other culinary options but gas station candy bars, bar pizza and Taco Bell.

Whether customers visit Nistebox during their lunch breaks, at busy festivals or after the bars close, they’re in a more open atmosphere than at restaurants or drive-thrus.

“Once that happens people are talking about food,” Baierl said. “They’re out standing next to each other and talking to each other, not in their vehicles or sitting at a table in a restaurant. I think it’s a nice way of getting people to socialize.”

Nistebox will set up shop outside of Parador in Egg Harbor for Pumpkin Patch on Oct. 12-13. For more information, look up Nistebox llc on Facebook.