A new food truck with a deliciously trendy twist has arrived on Martha’s Vineyard, and it’s serving up responsibly raised rotisserie chicken, brussels sprouts, crispy potatoes, and more.
Goldie’s Rotisserie food truck is the brainchild of Island cooks Lexie Roth and Eva Faber, who both say their goal is to provide a unique and fun experience that focuses on food quality and the connection between people and what they eat.
Roth told Edible Vineyard she has been cooking on Martha’s Vineyard since she was 19 years old. More than 15 years later, she has moved away from gluten-free and dairy-free private cooking in people’s homes, and is excited to embed a rotisserie-style truck in the Vineyard food scene.
“I just felt the need to do something that is my own,” Roth said. “Fun, awesome, almost like elevated fast food.”
Roth said Goldie’s takes the idea of the classic rotisserie chicken from the grocery store that is normally factory-raised, and instead uses a high-quality bird that has been ethically raised and is even more delicious and juicy.
“Who doesn’t love a big juicy chicken,” Roth said.
When designing the layout and menu for the restaurant on wheels, Roth said they considered whether they wanted to do fried food (a very common staple for food trucks) or not.
But they decided to go in a different direction, and picked up a traditional six-spit rotisserie custom made in France that serves as their namesake “Goldie.”
“We love fried food, but we decided to commit to not doing anything fried using seed oils. We are going to be slowly turning rotisserie chickens and cooking potatoes and brussels sprouts in the drippings. We will do some sandwiches and stuff too,” Roth said.
She noted that the food truck has its own baker who makes fresh sourdough bread for all of their sandwiches.
“There’s absolutely no mystery to our food. You know what you are getting — we are really trying to be aware of what we are feeding people, and want to be excited about eating it ourselves,” Roth said.
Goldie’s is also exploring other food offerings, like all-Angus beef hot dogs with melted cheese and Gruyère, topped with fresh thyme and caramelized onions.
The goal is fun and colorful, and although Roth and Faber plan to have a brick-and-mortar location eventually, they are enjoying their time with the mobile restaurant.
Roth noted that she was particularly inspired by seeing her contemporaries and friends taking a risk with their own food trucks, and creating a cherished community establishment with great menus.
“I want to make people happy — that is our main goal with Goldie’s,” Roth said. She added that, after working in restaurants in New York, she is passionate about hospitality and optimizing the customer experience.
Their logo emblazoned on the side of their brightly colored truck embodies the goal of the two cooks — to brighten people’s days with delicious food they can feel good about eating.
“Life is so hard, let’s do a super happy, smiling sun that just makes you grin. We just want to have a good time and give people respite from this crazy world,” Roth said.
After much hard work and planning, Roth said she is proud to finally have the truck up and running. The entire process has given her a better perspective on what it takes to start a business, and she has a strong respect for those who choose to go down that path (especially the food truck path).
So far, the feedback from the Martha’s Vineyard community has been overwhelmingly positive, Roth said. She said upon first sharing their logo on Instagram and their announcement that they would be opening, businesses and entities from all over the Island reached out to connect.
“It was like every single business on the Island followed us and were like ‘can’t wait to collaborate, can’t wait to try the food, where are you?’ It’s really special, and it’s not the same elsewhere,” she said. “It’s been a very warm welcome and I think we did a good job of putting a bunch of things on our menu that are undeniably awesome and tasty, and there is really something for everyone.”
Faber said she grew up eating great food made by her mother, Gretchen, who is also her business partner.
About two and a half years ago, Faber met Roth, and they immediately connected and started dating. Faber was looking to start a career, and Roth was looking to create her own food business.
“That was when it clicked that we both realized we wanted to do food together,” Faber said.
It was daunting to decide how the two would compose their menu, but they eventually decided on the extremely modish rotisserie style.
Faber explained that lots of new rotisserie restaurants are popping up in major cities like New York and Los Angeles, and her group of friends were talking about how much of a hit it would be on Martha’s Vineyard.
Although there are a fair amount of good takeout options here, Faber said the high-end rotisserie was nonexistent on-Island.
“We all thought of the times where we were driving around on these busy days kind of thinking ‘Oh, what’s gonna be for dinner? I wish there was a rotisserie spot,’” she said.
With a rotisserie, the possibilities are endless, because hot, crispy chicken goes well with so many different foods. After months of making phone calls and searching for a trustworthy livestock supplier, Faber said she has learned that there are no shortcuts in offering the freshest ingredients in all their food.
And because the food is humanely raised and consciously produced, the values of the two cooks are exemplified in the food they serve.
Faber noted that more people on Martha’s Vineyard are conscious of where their food comes from than in any other place she has lived or visited.
The food truck will be at the Artisans Festival in West Tisbury twice a week, and is also approved for the drive-in at the YMCA. Faber said she hopes to also be on the list for the 159th Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair.
In the near future, Goldie’s will be looking into new menu items and potentially hiring staff if they expand their offerings.
“But we really just want to start out simple, focus on the chicken, and perfect that experience,” Faber said.
For many young people who want to start their own restaurant but can’t afford a high initial overhead cost, food trucks are a great, more accessible option. Faber thinks food trucks are the way of the future, especially on Martha’s Vineyard, where many popular outdoor venues draw huge crowds during the busy summer months.
“People are so supportive — friends, family, and other business owners. This is a really wonderful community, and we are just happy to finally start serving food and making people smile,” Faber said.
