Anna and Jeremiah Luce in Big Bear's Bus Café, a bus they redesigned themselves in to their own fully functioning restaurant. Photo by Colin Stevens
Jeremiah Luce drives his school bus up and down York Road Thursday night, trying to find a spot to squeeze in on the side of the road.
Listening to the smooth sounds of Dave Matthews Band, he and his wife, Anna, finally spot enough room for the bus in front of the Towson Public Library, and pounce on the spot. It’s time to get ready for the long night ahead of them working in their restaurant, serving food to late night travelers ready for a quick meal.
Jeremiah puts the bus in park, and he and his wife proceed to the back of his bus, which is conveniently their kitchen, to starts preparing for the rest of the night.
Jeremiah and Anna are trying to separate themselves from their competition in the food business, building their own mobile restaurant, Big Bear’s Bus Café, inside their school bus.
Jeremiah said that he lived on a bus for about two years at one point in his life [a long time ago] traveling across America. About two years ago, Jeremiah started thinking of putting a café on a bus that he traveled to different places with, but with a steady job in construction, there was no reason to go ahead with the idea.
With the country in tough economic times, however, no job is guaranteed, which Jeremiah found out after twelve years in the construction business. He was laid off, and had to find another means of income. That’s when he and Anna decided to go ahead with his idea, and last October, they bought a bus and started building it.
“We bought the bus in October,” said Jeremiah. “I just gutted it, and then we had the put the electrical systems in it. We had to transfer the motor to run off veggie oil. We had to do all the plumbing, and we had to put the dining room and the bathroom and all that stuff. So, it took a long time to do because everything was custom, and there’s no manual on building a bus café.”
While building their bus, an experience Anna described as “stressful”, she and Jeremiah wanted to make the vehicle as self efficient as possible. They installed solar panels on their roof, which help to power the speaker system, TV, and lights, amongst other things on the bus. Their engine also runs on veggie oil, saving them some cash on gas. Not to mention, it helps give different aromas to their bus. Their favorite is “Japanese Restaurant.”
As two o’clock in the morning approaches, Jeremiah and Anna get ready for their biggest business of the night as starving students leave their favorite drinking holes to return to their homes. As they walk past the bus, people cannot help but stop and check out the café on wheels.
“It was really cool,” Francesco Mazziotti, a senior at Towson University, said. “They had a concert playing on the TV, and the food is pretty good too.”
Mazziotti, like many of the café’s customers, stumbled across the Big Bus Bear Café on his walk home from late night venues in Towson. Attracted by the giant bear painted on the bus, he and his friends had to investigate the traveling restaurant, and came away pleased with what they found.
While enjoying their late night entertainment, Anna and Jeremiah serve customers a variety of foods ranging from foods as simple as quesadillas, to a choice of 7 different Panini sandwiches, including the their most famous item, the Bikini Panini, decked out with roasted chicken, mango chutney, curry, red pepper, grilled onions, and mozzarella cheese.
And while every item they sell helps them, they are happy to say they are helping other with their sales as well.
“For every meal we’ve sold since the day we’ve opened, we donate 27 cents to the World Food Program,” said Jeremiah. “If we can succeed and be good for the environment, and help fellow humans, then that’s the route we want to take.”
[...] quick and cheap, Towson’s hot dog man might be the stop for you. Not into hot dogs? Just find the bus parked on the street, and see if they have something better suited for your [...]