PUFF PEICE // The Marshmallow Cart
Madison Gouzie and Eric Holstein, both 29 and veterans of the restaurant industry, opened their first business in Brooklyn – a winter-only shop called Winter Warmers. They sold s’mores and lots and lots of hot chocolate. The Colby College grads decided to flip the business on its head and turn it into a summertime food cart in Portland, which reminds them a lot of Brooklyn.
“We would have loved to have a food cart in New York because foot traffic there is just insane,” Gouzie said, “but the barrier for entry there is equally insane.”
Their ultimate dream is to have a larger fleet of food carts.
WHAT THEY SELL: Giant toasted marshmallows on a stick in three flavors – vanilla, coconut and either Maine maple or raspberry. S’mores made with these same marshmallows and homemade graham crackers.
HOW MUCH: $2 for three flavored marshmallows, $4 for a s’more
CUSTOMER FAVORITE: The smell of a coconut s’more being toasted with a torch draws the most customers to the cart. “It just smells like summer,” Gouzie said.
HOW TO FIND THEM: Weekdays the cart is in Post Office Park in the Old Port from 1 to 6 p.m.; weekends it is parked in front of the Glass Lounge at the Hyatt Place hotel on Fore Street from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. For updates, check Facebook.
