How ’Bout Them Waffles!
It took longer than anticipated, but last month a 1977 Citroen H van rolled into the Kirk Park Beach parking lot in Montauk and Bex Waffles was open for business.
With an original spin on the classic waffle, Becky Moody and Tanya Simmonds-Rosa were in the van six days per week through Labor Day, serving up waffle sandwiches infused with handmade ingredients like bacon, chicken, or fruit like banana or mango. The sandwiches include additions like guacamole or maple cream and extras like cinnamon, Nutella, or peanut butter. For the adventurous, there is a roasted ratatouille vegetable waffle sandwich, featuring eggplant from a neighbor’s garden in Sag Harbor and said to be reminiscent of pizza. On weekends, Bex Waffles offers a potato, egg, and salsa breakfast sandwich. Gluten-free options are available.
“It’s ‘build your own waffle sandwich,’ ” said Ms. Moody, the managing director, or Bex to her friends in London, where she did a postgraduate internship. “You get two waffles with your order. Anything gets baked right into the batter. Then, you can take anything from sweet or savory to go in it — people like bacon-maple, chicken-maple. Bacon, guacamole, and cheese is really popular. Banana is popular with peanut butter or honey. We do a lot with dark chocolate or Nutella, like mango-coconut cream.”
A career detour from corporate work to pastry chef, both in Manhattan and then to a food truck on the South Fork, was decided more than a year ago, said the Arizona native, after she found the Citroen van, manufactured in France and nicknamed Barry. “I saw one like this for the first time in London,” she said, “and then found a guy that brings them over to England and restores them. It was in the South of France, then it went to London, from London to New Jersey, from New Jersey to Brooklyn. We built the kitchen in Brooklyn, and it arrived in Montauk a little over a month ago.”
That was after a month-long holdup, courtesy of the United States Customs and Border Protection. The permitting process with the Town of East Hampton and Suffolk County delayed the launch further, “but we finally got done, and now we’re here,” Ms. Moody said.
The response has been “really good,” she said. “It’s taken a while, but we see a lot more locals now than we used to. People really like the product, and they’re telling their friends. It’s a lot of fun, and really rewarding to see people enjoying it.” Ms. Moody also delivers orders — by bicycle — to customers in the downtown Montauk area.
Ms. Simmonds-Rosa (official title: assistant to the director), a native of Kent, England, left a law firm in Hong Kong to help Ms. Moody with the launch. “People like the product,” she said while creating a delectable banana-and-maple-cream sandwich, “and we just want people to come try it. The community has been so great and supportive. They seem to love the food, and even go online and give us reviews. It’s been really good to have such great support.”
Patrick Kline, a Southampton native, is the third partner. “He’s been helping me learn all things local that I need to do to get set up,” Ms. Moody said.
Bex Waffles has a three-year permit for the Kirk Park Beach lot. This year, “We are definitely sticking it out through September and into October,” Ms. Moody said. “I plan on being open as long as possible, roaming a bit more on the South Fork in the off season, and definitely doing any events, weddings, or parties.”