Dave Manganello, owner of the Sausage King of Nashua, plans to return his sausage business into a food truck and convert the existing restaurant into a barbeque joint. Courtesy photo.

NASHUA – The restaurant the Sausage King of Nashua is looking to return to its roots and it will start selling its well-known hotdogs and sausages with peppers and onions and from food trucks while also opening a barbecue restaurant on Main Street next month.

Owner Dave Manganello bought the business in November 2011; it had been operating for the previous 10 years. The Sausage King used to be a food cart that would camp out in front of Holman Stadium and other city hot spots, including Home Depot and local bars, which Manganello said he is looking to get back to. He said the outdoor food market health codes have shifted and it made more sense for him to change his business model.

“The Main Street storefront rent costs, coupled with the fact that our highest ticket item is under $10, it makes it difficult for us, in this environment, to stay current and, in all honesty, to stay in business,” he said.

Manganello added sausage as a specific meal to sell to customers, though his menu offers other items including salads.

“People look at (the name) and say, ‘Yeah, I don’t really feel like sausage tonight,’”he said.

The new barbecue restaurant will be named Riverside Barbeque Co. and is set to open at the beginning of May.

Manganello said the food truck will return to the streets in the next year or so, back to where it truly “belongs,” with catering options available as well.

The Sausage King currently employs six people, though Manganello says he will look to possibly double that number. The square footage of the restaurant will stay the same, and he says it will take him only a week or so to convert into the new restaurant.

He added the food truck business is one of the fastest-growing segments of the food industry.

“The reason being is that real estate is so expensive,” he said. “You get these restaurants that can create a dynamite product but they can’t afford a $500,000 or a million dollar restaurant to do what they want to do. They buy a really great truck and equipment, and then they don’t need the overhead for the dining area.”

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HOLLIS – Dan and Christine Snyder are putting a whole new spin on “hot wheels.”

With their new, traveling, wood-fired pizza business called Touched By Fire, that runs self-contained off the end of a 10-foot trailer, the Snyders bring a unique mobile culinary experience to fairs, festivals and private functions around the Granite State.

“We’re taking some pride in the fact that we’re kind of pioneering this business, at least taking it to this extent,” Dan Snyder, branch manager of Nashua’s Merrimack County Savings Bank, said, explaining his idea behind a portable pizza oven business.

“It’s kind of an interesting thing,” Snyder said. “First and foremost, it’s my love and passion for cooking Italian, specifically pizza. I’ve been doing it since I was 10 or 12 years old.

“It’s also the vast appeal for pizza. It’s neither gender, race nor age specific, practically everyone loves pizza … Also coupled with thinking about the newly emerging interest of Americans and a natural approach to things. A portable wood-fired oven has been around since the Middle Ages. That kind of conjures up some things of when life was a little simpler. We’re not talking about a lot of preservatives and additive. It really kind of has its own romance, if you will.”

Mobile food trucks are becoming increasingly popular around the U.S., but wood-fired-oven pizza trucks are relatively new, Snyder said.

“The phenomenon is really in its infancy in this country,” Snyder said. “In terms of the mobile aspect, the wood-fired oven conjures up that old-fashioned and charming way to produce pizza and bread. It can’t be beat for taste, quality and public appeal.”

Snyder’s operation, which officially started in February, came to fruition after his 10-foot Maxey Trailer, built with a custom- fitted Forno Bravo Italian wood-fired oven in Fort Collins, Colo., was shipped to New Hampshire.

Since then, Snyder’s mobile oven has made appearances at two public events in New Hampshire, and a couple of private ones, with six more on the schedule.

“Part of our appeal with people, we have this showcase imported Italian wood-fired oven that people can watch their food being baked and it only takes two minutes or less from oven to plate.”

When Touched By Fire attends events, they cart their Italian oven, a commercial refrigeration unit and pizza prep table, plus tubs of fresh ingredients, wherever they go. Pizza dough and sauce are made according to Snyder’s recipe at Ciao’s Pizza in Nashua and Amherst, and dishes are taken there for washing when the day is done.

Touched By Fire offers pizza lovers 8-inch personal pies made to order with locally grown toppings when available. Among the standard pepperoni and cheeses are breakfast pizzas of bacon and egg or sausage, plus a dessert s’mores pizza of crumbled graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate topping.

Snyder also offers custom calzones, and is planning on adding homemade pretzels to the menu soon.

The wood-fired oven burns apple wood to heat up to 800-900 degrees on a 43-inch hearth. With the ability to cook 14 pizzas at one time, Snyder said he can produce about 100 pizzas an hour if needed.

Sometimes the smell alone attracts hordes of people to Snyder’s truck, he said.

“The smell of the wood-burning oven really conjures up memories of simpler times, and it whets the appetite for well-cooked, unique and delicious pizza when you have the sweet aroma of apple wood wafting through the crowd.”

That’s certainly one of the draws of having a mobile wood-fired oven, the ability to bring the tastes and smells of everyone’s favorite wood-fired pizza right to their doorstep, or local park.

But there are a number of reasons Snyder said his mobile wood-fired oven business is the way to go.

It’s not your average pizza truck with trays of lukewarm slices.

“All of our product is prepared fresh to order and cooked right in front of you in plain sight,” Snyder said. “Our competition, which I would tell you is just an oven-baked pizza, there’s not a lot of appeal in that, You’re picking a slice out of a warming tray, and God knows how long that’s been there. Ours has been made to order, right in front of you.”

It eliminates most of the operational costs of having a stationary restaurant.

“You don’t have the cost of electric,” Snyder said. “You do have the insurance, but you don’t have the same insurance as a fixed location. I don’t worry about pipes bursting, heating or air conditioning bills. That is one of the real great appeals for me, I could eliminate a lot of those things and then on top of it, I can take it where the people are and I can do that in a jiffy pretty much.”

On the first day of a long weekend event, it probably takes an hour and a half to set up Touched By Fire and get the oven from cold to warm enough to cook, Snyder said. After day one, it only takes a couple of minutes to get the oven back up to 800 to 900 degrees.

Plus, the mobile pizza oven allows Snyder to choose where and when he wants to sell his product.

“This business, you get to schedule just what you want, when you want,” Snyder said. “The flexibility is a big attractant.”

Snyder said his research shows there are now only about three or four wood-fired pizza trucks in New England, but he predicts he will have a lot more company in the industry soon.

“I really think in the next two to five years, three to five years, this phenomenon will really grow and catch on,” Snyder said. “I say that from a couple standpoints. The conversations I’m having and the interest (people are) expressing … Because of the appeal, the wholesomeness, the quality and the entertainment value, too. People are just tripped out over it – it’s pretty funny.”

For information on Touched By Fire or to schedule a stop for your next party, visit http://touched-by-fire.com or call 566-2193.

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