Name of business: Flavor Town BBQ Co.

Type of business: Food truck

Specialty: Barbecue sandwiches

Location: New Life Christian Center parking lot, 2918 W. Tuolumne Rd., Turlock

Hours: Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Contact: (209) 417-8844 or pepepadilla60@icloud.com

History of business:

Growing up in Orange County, one of Pepe Padilla’s favorite childhood memories is enjoying his mother’s homemade cooking. As he experienced some bumps in the road early in his life, little did he know that he would be bringing smiles to faces with meals of his own.

Last week, Padilla parked his food truck, Flavor Town BBQ Co., in front of the New Life Christian Center in Turlock for the very first time after securing his business license and truck permit. It will be the new home of his mobile barbecue company, serving up a variety of meals like tri-tip, brisket and chicken sandwiches, pastrami melts, burgers and more. For Padilla, it was certainly a long time coming.

“Growing up, I was having a real rough time in school and I got kicked out sophomore year,” Padilla explained. “In 1976, my brother was going to move to Turlock, and they told him, ‘If you're moving to Turlock, you’re taking your brother with you.’”

In 2001, Padilla began serving a seven-year prison sentence for drug-related charges. During that time, he served as a cook in prison, preparing food for nearly 1,500 people a day.

“In prison, I found that cooking for all these people was something I really loved,” Padilla said.

Once he was released in 2008, he made it a mission to make a change in his life, attending New Life and volunteering to cook for the church’s Celebrate Recovery Program on Monday nights. Before long, church members became such big fans of his cooking that he started hosting barbecues for his friends. It wasn’t until one of Padilla’s friends asked him to cater his wedding that he realized he could start cooking as a job, soon joining the team at Big Vic’s BBQ in Turlock after befriending owner Victor Rivas in one of the church groups.

Around that same time, Padilla began attending the church’s marriage ministry, where he met meet his wife, Michelle. In 2017, when Rivas suggested that Padilla cook full-time, she was one of the main voices in pushing him to take the leap of faith.

“She said, ‘I think that that's a great idea and I think you need to do if that's your passion and you love it. I think you should go for it.’ So that was her input on it. We continued to talk about it, we prayed about it, and we collectively decided that it would be best for us in the long run,” he explained. “If you're putting the love into it, it’s going to be good and it’s going to be successful.”

With his customized food truck from Sacramento’s Golden State Trailers, which includes a smoker, a flattop grill, a full-sized fridge, prep table and a rolled ice cream machine, Padilla is using meats from Fresno’s JD Foods, which he considers “cream of the crop” and fresh vegetables. He spent the better portion of the past year serving up his meals at parties and events like the Gilroy Garlic Festival and the Stockton Asparagus Festival, which saw his Philly Cheese Steaks and Pastrami Melt become some of the bestsellers.

With his new business license and food truck permit, Padilla has already seen people stop by the New Life parking lot to ask about the business and to give his barbecue a try. On his first day parked last Tuesday, he served around 30 customers in around four hours.

“It's a great location,” he said. “You're right off the freeway, take the Fulkerth exit and get to us with plenty of parking here. I think it’s a great place to be.”

Padilla expects to expand his hours in the coming weeks once he wraps up some of the scheduled catered events and festivals on his calendar. He encourages the public to follow him on Instagram at @FlavorTownBBQCo for the latest on where he’ll be parking and the hours for a given day.

“It’s pretty awesome to see us finally get here,” Padilla said. “It really just warms my heart to bless other people, and I hope I can continue to do that and put smiles on faces with our new, set location now. It’s exciting for us.”