{"id":33239,"date":"2019-03-06T16:46:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T21:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?p=33239"},"modified":"2019-03-08T10:47:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T15:47:40","slug":"local-woman-uses-restaurant-experience-to-create-the-food-florist-in-ballston-spa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2019\/03\/local-woman-uses-restaurant-experience-to-create-the-food-florist-in-ballston-spa\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Woman Uses Restaurant Experience To Create \u2018The Food Florist\u2019 In Ballston Spa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Tricia Nussbaum opened The Food Florist, which has a retail location in Ballston Spa and a food truck goes to farmers markets, local schools and businesses.
\u00a92019 Saratoga Photographer.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Christine Graf
\nThree years ago, Tricia Nussbaum opened The Food Florist in Ballston Spa. She described her business as a mobile food company.
\nThe Food Florist food truck she operates is available to go to farmers markets, local schools and businesses. She also sells frozen, oven-ready meals at a retail locations. All food is made from scratch with a combination of local, organic, and all-natural ingredients, she said.
\nUnlike traditional food trucks that serve ready-to-eat food, the Food Florist truck is equipped with freezers to hold each meal frozen ready for people to take home for dinner.
\nFor the purchaser, \u201cthere\u2019s no shopping and no chopping. And what I like best of all is that there are no dishes to do,\u201d said Nussbaum.
\nAlthough she is relatively new to the area, she is not new to the food service industry.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve done this for 24 years. I was in the mid-west until three years ago when my husband accepted a job in this area,\u201d she said.
\nFor 17 of those years, she operated a restaurant in Bishop Hill, Ill. Because her restaurant was located in an historic village, business was seasonal. That is what prompted her to start The Food Florist.
\n\u201cWe would do farmers markets and make take- and-bake meals before take-and-bake was a normal thing,\u201d said Nussbaum.
\nWhen her husband, Marty, took a job in Indianapolis, Nussbaum closed her restaurant and opened The Food Florist there. She moved her business once again when they moved to New York state.
\nThe Food Florist operates a commercial kitchen and retail location at 3 Science St. It is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
\n\u201cWe are pleasantly surprised with the amount of walk-in traffic that we get because we aren\u2019t on a main street,\u201d said Nussbaum. \u201cWe don\u2019t really depend on walk-in traffic, but we always make sure we have retail available. People will come in and pick up gifts for other people, and we do free gift wrapping.\u201d
\nThe majority of the business is done at farmers markets and mobile pop-up locations. It was by selling her products at local farmers markets, after moving to the area, that Nussbaum was able to build her business.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve always been a champion of farmers markets,\u201d she said. \u201cI got into markets and started talking to people and telling them what we do. It\u2019s nice to go enjoy people and be in that environment.\u201d
\nThe Food Florist can be found at as many as 14 different farmers markets during the months of May and December. The majority of the area\u2019s markets are seasonal, but those in Glens Falls, Saratoga and Troy operate year-round.
\nAfter many farmers markets close for the season, The Food Florist begins booking their pop-up locations at local schools and businesses. Pop-ups do not operate during the busy farmers market season.
\n\u201cWe try to be booked every day. That\u2019s our goal as a mobile food company. We try to be on the road every day during the week,\u201d said Nussbaum. \u201cWe have a food truck lined with freezers inside. We also pull trailers with freezers on them. We can also take coolers because everything is frozen.\u201d
\nAccording to Nussbaum, people are excited to see The Food Florist arrive at their school or business. \u201cWhen they are leaving for the day, they can just pick up a dinner to take home. It\u2019s so fun. You pull up with the food truck and people love having the night off from cooking.\u201d
\nCustomers can choose between approximately 25 menu items. Chicken pot pie is the number-one seller, she said. The menu also includes a variety of lasagnas, casseroles, meatballs, quiches, brunch items and pies. There are several vegetarian and gluten-free options.
\n\u201cOur food is not fancy. It\u2019s old-style casseroles and lasagnas,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause it is so many staple items, the selection stays mostly the same. There is a nice consistency. We don\u2019t change things a lot, but when different things are in season, you will see different casseroles pop up.\u201d
\nMost of the recipes come from the restaurant she operated in Illinois. She prides herself on using only the finest ingredients.
\n\u201cI\u2019m very against chemicals and additives. We source our items carefully to provide quality ingredients while keeping our prices very reasonable,\u201d said Nussbaum. \u201cWe use all organic frozen vegetables. We use all local dairy products from King Brothers. We use grass-fed beef in our meatballs. The only convenience item you would find in our kitchen would be canned vine-ripened tomatoes that we use in our marinara.\u201d
\nMost of the business is generated from word of mouth. The majority of the new pop-up business is a result of referrals from satisfied customers.
\n\u201cOur customers market us through word of mouth to do these pop-ups,\u201d she said.
\nShe said the Food Florist will begin offering delivery on April 1 within a 20-minute radius of Ballston Spa. There will be a small fee for the service.
\nNussbaum is exploring plans to open a second location and hire additional staff. She currently has six employees, and it is not unusual for her to work seven days a week.
\nDespite her busy schedule, she loves what she does. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought it was a privilege to own my own business. I just enjoy the fact that every day I get to get up and do what I love. And I would like to think that we are contributing to Main Street America\u201d she said.
\nFor more information call (518) 545-0623 or visit www.thefoodflorist.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christine Graf Three years ago, Tricia Nussbaum opened The Food Florist in Ballston Spa. She described her business as a mobile food company. The Food Florist food truck she operates is available to go to farmers markets, local schools and businesses. She also sells frozen, oven-ready meals at a retail locations. All food is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":33240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-women-in-business"],"yoast_head":"\r\nLocal Woman Uses Restaurant Experience To Create \u2018The Food Florist\u2019 In Ballston Spa - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2019\/03\/local-woman-uses-restaurant-experience-to-create-the-food-florist-in-ballston-spa\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Local Woman Uses Restaurant Experience To Create \u2018The Food Florist\u2019 In Ballston Spa - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Christine Graf Three years ago, Tricia Nussbaum opened The Food Florist in Ballston Spa. She described her business as a mobile food company. The Food Florist food truck she operates is available to go to farmers markets, local schools and businesses. She also sells frozen, oven-ready meals at a retail locations. 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