Yesterday, I went to the home of Casey Face with Maria and met her husband Bryan, a pilot for Federal Express,  her baby Evelynne, who is three months old, and Grace, who is five. They live near Cambridge in a  small cottage whose interior Casey designed herself; she graduated from Russell SageCollege, where she studied Interior Design. Her design skills are everywhere in their house.

Coffee is her big thing, but she’s also exploring a score of other foods for breakfast and much of the morning.

Casey is a child of the food industry. Her mother has worked all of her life at a popular fish outlet and restaurant in nearby Glens Falls, and Casey has had just about every job there is to have in the food industry. She is deep into a life-altering dream, refurbishing an old horse trailer (Dan The Handyman, below, is rebuilding it) and hopes to sell unique and fresh breakfast meals from her trailer somewhere in the middle of Cambridge, our village and town.

My plan, which she and Bryan have agreed to, is to follow her as she pursues her dream. Casey is no-nonsense and realistic and is doing it in the right way.

She has a network of coffee and bakers working with her, and all the ingredients for the food she sells – she’s thinking of a breakfast and sandwiches card with pastries, homemade sodas, espresso coffee/ tea, and soufles – will come from local merchants.

She has a Ph.D. in how to sell food via carts in a rational and efficient way – carts are the new food rage in towns and cities nationwide. Casey hopes to have the stand-up and running before winter.

She also has support from her parents, Bryan, and the many friends and contacts she works with and has meet with.

She knows everyone who has sold food in our community and has has gotten advice and support.

Casey is reading cookbooks and talking to local farmers – all her ingredients will be local, which she says is much more important than buying the cheapest options. She is also gathering and collecting ideas for her already sparkling horse trailer. Casey talks a lot about ethics and honor. She appears to value both. She is always making lists: one is right below.

 

I met Casey a month ago, the week after she gave birth to Evelynne. She had a stand at the Farmer’s Market, selling coffee, tea, lemonade, and cider. Maria and I were both impressed. The baby wasn’t quite a week old.

Her mother has worked hard and long hours all through Casey’s childhood at Adirondack Seafood (she still works there), and while Casey is grateful to her mother, she doesn’t want to miss that time with Evelynne and Grace. She wants to have work that allows her to be home every night while her children are young.

I was struck by how gentle and supportive Bryan is. He says he thinks it’s a beautiful idea and will support it in every way. Maria and I have learned repeatedly that women who seek to follow their dreams are often undermined by brothers, husbands, and fathers insisting they get a lucrative day job or don’t work at all. I heard it in every writing class I taught; I saw it happen to my mother.

Support from family matters when young people start out building their own businesses, and her mother and father are also helping her. Casey spent 20 years at and with restaurants and food growers; she knows every detail of the industry, its weaknesses, and successes.

Casey is the real deal: thoughtful, careful, and thorough.

She couldn’t be more or better prepared, and food carts like the one she plans are re-imagining food and radically changing restaurants in almost every big city in America, including New York. Creatives like Casey make and sell great food; it’s a genuine food revolution.

Casey is articulate and has the soul of the dreamer but a very realistic and businesslike one. I think she has a great chance of seeing her dream come true.

I’m not in the food business and would make a horrible business person, but I can’t imagine anyone being better, readier to do what she hopes and wants to do.

 

“I don’t just want a job,” she says, “and I don’t want only to be a stay-at-home Mom, “I want to create something and accomplish something.” To me, Casey is talking about her food cart as a vocation, not just a job.

And she plans to be fiercely loyal to the community of young coffee makers, organic farmers, and bakers that have sprouted up in the area and work closely with one another. Many have already agreed to help her.

I’m excited to follow her dream; she is serious, focused, and imaginative, I admit to loving the idea of a classy coffee, soup, and sandwich horse cart selling things in town that are unavailable elsewhere.

“I thought she was well organized and has done so much research,” said Maria, ” and I love the idea that she isn’t just interested in making money. She is a very creative person.” Maria should know.

I’ll follow her dream as it evolves, starting officially today with this post. When something changes or advances, she’ll tell me, and I’ll come running to take a photo and hopefully record her dream come true, before and after. The pictures say a lot, and they never lie.

Since I am a dreamer and am married to one, I am a sucker for dreamers who take the plunge. Like all of us, she’s worried about failure and disappointment. I don’t see it happening. I told her fear is the thing to fear, not failure.

She liked the idea. There is a toughness and determination about her. Stay tuned.