FAMILY, FRIENDS, BBQ

The Little Green Trailer is hard to miss. It’s bright, it’s green and it’s the only permanent food trailer in Creston.

Open since the beginning of May, Kylie Clayton, Waylon Clayton and Luke Smith’s Little Green Trailer is Creston’s newest BBQ vendor.

Open 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday in the parking lot west of First Christian Church on West Townline Street, the Little Green Trailer offers classic BBQ staples and some of its own takes alongside homemade lemonade and the shaved-ice frozen treat Tropical Sno.

“I’ve been doing vending for several years with my cake business,” said Kylie, “and also my husband liked to cook, and so a couple of those shows that I’d been at wanted food, and so we started smoking meat at those shows for those vendor-type shows.

“And I kind of got tired of working under a tent,” Kylie continued, “and he (Waylon) wanted to grow it more, and my brother is really good at cooking and likes to mess with fun recipes so its just kind of evolved from there.”

And the name?

“Well, we went through a ton of names,” said Waylon.

“And then we just said, ‘It’s a little green trailer. Sounds good to us!’” said Kylie. “It just seemed family-friendly. And if we ever get a bigger one, it’ll be a Big Green Trailer, I guess.”

The trailer smokes its meat daily, and operates out of the parking lot west of the First Christian Church on West Townline Street.

“The BBQ came around because when I was a kid, that’s what my dad did,” said Waylon. “And he taught me a few things with it and I started expanding from what he had taught me and got into it that way.

“What we’re doing right now is a spin-off of BBQ,” said Waylon. “We’re doing some fun things with BBQ that you can’t find anywhere else. We have our traditional stuff still, but also stuff like our BBQ tacos, our BBQ sundae — what’s neat about doing what we’re doing is we like to have the freedom.”

The Little Green Trailer’s menu, with regular updates available on the food truck’s Facebook page Little GREEN Trailer, features a variety of BBQ classics and fresh takes featuring traditional ingredients.

Brisket and pulled pork are served daily, alongside featured menu items like BBQ tacos, sundaes, sandwiches and Walkers, a kind of walking nacho. On most Saturdays, the trailer offers special event menu items like chicken hind-quarters, turkey legs and burgers.

“But one of the biggest niches that we have,” said Waylon, “is we try to keep our prices so that everybody can enjoy. A family can come and eat — and we can serve four people — and they can spend less than $30 for some nice brisket and then have a treat at the end. And that’s pretty hard to do in town here. I don’t even think you can do that at McDonald’s anymore. I think that’s one of the things people are liking — that we can keep our prices lower.”

The Little Green Trailer requires about four employees for its operation, explained Waylon, but those four are assisted by some young volunteers. Son Willie Clayton, 12, daughter Kartar Clayton, 10, and other family friends give time to the trailer.

“Yeah, we’ve got some kids learning some ropes,” said Waylon. “One of my kids, Willie, he volunteers his time to come — well, I kind of force him to — but he comes down and he’s learning a trade. And we have a couple more kids his age who are friends that are learning the same thing. Like learning how to count back change, which is pretty much unheard of anymore. And customer service, and being polite — and I think the kids are doing great.”

“They were real nervous about talking to people at first,” said Kylie, “but they’ll be ready.”

Willie’s thoughts on his learning progression?

“Next month I’ll be washing lettuce!” he happily exclaimed.

Kylie, Waylon and Smith are especially thankful for the community’s support.

“We’ve had to jump through hoops — you know — to get it going in Creston, which you know about,” said Waylon. “A bunch of other trailers tried to come in, and it didn’t work out too well for them. But Creston really wants this trailer in town — we’ve got a lot of support. And that’s one of the things we’re so thankful for.”

“When we started,” Kylie continued, “we thought, ‘How hard are we going to have to work to get 50 people to come down?’ And that’s all we shot for. And we probably serve 150 people a day now.

“So we laugh,” said Kylie, “and it was rough on us because we didn’t expect it. That first day, we were out of food in an hour and a half. And it took a good week or two to even keep food past 3 p.m. So it was a big challenge for us to prepare for going over our goal. We were just being modest, you know, and I’ve learned it’s hit and miss at some places. But we’ve had a great outpouring of support here.”

Aside from the trailer’s regular operation out of the lot west of First Christian, the Little Green Trailer makes regular appearances at area events, fairs and festivals. The trailer is also planning a grand opening celebration and event sometime soon.