Alexandria Food Truck Business Meets Fundraising Goal

PHOTO: Meghann Baroody, owner of Meggrolls; photo courtesy of Baroody

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ALEXANDRIA, VA -- “I’ve got to say, the support has been simply overwhelming,” Alexandrian Meghan “Megg” Baroody, owner of Meggrolls, said Sunday of the 184 supporters who helped her reach her $25,000 fundraising goal this weekend for her business.

Baroody launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $25,000 to transition her eggroll food truck business into a brick and mortar space and surpassed her goal Sunday, the deadline, with 184 backers donating $26,300.

“We made a huge push after the two-week mark,” said Baroody, “and things just started falling into place. I still can’t believe it!”

Baroody says that after making her goal and then some Sunday, “I’ll have a day or two to relax a bit, then back to work with a calendar full of catering and office events in the coming weeks.”

“The toughest part over the next few months will be to keep up with the business opportunities that are coming in,” she said, “while maintaining a steady pace with the transition.”

Baroody is talking with real estate brokers and interviewing consultants. She is considering locations, including in Alexandria, as well as possible spaces near area college campuses. ”Students need sustenance at all hours of the day -- we’d love to be a tasty and convenient option for them,” she said.

Making the leap from food truck or food cart to brick and mortar is a concept that has worked across the region, including for local businesses District Taco now in multiple locations and Hula Girl, which recently opened in Shirlington.

Baroody, an Alexandrian (she’s the youngest in a family of six children), got her start in the food truck business after college, where she studied art. After graduating from Catholic University in 2003 with a painting degree, she supplemented her income by bartending, while pursuing many creative outlets. For fun, she made egg rolls creating a variety of flavors for friends.

While working at Alexandria restaurants Chadwicks and Ramparts, she developed a menu of 30 flavors for her business. Meggrolls are egg rolls with multiple personalities. The egg rolls pack a lot of flavor in a bite-size package that doesn’t require a fork, knife or spoon -- perfect for parties, and she does a lot of catering business.

She found a food truck for sale on Craigslist and applied for a food truck license in Arlington, where you can sell from any parking space.

In 2014, Meggrolls was named among the Top 25 food trucks by Washingtonian magazine:

“It sounds dubious, like a 7-Eleven fast-food experiment gone awry: a Big Mac reenvisioned as . . . an egg roll? Thanks to Meghan Baroody’s ingenuity, we find ourselves craving it—along with lots of her other “meggrolls”—on many an afternoon. The fat rolls stay impressively crisp, and we’ve yet to find a filling we don’t like, from celery-topped chicken with Buffalo sauce and blue cheese to chorizo with poblano peppers, corn, cheddar, and honey.”