Grand Junction teen serves up deep fried desserts in his very own food truck
“I’m not your typical 18-year-old,” says Johnathan Demers.
In the back corner of the Grand Junction Lowe’s parking lot, you’ll find Demers behind the counter of JD Concessions, a food truck specializing in fair foods like soft serve ice cream, funnel cakes, and deep fried Oreos, to name a few.
Most of the choices are decadent, fried desserts. The “loaded” funnel cake, which comes with a mountain of soft serve and whipped cream on top, will run you $14.
“The most popular is a deep fried Pop-Tart,” Demers says. He has owned the truck for about a year-and-a-half.
Demers was just 13 years old when he realized he wanted to run a food truck for a living. He was able to get a job working for a small food truck and slowly saved “every last dime of money” he had until he could afford his own equipment, like a soft serve machine and a refrigerator.
Between the ages of 16 and 17, Demers finally had enough equipment to start his own business. Then he started building his trailer.
“I built it from the ground up. It was just a bare shell. Now I have something really cool to show, Demers says. “I didn’t just go buy it. I built it with my own two hands.”
The day after his 18th birthday, Demers spent the day on the phone with insurance companies and secured his business license. Now, he’s trying to figure out how to grow his business.
For a while he considered adding food like burgers and fries, but decided it was too complicated. He’s even floated the idea of starting a separate, potato-only trailer.
“Ribbon fries, chili-cheese fries. Nothing but potatoes,” Demers envisions.
“It’s going to grow a lot,” he says of JD Concessions. But he’s not entirely sure which direction he wants to go in. One option is to build more trailers and enter into the fair circuit, traveling to the biggest fairs in the Western United States. Another possibility is opening a brick and mortar site, possibly in a mall.
“It’s actually getting really big, really fast,” Demers says. “I’m kind of scared I’m getting too big for my own shoes.”