Local food truck brings fresh dining experience to Nicholls campus

Ironsides Waffles Food Truck has made a great first impression among many students around campus. It makes everything correlating with waffles.

The truck originated on Tulane University’s campus about a year and a half ago. There are two active trucks that are currently being shared between Tulane and Loyola University. Ironsides Waffles truck partners with Sodexo Campus Services, the same campus dining services that Nicholls Dining Services is currently contracted with. General Manager of Sodexo at Nicholls, Russell Barrios, believes the truck was a way to make up for the inconvenience of construction in front of the student union.

“Last week we had our own food truck in front of the café, but [Ironsides Waffles] is an established food truck and that’ll be on campus until Thursday,” Barrios said. “This was one of the ideas we came up with for the students before the semester started to try and take their minds off of the construction and other inconveniences.”

I’ve always questioned why Nicholls, a university with a prestigious four-year culinary program, did not venture out to various forms of food, such as a food truck, before now. Today, I finally saw a food truck parked on campus, and it’s about time!

Although it’s not run by Nicholls students or the culinary program as I envisioned, I was happy to see a legit food truck around campus. A food truck popping up at any university in South Louisiana is certain to make a fuss. We love food just that much, and learning of course.

Sodexo provides food for every dining experience on Nicholls campus, including catering for academic and athletic events held on campus.

I’m glad to see that the food truck moved from in the front of the café to in front on the alley in between the Union and Talbot Hall. Students crowded the food truck in between classes all morning. Students walking to class during lunchtime were captured by the smell of buttermilk waffles, fried chicken, and fries. Sticking to the theme of the food truck, of course, the fries are waffle fries.

Ironsides Waffles will be here on campus for the next two days, but hopefully they have sparked an idea of having our very own unique, Nicholls edition of a food truck. One where the food is prepared and is run by our extremely talented culinary students, and has some fun bayou themed cuisine. Ironsides Waffles being here this week is a start.