G-Monkey owners Chef Mark Shadle and Ami Beach closed their West Hartford restaurant in late 2023, but they’re back in town at least once a week with their rebranded G-Truck becoming a regular at GastroPark.

By Ronni Newton

When Chef Mark Shadle and Ami Beach closed G-Monkey’s brick and mortar restaurant on New Park Avenue in late 2023 – reassessing their priorities to afford them more flexibility, freedom, and creativity – they said they planned to transition their business and re-channel their energies into their highly-successful food truck as well as some new endeavors, and those plans are well underway.

The G-Monkey food truck returned to West Hartford’s GastroPark in mid-April, making a full circle back to where many local residents were first introduced to the unique plant-based fast food, just a few hundred yards from the restaurant’s former spot. They plan to be resident at GastroPark at least once a week through the end of November, with the next visits planned for Sunday, May 5, from noon to 4 p.m. and then Friday, May 10, from 4 to 8 p.m.

The G-Monkey truck’s full schedule is posted on the gmonkeymobile.com website, G-Monkey fast food and G-Monkey mobile social media sites (they also have regular stops at the Coventry and Southbury farmers markets, and will visit various festivals and pop-up in Branford and other locations) and the stops in West Hartford can also be found on the GastroPark schedule (website and social media).

The truck itself – which Beach and Shadle have operated for 14 years – has been re-wrapped, spruced up, and rebranded with the G-Monkey Plant-Based Fast Food concept, including the iconic winking monkey and green flames. It runs completely on biodiesel.

“When Tate [Norden, the owner of GastroPark] heard we were going to close our location but make GastroPark a regular stop, he rolled out the red carpet,” Beach said. Norden said he is excited to have G-Monkey on board this season, increasing the diversity of food offerings as part of a “complementary eco-system” at the food truck park that provides something for every appetite.

The feedback from G-Monkey’s first few shifts at GastroPark has been extremely favorable – and things were definitely hopping last Friday afternoon and evening as the word spread about the return of the iconic vegan brand. “G-Monks,” as Beach affectionately calls the loyal followers, flock not just from West Hartford but also from throughout the state and even Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York for the unique plant-based fast food.

“People are so freakin’ pumped,” said Beach – and she and Shadle are just as excited.

Food is prepped at Shadle Farm, the couples’ farm in Durham, CT – their official headquarters where they have a commercial kitchen and greenhouse – but assembled and grilled fresh to order on the truck. The bread is baked fresh daily in the Durham kitchen, and gluten-free artisan bread is also available as an option for the handhelds and burgers.

“We have the same menu – the best sellers – all on the truck,” said Beach. That includes cult classics like the colossal burger and colossal bacon cheeseburger, disco fries with shiitake mushroom gravy – “vegan poutine,” Beach said – as well as “world famous G fries” and “Farm 2 Street” smoked hickory sauce which, like the catsup and other sauces and dressings, is made entirely in-house. There are also bowls and salads, and handhelds include the “veganlicious” grilled cheese and downward dog bean burrito. Virtually all menu items feature superfoods, and Shadle develops dishes not to be imitations of meat or dairy products but rather through the just-right combination of sweet, salty, and acidic ingredients.

There is also a rotating selection of desserts, tonics, and “interesting and elevated” mocktails on the truck. Friday’s offerings included Shadle’s renowned vegan carrot cake, a recipe he has honed over the past 30 years that includes a vanilla bourbon, cream frosting with spices, walnuts, and raisins, as well as the New York-style but totally vegan “sultry cheese cake” with traditional graham cracker crust topped with a garnish of açai berry coulisse sauce.

The blue ocean magic mocktail includes Thai coconut water, ginger root, burdock root, spirulina, blue and green algae, and coconut sugar. “The brilliant blue is from all natural coloring,” Beach said.

There are also specials each day that go beyond the set plant-based fast food offerings – including the organic farmers plate. Friday’s farmers plate was inspired by a patch of watercress that Shadle discovered on his farm, and featured organic tofu cutlets, wild roasted shiitake mushrooms gravy, and a rosemary corn polenta – served over a salad made from the wild-foraged watercress and topped with carrot ginger dressing and wild-foraged ramp butter.

Specials like the farmers plate hearken to the dishes Shadle prepared at G-Zen, the award-winning vegan fine dining establishment the couple owned in Branford for many years. “It’s very rare to see a food truck doing this type of style,” Beach said.

There will also consistently be soups of the day, inspired by what’s growing on the farm, and as the summer season progresses they will also gain inspiration from Puerto Rico – their home-away-from-home – with perhaps mango and papaya featured on the farmers plate.

“There is also a secret menu,” Beach said. It wouldn’t be a secret if it was printed here, but she said regulars who are looking for certain G-Monkey favorites can request them. “We are trying to accommodate people the best we can.”

The menu is large and dynamic, with much more than one would expect on a food truck. “The goal of the food truck is to bring joy and happiness, to spread it to places and people that we wouldn’t have been able to get to with G-Monkey West Hartford,” Beach said. “We’re rolling up and spreading our vegan goodness.”

And the truck also affords the one-on-one contact with customers that was difficult in a brick and mortar restaurant environment. Both Shadle and Beach are on the truck much of the time, and they are also joined by the former manager and assistant manager of the former G-Monkey West Hartford restaurant.

Advance ordering through the website will soon be available for when the food truck is at GastroPark, to alleviate any wait times.

G-Monkey is a “fully sustainable business model,” Beach said. “Farm to truck and back again,” she said, noting their commitment to sustainability not only with the use of organic foods, many of which are harvested from their solar-powered farm, but also with operating the truck on biodiesel and composting everything possible. They’ve received accolades for the their sustainable model, including being recognized by the Nature Conservancy as a top green business in the state.

“We’re very fond of being back in our neighborhood,” Beach said of the return to GastroPark, and operating the food truck allows them to focus on “the best of us and the best quality” without the commitment to brick and mortar. “It’s such a wonderful experience already and we can’t wait to continue growing that.”

Aside from the G-Monkey food truck, Chef Mark Shadle and Ami Beach will be offering private “Talks, Tonics & Tastings” on a very intimate and limited basis at their G-Monkey headquarters, “Shadle Farm “in Durham, CT.  For more information about those opportunities, visit www.zennourished.com.

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