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Meet Mareka and Brendan McGuinness of The American Poutine in Gilbert

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Mareka and Brendan McGuinness.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
When I met my husband (from Dawson Creek, BC, Canada) in late 2013, he kept asking me why no restaurants in Arizona were serving Poutine. I had never heard of the dish and as he explained it, to be honest I wasn’t 100% sold. Hand cut fries, cheddar cheese curds and brown gravy just did not sound like something I would enjoy. However, he eventually acquired the ingredients needed and decided to whip some up for my family. Everyone was seriously impressed and even requested it again a few weeks later. From that point, Brendan said “we’ve got to bring traditional poutine to AZ! It’s such a popular dish back home, I know people here would love it!”.

At that time in our lives, he was still going back and forth between Phoenix and Calgary, and I was working full time so we could not commit to opening a restaurant, but it was something we talked about doing “one day”. Then one night in early 2014, we were driving past downtown gilbert and noticed a huge rally of food trucks, which sparked the idea! “why not start a truck, so we can run it part-time or whenever we had some spare time”. We began looking for trucks online and found a solid contender on Craigslist in July 2014. Neither of us had any experience cooking professionally (I literally had to ask the previous owners to show me how to start the fryers, etc. before they turned over the keys) or driving a food truck for that matter.

Our first event was December 2014 and the next 12 months were tough as we navigated through the food truck world. We learned all the in’s and outs of the business, by doing it the hard way. However, as time went on, we began to transform and found we were actually a pretty good team and enjoyed the business. We also found more and more people were knowing what poutine was and wanted to give it a try, which was a pretty great shift. At that time, we decided to push full steam ahead; we hired a few employees and expanded our menu to include specialty loaded fry dishes that did not include gravy so we could capture a larger audience. Then, in mid-2016 we added our second truck and in July 2017 we opened our Brick and Mortar in Gilbert. We currently have eight employees (who we are extremely grateful to have on our team!) plus Brendan and myself who all trade off working between the trucks.

Has it been a smooth road?
Our first year in business was VERY tough. Brendan and I had no clue what we were doing or how to navigate through the food truck world. We had quite a few nights (after long days when we didn’t make nearly what we thought we should) were the conversation was: “is it really worth it?” and “Should we keep going or call it now?”. Luckily we didn’t quit and somehow pushed through, that is when you really see the passion for the business. With that being said, we learned A LOT just from the daily grind and also managed to find a few great people to have in our corner (you know who you are!). Most people think its an “easy” way to work for yourself and be a business owner, or that “anyone” can start a food truck.  While it is true, anyone CAN start a food truck, you have to look around and see who has been here for the long haul – very few trucks have been around for 5-10 years!  You have to really get an understanding of the business, because I guarantee you will work WAY harder and longer hours at this job than anything you are doing right now

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The American Poutine Co. – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
We have two food trucks and a brick and mortar which specialize in serving Traditional Poutine, as well as many variations of loaded French fries. All our fries are hand cut, over 1,000,000 pounds since we started to be exact!.  We also purchase our fresh cheese curds locally every week. “Traditional poutine” consists of fries, cheese curds and brown gravy, which can also be topped with different meats like bacon or pulled pork. Everything we create is French fry based and we even have dessert fries. Some of our other popular dishes are Buffalo Chicken Fries, Bacon Cheeseburger Fries, Pizza Fries and Apple Pie Fries. What really sets us apart is how long we have been around and the following we have gained in that time. We were the first truck around Phoenix to sell Poutine, and also the only truck to specialize in only loaded French fries at the time. We know what we do best, and we stick to those items and don’t try to sell whatever the “hot item” of the month is.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
We love all of Arizona in general! You couldn’t ask for a better place to run a food truck with all the events, festivals and markets.  The people are great and we have had nothing but great experiences with our customers. Our only complaint is the summer months and heat that comes with it but you just have to power through and count down until the fall season!

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