Portrush pizza truck owners 'dumbfounded ' after being shortlisted for coveted UK food award - and they need YOUR votes!

Portrush pizza truck, Igloo Pizza Co. has been nominated in the category of ‘Best Looking’ food truck in the British Street Food Awards.

The mobile outlet, which is situated at the Station Square, is one of the remaining eight finalist in the UK-wide awards and the only one from Northern Ireland in the entire competition.

One of the first outdoor catering trailers in Northern Ireland to feature a full size, commercial wood-fired brick pizza oven inside the trailer, Igloo Pizza Co was started during lockdown and opened in 2021 by Josh Kane as a means to get back to work in the middle of the pandemic.

Josh Kane, chef and owner, explained: “Before the pandemic hit, I was self-employed. It was freelance based work in Dublin. When everything shut down I was forced out of a job, and lost relationships that I’d built over years of work. In the industry I was in, there were no government lifelines. No grants or financial aid, so I had no means of support outside of savings and family support.

"When the resources ran out I was forced to think of something to do. I used my previous training as a chef and experience in hospitality to come up with an idea that allowed me to get back to work. Indoor dining had all been shut down, so I came up with the idea of a food truck to allow me to cook and sell food outdoors, keeping in line with the new laws. Italy is one of my favourite places in the world to visit, so I used what experience I had there, and put together a menu I felt was unique to the north coast and surrounding areas.

“I wrote my business plan, took out a small business loan and bought a trailer big enough to fit a wood fired pizza oven into. At that time, there was nothing like that being done in the country. Now there has been an explosion of similar businesses popping up everywhere.

“I did a lot of the work on my own through advice and YouTube tutorials, and ended up with a trailer I was happy with. I found a great pitch and parked up one day without advertising or marketing any of it. It was a huge risk, but it’s paid off for all of us involved.

“After the first summer in Portrush, our team quickly outgrew the original trailer, so I made the decision to invest in a much bigger, professionally built, bespoke unit to meet our needs. I put 1/3 of the budget into the oven alone, which was built for us and shipped to Northern Ireland from Italy. I made a point of creating as close as possible, an upscaled version of the original van I worked on myself.

"When the staff walked in, we already felt at home. Since it arrived we’ve just been overwhelmed by the support of people from around the country. People do support local and most people who come to us appreciate a small business able to make restaurant quality food from the side of the street. It’s not an easy thing to achieve. We’ve had people travel as far as Dublin just to try the pizza.

“At the beginning of August we received a notification from the British Street Food Awards that we were nominated and had made their shortlist of the ‘Top 8 Best Looking’ food trucks in the UK.

"We are the only finalist from Northern Ireland in the entire competition so we are overwhelmed to be in the running. The votes are through Facebook and are nationwide, so we need as many votes as possible to be in with a chance of taking home the award. The finals are from August 18-20 at Hackney Bridge in London where the top 16 best food trucks in the UK will be competing in the grand final before a group of Michelin starred chefs and celebrities. All of the Igloo staff are flying over together and we couldn’t be more excited to be representing Northern Ireland.””

Appealing for votes Josh posted on social media: “We are absolutely dumbfounded. The British Street Food Awards are a BIG deal, it is a nationwide award that covers all food trucks and street food stalls in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in one awards ceremony.

"To our followers and beyond: if you’ve ever eaten and enjoyed our pizza, appreciated our service, made the journey to eat with us or even plan to, please take 20 seconds and give us your vote. It has been a different level of excitement being nominated, but winning would knock it out of the park.

"We are the only food truck nominated through all categories from Northern Ireland and we’d absolutely love to represent our country’s amazing food scene at the finals in London. There are only eight finalists from across the UK (that includes us). If we make it to the top three we’ll be off to London in a few weeks for the grand final. The votes are by the public of the UK and we need a huge number of votes to be in with any kind of chance.”

Votes can be cast via Igloo Pizza Co Facebook page