One of our favorite food trucks in St. Pete just took a major step toward a new brick-and-mortar location. The Brunch Munch food truck, famous for its flavorful wings and classic soul food, and owner Ashley Reed have been awarded $50,000 through Famous Amos’s Ingredients for Success Entrepreneurs Initiative (IFS).
Reed has built a dedicated following in St. Pete over the last two years, and her wings in particular have become favorites all over town. The Brunch Munch food truck has popped up throughout the area, as well as made steady appearances in its regular home in The Deuces at 925 22nd St S. Reed’s Soul Food Sundays are a personal favorite, as well as a one-way ticket to the best afternoon nap of your life.
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The $50,000 is a huge boost to Reed’s dream to open her own restaurant, and she’s in a great position to do with that seed money. She already owns the property on 22nd Street that her truck currently lives on. With the award from Famous Amos, Reed is going to partner with the locally-based St. Pete Box – a company that uses refurbished shipping containers to build complete structures – to construct a permanent home for the restaurant she’s dreamed of opening for years.
Reed says the new restaurant will feature live music, community-style brunches, and regular events. She is determined to honor the history of The Deuces while creating “an atmosphere that’s unmatched.”
“I want people to feel a sense of community when they walk through the doors,” she said. “I just want everyone to feel welcomed.”
Reed was one of three winners of the annual Famous Amos IFS Entrepreneurs Initiative. Now in its sixth year, the program awards $150,000 in capital – $50,000 each to three early-stage Black business owners – alongside access to mentorship, networking opportunities and educational resources designed to fuel long-term growth.
Reed has been cooking as long as she can remember, learning by helping out her mother and grandmother in the kitchen as a kid growing up in South St. Pete. She cooked her first solo meal when she was only seven years old: lemon pepper chicken. Decades later, she has a variation of that same recipe on her truck now.
When she got older, Reed started traveling. With a dream to open her own food truck, she started researching. Traveling across the country, she was inspired by the food she found in cities like Houston and Atlanta. She took heavy notes in New Orleans on their thick roux and decadent shrimp and grits.
Then she came back to St. Pete ready to get started. She became a self-taught soul food chef while working full-time as a nurse. Even still, she’s in scrubs 9-5 every day. If you see her out cooking on a weeknight, she likely came straight from patient rooms to the kitchen in her truck.
She may never get to sleep, but two-plus years in, she still has the same smile on her face every time she gets to make food for her community. Her love language, she says, is acts of service. Cooking for others is how she shows it.
Ever since she secured the truck, Reed has harbored the dream of opening a brick-and-mortar on her property on The Deuces. She was born and raised in South St. Pete, and she knows the significance and history of that 22nd Street corridor.
“The community is coming to life, and I love it,” she said. “It’s a historic neighborhood in the Black community, so I wanted to put my truck there and serve good food to the community.”
With the help of this award, she’ll be doing just that for years to come.
Follow The Brunch Munch on Instagram to keep up with where they’ll be next. If you can make it to the next Soul Food Sunday, arrive with an appetite. Check out our story on Reed and her truck from earlier this year.
