Parked across the street from Greenwood Leflore Hospital, at the intersection of U.S. 82 West and Strong Avenue, is a food truck that has garnered a heap of local attention.
Eddie’s Food Truck, painted white with stickers of food from the menu posted on the side of the rig, may look unassuming from the outside, but on the inside, classic American comfort foods are being served up on a daily basis.
Delicious cheeseburgers and Philly cheesesteaks are cooked on the flat-top grill. Chicken wraps, gyros and even Delta classics such as tamales are also on the menu.
The person manning the grill and fryers inside Eddie’s Food Truck is, well, Eddie.
Eddie Kanon, a 47-year-old well-traveled native of Jerusalem, has been operating his food truck in Greenwood since January, and it’s the latest business ambition that has leaped from his mind and into reality.
Eddie Kanon, owner of Eddie’s Food Truck, cooks delicious cheeseburgers on a flat-top grill. By Johnny Jennings, Copyright 2024 Emmerich Newspapers, Inc.)
“We don’t serve fast food; we serve fresh food,” Kanon said.
He got the idea of starting a food truck when he realized it could help out one of his other businesses.
“I’m partnered with Cyndi Long at the (old) city hall downtown, and we have a wedding venue,” Kanon said. “We had a hard time securing catering for our venue for the weddings. We had a hard time finding a consistent place. I have a background in cooking, so I figured I’d get a food truck and start just cooking for our guests at the wedding hall.”
He soon found out that getting a food truck fully operational with the proper licenses and in compliance with other food-service regulations was expensive and difficult.
“It’s basically like opening a restaurant,” he said.
He had to get a privilege license, safety licenses, sales tax licenses and even got liability insurance that covers up to $1 million.
“Licenses alone cost me about $7,000,” he said.
The food truck itself was about a “70-80 thousand dollar investment,” so he had to find a way to make that money back besides just cooking for weddings. He decided to open the food truck to the public, initially starting at a location downtown.
“So, I’ll do breakfast to cover my payments, and on the weekends I’ll do weddings,” Kanon said he thought at the time.
It didn’t go exactly as envisioned, however.
“The breakfast became successful downtown, but I didn’t have much parking and was causing a little bit of traffic,” he said. “That’s when I decided to move to the highway. This is my second month at the highway. I’ve changed the menu from breakfast to lunch, and it’s been doing very well.”
With the greater visibility and accessibility, the food truck has become a popular spot for the lunchtime crowd.
“You get to see me cooking in front of you. It’s different than going into a restaurant, where you go in and don’t know” how they prepare it, Kanon said.
“When you see your food being cooked in front of you, it gives you a little comfort, and it works very well.”
Kanon’s background in cooking began after he came to America almost 30 years ago.
At the age of 6, he lost both of his parents in a car accident. His grandparents who lived in Michigan sent him to a boarding school in Jerusalem for an education. He earned a degree in business and moved to Michigan when he turned 18. Once in Michigan, he found work in the kitchen at the now shuttered Hyatt Regency Hotel in the city of Dearborn.
“They sent me to Chicago for about a six-month course just to learn how to cook, and I liked it, but it wasn’t my thing back then,” he said.
Instead of kitchen work, Kanon wanted to get into the ownership side of the food industry and purchased a Big Boy franchise in Michigan. He operated the business for three years before selling it.
In 2002, he purchased Maxwell’s Brew, a coffee and food joint that was open 24 hours a day, in Toledo, Ohio. In 2006, he found work in Washington, D.C., as an accountant and lived the busy life of business ownership while meeting the demands of corporate America. In 2010, the University of Toledo offered to buy Maxwell’s Brew, and he promptly sold it.
For Kanon, though, he didn’t take the payout and head to the beach to kick his feet up in retirement. He carried on at his job of accounting for another three years before he decided to move on. In 2016, Kanon found work in Texas as a subcontractor in the oil industry, first for Exxon Mobil, then for Saudi Aramco. He worked there until 2019 but decided that he was going to take a break.
The divorced father of two sons, Kanon said his oldest son, Moody, got accepted into the University of Mississippi in 2017. Kanon thought he’d follow his son to the state, initially planning to stay only for a few months.
“Then I kind of liked it because it’s laid-back, different from where I come from where it’s busy, busy, busy in cities. That’s what I like about it. It’s laid-back, it’s in the country and everybody is nicer than in Michigan.”
Kanon’s mind leaped back to business ownership, and he started buying gas stations in the northern and western parts of the state.
“I owned them in Sunflower, Indianola, Cleveland, Clarksdale, Southaven and Horn Lake,” he said.
He sold his gas stations in 2023, but the food truck is more than enough to keep him busy. Assisted by two helpers, Kanon said he emphasizes quality food that is always correct to the customers’ wishes.
“I’m blessed that I’m busy,” Kanon said. “From the time I get here, we don’t stop taking orders. We have a very efficient system. I kid you not, with how long I’ve been doing this here, I have not had a single complaint yet.
“Why? Because we have an efficient system. Most customers text their orders, and by the time they get here their order is ready. It’s convenient for our customers and efficient for us working as a team.”
The quality of the food not only has customers coming back, but other businesses order food, too. Kanon has cooked for Greenwood Leflore Hospital, Greenwood City Hall and for guards at Delta Correctional Facility.
“It gives me joy when I see people come in and be happy,” Kanon said. “It’s just enjoyment. People really like the food, and they appreciate it. They come and say, ‘Thank you for being here. Thank you for being consistent.’ It’s a good feeling.”
Even though Kanon likes serving the people of Greenwood with his food truck, it’s not going to last forever. Most of the profit made from the truck is going toward helping pay for the education of his youngest son, Doraid, who is in medical school in Aruba.
“It’s not cheap,” Kanon said. “I hope he comes back and works in the Delta because we need good doctors down here.”
Once Doraid is out of school, it’s an early retirement for Kanon.
“I’m blessed that I worked through my life, and when my kids finish college, that’s it,” he said.
“Where I come from, if you want something you have to work for it. If I’m getting up at 8 in the morning and I’m working until 5, I better use my time wisely so I can capture that day. I feel, my kids are in college, and if I need to capture the opportunity, I go for it. And’s that’s worked out for me very well. Don’t get me wrong, not everything has been good, but that’s how businesses are.”
When he calls it quits, he plans on traveling and seeing the parts of the world he hasn’t seen. From coming to America with basically nothing but a desire to work, looking at where he now stands, Kanon believes he’s living the American dream.
“I don’t take it for granted,” he said. “I always say, ‘If you can’t make it here, then you are never going to make it anywhere,’” he said.
- This article first appeared in Leflore Illustrated, a quarterly magazine published by The Greenwood Commonwealth.
