A Fresh Taste of Wyoming

“I get a lot of people that knock on my window and say ‘Do you have real food?’ If you want a burger or you want a taco or you want wings, that’s not what I have.”

For the past year, Courtney Ney has traveled across Carbon County—and even the state—with a food truck which stands out from the rest. It’s not the yellow color of the trailer, but rather what Ney sells. While other mobile vendors sell burgers, wings, tacos or even pizza, Ney’s menu could be seen as a palate cleanser. That’s because, for a year now, WyoBowls—Ney’s business—has sold fruit bowls to an ever growing crowd of customers.

According to Ney, she was first introduced to fruit bowls during a visit to California.

“I had my first Açai (pronounced Ah-Sigh-Ee) bowl in California, several years ago and I couldn’t find anything like it in Wyoming,” said Ney. “I didn’t know what they were, I didn’t know what they were called. I just knew it was a really good, fruit, tasty purple bowl.”

While visiting a friend in Grand Junction, said Ney, she asked a friend if there was any place which sold “Acai” bowls. For a moment, Ney’s mispronunciation of Açai confused her friend. When it became clear what Ney was asking about, her friend told her there was a food truck in the area which sold them.

“We went there and we continued to go there everyday while we were down there,” said Ney. “While we were standing in line one day, she said ‘You should open one of these in Wyoming.’ I said ‘That will never happen, but that would be cool.’”

For the past 10 years, Ney worked as an accountant and even ran for Carbon County Assessor in 2022. Finally, after some time, Ney told her husband she was thinking of opening a food truck.

“He said ‘If you’re going to do it, just do it,’” said Ney.

That’s exactly what Ney did, buying a used food truck out of Cheyenne and retrofitting it for what she needed. There’s plenty of counter space for her to work with in the trailer and a freezer which keeps the bases of her fruit bowls at just the right temperature. Those bases include Açai, mango and dragon fruit sherbets. Then, Ney adds different toppings which includes granola, peanut butter, honey, pollen, coconut and fresh fruit.

“I would have never tried to do a food truck that’s similar to what other people are doing. I would have never done tacos or burgers. I knew I needed to do something to stand out, I definitely wanted to do something healthy,” said Ney. “Some people try it and they become regular customers.”

True to the name of her business, Ney works to buy her supplies as locally as she can. Her wholesale supplier is in Wyoming and she’ll buy her toppings from local grocery stores.

“I try to buy my stuff as locally as I can. Because I appreciate my customers supporting me locally, if I can give back and buy my stuff locally, I do. When I’m in Rawlins, I’m at City Market. I go to WalMart if I need to,” said Ney. “My product comes from my wholesaler, who is in Wyoming. I bought my trailer in Wyoming, I buy my equipment in Wyoming. I’m very proud to be WyoBowls and to be centered around Wyoming.”

Despite her different options—or perhaps because of it—Ney has seen her food truck grow in popularity in the past year. Indeed, when it was announced she would be at the season opening of Doggett’s Greenhouse in Encampment there were people who showed up early to the greenhouse just because they heard she would be there.

“I think the support’s been amazing,” said Ney. “Better than I ever could have expected.”

According to Ney, WyoBowls has been a dream come true, allowing her to spend more time with her children.

“I did this so I could be home with my kids. It’s very seasonal, so I could operate it in the summer and be home in the winter. That was amazing. I went from working at an accounting office for 10 years to being a part-time stay-at-home mom,” said Ney. “It’s just been a huge blessing to our lives.”

For those who have yet to try WyoBowls, Ney suggests the Wyoming Bowl.

“It’s the original, it’s the name of the trailer, so I recommend that,” said Ney. ““It’s my favorite, it’s what I eat every day if I can. Actually, I don’t ever eat them because I don’t ever have time to eat them.”