Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelique Lampe.
Hi Angelique, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I started cooking with my nana at an early age. I am child number 9 of 13 children and loved it, so I have worked in alot of style restaurants and continued my love for cooking. I always wanted to own a little diner mom-and-pop place run by family members and myself. Keeping family working and close and customers’ bellies full. I have four children and 15 grandchildren. So, my love for cooking continues. COVID hit, and we are all getting older, so we are starting my dream while slowly closing his dream business down. I love the food trailer way more than my original dream of the diner because I go right smack in the middle of all-foot traffic instead of waiting for customers. Being child 9, I may add, life was brutally broken. I later got into drinking as it was normal for my family. I got into legal issues where I found recovery and freedom from something controlling my life besides me and my god. So 8 years have flown by sober, and with a felony, any great jobs are out the window. So, my husband decided to give it a try. We found the trailer to purchase, and from there, it’s been wildly fast and furiously happening. We got all permits and licenses for all counties touching ours. Thousands of years later, it’s been an amazing first year of business, alot of growing and scheduling. I only double-booked 1 time, lol. Without sobriety and a challenging program in my county, I may never have found my way to living my dream.
Would it have been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Life has always been a struggle for me: Domestic violence survival, lost siblings to cancer, lost parents. I almost went to prison for DWI number 4. I found god and recovery; even with a felony, I wouldn’t let it affect my livelihood. Follow through, never surrender; I wanted my dream so badly that I never gave up.
As you know, we’re big fans of Gigi’s on Wheels. What can you tell our readers who might need to be more familiar with the brand?
We are:
- A mobile food trailer.
- A self-contained kitchen on wheels.
- Never-frozen burgers.
- Hand-battered chicken strips Brownie bottom gooey butter cake.
We make food to order so hot and fresh—home cooking like Nana’s house.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Yes, never give up on a dream. Covid, too, shall pass. Too many people want free money. I want to work and feed hungry folks delicious home-cooked food. I have a Gigi special. It’s for anyone homeless to get a meal. No one knows they’re not paying. Giving back to my community, I, too, was hungry plenty in my earlier life.
