This food truck serves up sweet and savory snacks in North Texas. Here’s where to try it
A food truck serving up waffle pops and savory snacks is expanding its reach in the Dallas-Fort Worth area following a successful year that included a partnership with the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.
Mama Lama Sweets was started by North Texas resident Nancy Rodriguez and her fiance Christopher Rasmussen after he finished his MBA. Rodriguez started a food truck business around 2019 and did three events in El Paso, where she’s from, before moving to Fort Worth and leaving the truck with her brother in Waxahachie.
When Rodriguez came to Rasmussen with the idea for a sweets truck, he was initially hesitant.
“She said, ‘Why don’t you take a look at that food truck I have, that I started, it’s just sitting in my brother’s yard in Waxahachie.’ And I said, ‘No, with an MBA I think I can go for more big picture’,” Rasmussen said. “And she said, ‘Well you’d be surprised how much $5 a pop will add up over time’.”
Originally Rasmussen said the truck sold paletas from scratch, but once the summer months were done he and Rodriguez needed to make a fall and winter menu.
Rodriguez’s love for waffles inspired the couple to come up with unique flavor combinations for waffle pops — warm waffles on an ice cream stick.
Mama Lama Sweets’ first pop-up with the waffle pops was held at Trinity Park in Fort Worth and the sweet treats were a hit, Rasmussen said
A year and four months later, he said they’ve been parking everywhere around North Texas and have shown up on South Hemphill Street and at restaurants like Panther City BBQ.
The business is named in honor of Rodriguez’s daughter who went through a rhyming phase when she was younger.
“She was going through this phase where she would call [Rodriguez] ‘Mama, lama, coma, zama’,” Rasmussen said. “It kind of matches the cuteness of the truck.”
The truck is painted retro pink with blue trim, almost like an ice cream truck. Rasmussen said they love that its noticeable everywhere they go.
After persistently trying to get on the food truck list during Dallas Cowboys games at AT&T Stadium, Rasmussen said last year Mama Lama Sweets got moved up from the waitlist and were invited to park their truck during the season.
“That’s when things really took off when people were like ‘What is this? What’s a waffle pop?’ and since then people are starting to know our brand in Fort Worth,” he said.
Recent popular menu items are the strawberries and cream, Nutella banana and Oreo waffle pops.
Mama Lama Sweets does more than sweet treats — savory paninis like turkey pesto, ham and Swiss, and caprese are also available to order with chips. Rasmussen said their best-selling panini is the turkey pesto, which has honey turkey, provolone cheese, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes on ciabatta.
This week, Mama Lama Sweets signed on with Klyde Warren Park in Dallas and will soon have scheduled days when they’ll be parked. The truck will also have a test run at the Truck Yard in Alliance Town Center in April.
In the meantime, Rasmussen said Mama Lama Sweets frequently does pop-ups at 4037 Hemphill St. in front of Advance Auto Parts, Martin House Brewery, Panther City BBQ and other restaurants in the Near Southside neighborhood.
Check Mama Lama Sweets Instagram page @mama.lama.sweets for updates on where the next pop-up will be.
Rasmussen said they also do private events and can be booked by messaging the Mama Lama Sweets Instagram account.
This story was originally published March 23, 2023 at 7:31 AM.
