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This article was published 28/05/2021 (1686 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
When Steffen Zinn rolled up with his food truck, The Red Ember, to his first farmers’ market, he brought 50 balls of pizza dough and sold out in two hours.
Fast forward eight years: Zinn’s food truck has become a staple on Broadway, at the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market, at Manitoban festivals and in people’s private ceremonies. Staff have gone on to create four eateries throughout Winnipeg. An average season sees between 24,000 to 25,000 pizzas pass from truck to hungry customer.
Now, Zinn is putting The Red Ember in park for good.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to cancelled weddings, festivals and other gatherings last summer. As a result, Zinn’s business slowed down. He’s not giving up his keys for financial reasons — if anything, he could park the food truck for a year and get back to it when things normalize, he said.
But Zinn, 40, has two young sons. When food truck season hits (from the end of April to late September), he’s gone often, working up to 18 hours a day and travelling around Manitoba.
“Every summer, I would just put my head down until fall and then come up for air, and then see what happened around me,” Zinn said. “With having a little extra time last summer … I was kind of able to see what summers were all about.”
The Red Ember will be around, making pizzas in its wood-fired oven, until later this fall. After, Zinn plans to sell the truck outside the province.
“I don’t think I could stand to see it still cruising around the city streets,” he said.
And, should the new owner do a less-than-swell job, Zinn doesn’t want people to think it’s connected to The Red Ember — after all, the food truck’s spin-off restaurants are still open, and the network keeps expanding.
First, Zinn found an opening at The Forks. He had an employee, Quin Ferguson, who he said “shone” on the food truck. Ferguson wanted to be a firefighter, but Zinn thought he’d have talent as a chef. Zinn asked the young worker to be his business partner, and soon, Ferguson was head of Red Ember Common.
In January of 2018, Zinn and Ferguson hired Michael Sung. Sung ended up at the food truck, and within a few months, Zinn was asking the new worker what he wanted to do long-term.
Zinn was looking at opening a New York style slice shop — one that makes 18 inch pizzas — because there weren’t any in Winnipeg. By fall of 2018, Zinn had found an affordable shop on Wall Street. Sung and his business partner, Edelma Miranda were put in charge. There was cleaning, there were permits, and now, there’s Wall Street Slice.
“We’re very fortunate to have had our goals align at the same time,” Sung said of his partnership with Zinn.
Zinn works behind the scenes, finding new locations, doing payroll, ordering pizza boxes from Italy. He’s a shareholder in the restaurants, and the restaurant leads are shareholders in each other’s spaces, too.
Just recently, an employee who began as a cashier at Red Ember Common became the head of a new spot, Main Street Slice. Wienerpeg, a hotdog shop at The Forks, is also part of the crew — Zinn and Ferguson are the owners.
Zinn said he has staff members who he’d like to find new restaurants for.
The move from the food truck industry is bittersweet, he said. For now, The Red Ember stays parked in Oak Bluff when not doling out pizzas. Zinn drives out from his home in Starbuck when it’s time to fire up his portable business.
“I’m going to miss it, that’s for sure,” he said.
When Steffen Zinn rolled up with his food truck, The Red Ember, to his first farmers’ market, he brought 50 balls of pizza dough and sold out in two hours.
Fast forward eight years: Zinn’s food truck has become a staple on Broadway, at the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market, at Manitoban festivals and in people’s private ceremonies. Staff have gone on to create four eateries throughout Winnipeg. An average season sees between 24,000 to 25,000 pizzas pass from truck to hungry customer.Now, Zinn is putting The Red Ember in park for good.
Steffen Zinn pops out of The Red Ember food truck on May 26. Zinn is selling the truck this fall. (GABRIELLE PICHÉ/CANSTAR COMMUNITY NEWS/HEADLINER)
The COVID-19 pandemic led to cancelled weddings, festivals and other gatherings last summer. As a result, Zinn’s business slowed down. He’s not giving up his keys for financial reasons — if anything, he could park the food truck for a year and get back to it when things normalize, he said.
But Zinn, 40, has two young sons. When food truck season hits (from the end of April to late September), he’s gone often, working up to 18 hours a day and travelling around Manitoba.
“Every summer, I would just put my head down until fall and then come up for air, and then see what happened around me,” Zinn said. “With having a little extra time last summer … I was kind of able to see what summers were all about.”
The Red Ember will be around, making pizzas in its wood-fired oven, until later this fall. After, Zinn plans to sell the truck outside the province.
“I don’t think I could stand to see it still cruising around the city streets,” he said.
And, should the new owner do a less-than-swell job, Zinn doesn’t want people to think it’s connected to The Red Ember — after all, the food truck’s spin-off restaurants are still open, and the network keeps expanding.
Steffen Zinn, owner of food truck The Red Ember, stands beside the truck's oven on May 26. (GABRIELLE PICHÉ/CANSTAR COMMUNITY NEWS/HEADLINER)
First, Zinn found an opening at The Forks. He had an employee, Quin Ferguson, who he said “shone” on the food truck. Ferguson wanted to be a firefighter, but Zinn thought he’d have talent as a chef. Zinn asked the young worker to be his business partner, and soon, Ferguson was head of Red Ember Common.
In January of 2018, Zinn and Ferguson hired Michael Sung. Sung ended up at the food truck, and within a few months, Zinn was asking the new worker what he wanted to do long-term.
Zinn was looking at opening a New York style slice shop — one that makes 18 inch pizzas — because there weren’t any in Winnipeg. By fall of 2018, Zinn had found an affordable shop on Wall Street. Sung and his business partner, Edelma Miranda were put in charge. There was cleaning, there were permits, and now, there’s Wall Street Slice.
“We’re very fortunate to have had our goals align at the same time,” Sung said of his partnership with Zinn.
Zinn works behind the scenes, finding new locations, doing payroll, ordering pizza boxes from Italy. He’s a shareholder in the restaurants, and the restaurant leads are shareholders in each other’s spaces, too.
Just recently, an employee who began as a cashier at Red Ember Common became the head of a new spot, Main Street Slice. Wienerpeg, a hotdog shop at The Forks, is also part of the crew — Zinn and Ferguson are the owners.
The Red Ember is 13 and a half feet tall and 32 ft. long. Owner Steffen Zinn built the vehicle. (GABRIELLE PICHÉ/CANSTAR COMMUNITY NEWS/HEADLINER)
Zinn said he has staff members who he’d like to find new restaurants for.
The move from the food truck industry is bittersweet, he said. For now, The Red Ember stays parked in Oak Bluff when not doling out pizzas. Zinn drives out from his home in Starbuck when it’s time to fire up his portable business.
“I’m going to miss it, that’s for sure,” he said.
The Red Ember’s Beginnings
For Steffen Zinn, starting a business wasn’t unfathomable — it was normal.
His parents were both entrepreneurs on their farm in Springstein, Man. His father was a landscaper, and his mother had two commercial chicken barns. Zinn grew up tinkering and building.
He started in the food industry at 16, got his Red Seal and worked his way up to executive chef of Pine Ridge Golf Club. He dreamt of owning his own restaurant.
“I figured a food truck would be the lowest-cost way to get into the business,” he said.
One day at work, a sous chef asked if it was possible to put a wood fired oven in a truck — and thus, the idea for The Red Ember formed.
Zinn used drafting software to digitally map out a food truck in 2012. That winter, he sent in his resignation, and by January of 2013, he was building his design from scratch.
“I had no choice but to go forward and make it work,” Zinn said.
What he couldn’t do, he hired others to, like the truck’s electrical work and gas fitting.
He also travelled to a pizza oven factory in the state of Washington to do testing in their on-site kitchen and to get more comfortable cooking pizzas with fire.
In July of 2013, the food truck was complete, and Zinn was ready to start selling. He’d drive from his home in Starbuck to Oak Bluff, where he kept the truck in his brother’s farmyard. There, he’d do prep work before driving the 32 ft. long vehicle into the city.
The Red Ember would appear on Broadway almost daily, and it had a regular spot at St. Norbert Farmers’ Market.
Business has continued to build over the years, but those two locations remain staples in The Red Ember’s route.
When fully staffed, employees can pump out an average of 159 pizzas per hour, Zinn said.
He buys ingredients from local producers, including Prairie Flour Mills in Elie and Phil’s Honey in Starbuck.
The Red Ember’s Beginnings
For Steffen Zinn, starting a business wasn’t unfathomable — it was normal.
His parents were both entrepreneurs on their farm in Springstein, Man. His father was a landscaper, and his mother had two commercial chicken barns. Zinn grew up tinkering and building.
He started in the food industry at 16, got his Red Seal and worked his way up to executive chef of Pine Ridge Golf Club. He dreamt of owning his own restaurant.
“I figured a food truck would be the lowest-cost way to get into the business,” he said.
One day at work, a sous chef asked if it was possible to put a wood fired oven in a truck — and thus, the idea for The Red Ember formed.
Zinn used drafting software to digitally map out a food truck in 2012. That winter, he sent in his resignation, and by January of 2013, he was building his design from scratch.
“I had no choice but to go forward and make it work,” Zinn said.
What he couldn’t do, he hired others to, like the truck’s electrical work and gas fitting.
He also travelled to a pizza oven factory in the state of Washington to do testing in their on-site kitchen and to get more comfortable cooking pizzas with fire.
In July of 2013, the food truck was complete, and Zinn was ready to start selling. He’d drive from his home in Starbuck to Oak Bluff, where he kept the truck in his brother’s farmyard. There, he’d do prep work before driving the 32 ft. long vehicle into the city.
The Red Ember would appear on Broadway almost daily, and it had a regular spot at St. Norbert Farmers’ Market.
Business has continued to build over the years, but those two locations remain staples in The Red Ember’s route.
When fully staffed, employees can pump out an average of 159 pizzas per hour, Zinn said.
He buys ingredients from local producers, including Prairie Flour Mills in Elie and Phil’s Honey in Starbuck.
