Anona Blends Food Truck Serves Vegan Options In Suffolk

SETAUKET, NY — Anona Blends is back following a month-long hiatus. The food truck, owned by Steve Busa, offers primarily vegan options such as smoothies, soups and hummus.

Anona Blends can most often be found on Route 347 in Setauket, but Busa drives it around the county, spending time at Rottkamp's Pumpkin Patch in Calverton, as well as schools.

The truck's daily menu and location can be checked through its Instagram page or What The Truk, a food truck-finding app recently launched by Port Jefferson native Evan Tousey.

Busa serves up shakes ranging from Graham Cracker or Snickers to Black Forest or Mint M&M. His current soup offerings are bean or chili soups. He also serves espresso and other drinks.

Busa, 33, of Sound Beach, came up with the idea for Anona Blends in 2015 when he began crafting smoothies as a protein replacement. Busa's friend enjoyed the smoothies so much, he tried persuading Busa to sell them at local farmer's markets.

"I looked into that, but it was kind of impossible to do it if you don’t have the resources that a restaurant has," Busa said.

Busa has worked in restaurants most of his life and always wanted a career in the food industry. The suggestion from his friend, as well as encouragement from family and friends, was the catalyst he needed to follow through with the project. From there, Busa mulled launching a storefront or a food truck.

"A food truck was the fastest, cheapest way to go about it," he said. "It really snowballed. It was a silly idea, and it morphed into this thing."

Busa purchased a truck on eBay — a Con Edison truck that previously operated in Philadelphia. He and his father stripped the truck, redesigned it, and built everything anew. The process took roughly three years, and Busa officially launched Anona Blends in August 2020.

"Even now, when I first opened, I was so skeptical that this would work at all," Busa said. "But people keep showing up, and the feedback has been absolutely amazing. It’s such a niche, limited menu, but there is a need for this. People are really excited about what I’m offering, and people keep coming back."

Generator and mechanical issues within the truck forced Busa to close through the winter, though he does not normally plan to close each winter. Going forward, there will be no offseason for Anona Blends, according to Busa.

During his four-week closure, Busa took the time to work on new items.

"There’s a lot of stuff in the works, but I’m very hesitant to introduce new stuff, because I’m very, very, particular about everything," he said. "I want it to be good."

Busa gets occasional help on the weekend, but otherwise, Anona Blends is a one-man operation. While Busa is open to testing new products, he wants to make sure they're perfected before he sells them.

"It’s important for me to have one thing and do it really well as opposed to five things that are mediocre or decent," he said. "So, I really take my time with every single menu item."