The Moxie Café in Santa Maria had garnered a crowd in the dozens for a special event in the early evening of June 1. That’s when the café announced a new line of cold sandwiches and held the unveiling of a new delivery vehicle.
Attendees from the Chamber of Commerce, Moxie staff, loyal customers, and Mayor Alice Patino were on hand for the unveiling, which was preceded by a ribbon cutting. Once the cover was removed, balloons took to the sky from the bed of a newly restored 1944 Dodge WC-52 truck.
The Moxie Café recently acquired the vehicle, explained the café’s founder Jay Hardy, who said it was a perfect fit for the restaurant.
“We wanted to honor the time period of the P-38 Lightning fighter plane, so it all goes with the WWII aviation theme we have,” Hardy said. “We needed a delivery vehicle, so we also thought it could double as a vehicle to enter into parades and car shows.”
Hardy said that he and the management at Moxie came to know about the vehicle through regular customer John Kinney, who owns Central City Surplus Company.
Kinney purchased the historic WWII-era truck from a museum in Paso Robles, he said, and restored it over a span of six months. He was initially attracted to the truck because of its place in military history, and saw the restoration as a great way to promote that history.
“It’s a classic WWII vehicle, and not many are around today anymore,” he said. “Most of the GI’s who were in the service at that time were either riding in jeeps or riding in these three-quarter-ton Dodge trucks.”
Kinney and mechanic Bob Enright took the truck apart from top to bottom, Kinney explained, cleaning and replacing any unusable pieces. Most of the original vehicle is still there though, now covered in a nice military green coat of paint.
During the sandblasting process, Kinney uncovered some of the specifics of the vehicle’s service gleaned from the number 82-505 AB on the back bumper, Hardy explained.
“When John took off a couple of layers of paint he found that it was with the 82nd Airborne, which was at D-Day, Sicily, Battle of the Bulge, Operation Market Garden, and then at the end of the war they served in the occupation of Berlin,” Hardy said. “So, we don’t know exactly where this vehicle has been.”
Attendees of the unveiling took turns sitting in the historic vehicle and munching on the café’s new cold sandwiches and wraps. There was an Italian deli sandwich, juicy turkey sandwich, and savory hummus wraps.
The unveiling of the car also served to announce the expansion of Moxie Café’s catering options, explained General Manager Robert Grimmesey. There’s also a new e-commerce program where locals can order and pay for sandwich boxes online, he said, and the café will deliver, usually in the newly restored Dodge.
Arts Editor Joe Payne can be reached at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 9-16, 2016.
