Sustainability and supporting local Maui businesses and restaurants is so important. Many were forced to shut down temporarily or permanently, due of course to the pandemic. Still, Maui’s food truck industry is rolling. Food truck stops are located on every part of Maui, across from Costco, in Kihei, Kula Long Drugs Parkway and at various points roadside. One food truck I find really unique and interesting is Dôlish. Dôlish is every inner-child’s dream- they serve various cookie dough flavored ice cream. They have the dreamiest pastel colored food truck, which is a whole vibe paired with a tasty and nostalgic cookie dough treat. I was able to get the scoops about this cookie-dough dreamery from Gloria Bangasan, the owner.
Glory Bangasan is from Makawao. She attended Maui High School, Maui Community College, Maui Culinary Academy & MAUIFIC. She dedicates most of her days to her food truck, making edible-cookie dough dreams a reality. Gloria shared with us why she didn’t let the pandemic stop her from opening her dream on wheels.
“My food trailer was delivered 1 week before our Statewide Shut Down. During that time, I didn’t know much about COVID-19 and my current restaurant job closed for dine in & went straight to take out only. 90% of the staff including myself was furloughed. I was scared to open & figured it wasn’t the right time to open a new business. In June my friends that own food trucks told me they had been hitting record sales because there were not a lot of options to get take out. I figured it was time to bring DÔLISH to market. I opened August 1st. I figured it would be the last month of summer, kids weren’t back at school yet, with the extra stimulus money weekly & lots of time on their hands, I thought I had a better chance of attracting customers to try my treats.”
Gloria says she was inspired by her inner child, to open a cookie dough ice cream truck. Since childhood she was always more excited to eat the cookie dough rather than the cookie itself. But raw cookie dough is not safe to eat. Then, when she watched an episode of Shark Tank that featured an edible cookie dough business, she visited their flagship Cookie Dough Cafe in Portland, OR. Excited, she tried some real, edible cookie dough and wasn’t impressed.
“There was no fun music or colorful walls, no fun names for flavors & the cookie dough was ok. For me the texture was not to my liking. I thought to myself, I could do that! I could be the 1st edible cookie dough shop/truck in Hawaii & sweeten up the Maui Community. Make it fun, colorful, taste good & safe to eat raw. I could really stand out, because no one was doing what I was wanted to do on Maui & in Hawaii. And that’s how DÔLISH was dreamed up. It took me two years to bring my dream to life.”
Gloria had her childhood friend design her logo & trailer wrap. She used words like nostalgia, fun, colorful, pastels, rainbow, clouds, sunshine & happiness. She loved it at first sight. Then, she began creating a name for the business.
“My first choice was D^olishious, but that name was already registered so I shortened it to D^olish. The ^ over the o in Dolish is a frenchmark that pronounces the “O” as “gh” so it was a cute way to spell. I play on DÔ a lot on social media & on my Menu.”
Gloria shared that the community has responded wonderfully to her endeavors. She says that for a lot of customers, Dôlish brings back the nostalgia of licking the spoon after your mom/grandma was done baking cookies.
“Now, customers can safely eat as much as they like with new flavors to try every month. Customers are excited to try other items like specialty drinks such as Cheese Tea, Whipped Coffee, & Deluxe Cold Brew that no other business on Maui serves. Also, everyone loves the look of the trailer for social media photo opportunities.”
This is a popular food truck on Maui serving up delicious treats to the Maui community. The main lesson I took away from this is there is more to it than the food truck itself. Countless hours of planning, creating, and working. There are many positives of opening a food truck business including becoming your own boss, having your own schedule, and being able to create your own menu. I hope in the future there will be more innovative food trucks popping up on Maui. Let’s continue supporting local food trucks to keep the wheels of sustainability and aloha spirit rolling.
