PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Charisse McGill is a history maker. Or perhaps the right phrase is "herstory maker."
Known for her French toast bites, McGill is the first Black woman to own and operate a food truck at Spruce Street Harbor, and the first Black woman to create a beer in the state.
"Being the first Black woman at Spruce Street Harbor Park in its six-year existence at the time last year made headlines," said McGill.
"That opened the door to so many other opportunities."
Now, she has a second vendor location, at Cherry Street Pier.
Her French toast bites spice is also on shelves, she created a spiced coffee, and her beer is sold at 100 different locations.
"It’s a lot to trailblaze," McGill explained.
"There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with that, and we have to be like a model vendor. We pride ourselves on it. We have to open on time. We have to close on time. We can’t sell out. There’s a lot of things that kind of come with that."
The Temple, and more recently St. Joseph's, graduate has become a trailblazer in the food and beverage industry, much of it all over the last year during the pandemic.
It all started with humble beginnings, at a farmers market lemonade stand.
"We didn’t have any funding before the COVID-19 relief happened. Everything was built off my daughter’s lemonade stand," said McGill.
"For 15 weeks, I would pick her up. We would go to a commercial kitchen, and she would squeeze 88 lemons to make 10 gallons of lemonade to sell at the farmer’s market. Her $5,000 is what got us into Christmas Village. And it’s just been growing from there."
McGill says growing a business during the pandemic has taught her to stay ready, especially as anxiety surrounding COVID-19 begins to rise again.
"So we can stay essential, because we never know what may come up again. We have the Delta variant that’s on the horizon," she said.
"We may have to rely back on our pantry sales, the spice, the coffee, the beer."
For now, you can visit her food trucks at Penn’s Landing.
Here's another scoop just between us:
"We’re working on another segment of the pantry," McGill said.
"I can’t say right now, but we’re really excited about it. It will be another first black woman to do (what it is). We’re working on that for the fall."
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