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Official: Prison chief, 11 others put on leave after escapes

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Pennsylvania Turnpike commuters are encouraged to slow down, be alert on holiday travels

<p>By Gene Axton</p><p>gaxton@www.timesleader.com</p><br><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/web1_triples011.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Menu board on the side of Dave Sminkey&#8217;s Triple S Food Truck featuring the Black Angus Slider Triple Mess. </div></div><div class="neFile"><img src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/web1_triples021.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The menu of Dave Sminkey&#8217;s Triple S Food Truck featuring the Black Angus Slider Triple Mess. </div></div><div class="neFile"><img src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/web1_triples031.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Cody Krobert of Kingston loads fries into a takeout container on board Dave Sminkey&#8217;s Triple S Food Truck in Pittston on June 29. </div></div><div class="neFile"><img src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/web1_triples041.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dave Sminkey, second from left, and his food truck crew on board of Triple S Food Truck, Jodi Hilstolsky, left, Dave, Cody Krobert, and Kaylee Sminkey. </div></div><div class="neFile"><img src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/web1_triples051.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dave Sminkey and his Triple S Food Truck that was serving lunches outside SkyZone and Maximus in Pittston on June 29. </div></div></div>
<p>Dave Sminkey is a 15-year veteran of the grocery store. He spent all 15 years filling various positions with Wegmans, including bakery manager, prepared foods manager and seafood manager, but that was the closest he came to using his culinary education since the company employs a chef for their culinary needs. After managing the sales of other people&#8217;s creations, Sminkey decided to start managing the sale of his own&#8212;now he makes the rules (and menus) as the owner of the Triple S Gourmet Food Truck.</p><p>&#8220;I would oversee the cafe, sub shop, pizza shop, prepared foods&#8230; but it was never really my own,&#8221; Sminkey said. &#8220;Here, if I don&#8217;t like something I can change it myself. I can also create ideas with my team. For example, the strawberry salad was one of my team member&#8217;s ideas. It&#8217;s selling quite well.&#8221;</p><p>Sminkey came to the Wilkes-Barre area from Rochester, New York, and his food truck&#8217;s menu reflects his upbringing. The Triple S Gourmet Food Truck serves unique dishes like the Black Angus fries (fries covered in Black Angus meat sauce), sliders, hot dogs and the aforementioned strawberry salad (strawberries, greens, red onion, toasted almonds), but their Triple Mess is a Rochester import with a Triple S twist.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a company up there that&#8217;s been making&#8212;they call them &#8216;garbage plates&#8217;&#8212;since the &#8217;70s,&#8221; Sminkey said. &#8220;We put our own little twist on it&#8230; it&#8217;s a little bit different, but it&#8217;s the same basic concept as to when I was growing up. It&#8217;s a half pound of home fries, a half pound of macaroni, hot dogs or sliders depending on (the customer) and then the meat sauce, mustard and onion over the top. It&#8217;s very heavy&#8212;it&#8217;s a good college or bar thing or (for) police officers, firemen, heavy eaters. My father-in-law was a policeman and they used to get them all the time when he was serving on the force in Rochester. It&#8217;s not a salad by any stretch but that way we have something for everybody.&#8221;</p><p>Triple S gets many ingredients from local sources. Sminkey said he frequents the Tunkhannock Farmers Market, where he finds the greens and strawberries for his salads. He also uses local honey from The Beekeeper&#8217;s Daughter in Dallas for the truck&#8217;s honey poppy seed dressing. Local meats are used when available and, once potatoes are in season, the fries will be made with locally-grown potatoes. Sminkey seems set on using fresh, local ingredients to support local farmers, but he&#8217;s also conscious of his own industry&#8217;s economic well-being.</p><p>Sminkey said that one of the reasons he wants to succeed is to build up the food truck industry as a whole&#8212;not just Triple S but the rest of the food trucks in the area. He said that food trucks are subject to multiple inspections a year, whereas brick and mortar restaurants are inspected annually. He wants to remove the stigma and spread the word that food trucks are safe and savory places to grab meals that use quality ingredients. He also had another, simple reason for starting a food truck that speaks to his business acumen.</p><p>&#8220;The portability of it,&#8221; Sminkey said. &#8220;If I&#8217;m not doing well in one location I can go somewhere else. I&#8217;m not locked into buying a restaurant and (being) stuck there. The (saying goes) &#8216;location, location, location.&#8217; I can change my location if it doesn&#8217;t work. I can also change the menu if something&#8217;s not selling. If I&#8217;m going to succeed I&#8217;m going to succeed on my own and if I&#8217;m going to fail I&#8217;m going to fail on my own.&#8221;</p><p>Sminkey followed culinary corporate mandates at Wegmans for 15 years, but now he uses his training to support local farmers, smash food truck stigmas and make a living for his family. He&#8217;ll have to sell a lot of $10 Triple Messes to pay for three weddings and three degrees, but the New York native seems to have brought all the right ingredients with him.</p><br>Reach Gene at gaxton@www.timesleader.com or (570) 991-6121, ext. 1302

Triple S makes a ‘Triple Mess’