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It’s official — Darlean’s Mobile Food Truck is open for business.

Owned by siblings Art Thomas and Ledetria Beaudoin, Darlean’s has a new home in the form of a food truck at 1301 Procter St. A soft opening was held Monday where the cooks were dishing out a variety of southern food as the smell of fresh smoked meat permeated the air. 

The menu includes southern cuisine native to the area. This includes boudin balls, fried fish baskets and sandwiches, chicken sandwich and chicken salad as well as smoked pork bones, homemade beef links and smoked chicken.

“On Wednesdays I do a chef’s special. Something like ox tails with red beans and rice or short ribs with mustard greens and cornbread. Things like that,” Thomas said. “I’m trying to change it up at least once a week. I even have chicken teriyaki with fried rice.”

The family isn’t new to the world of cuisine. Years ago their grandmother had a restaurant called Darlean’s Place on 7th Street and Thomas delved into cooking as his capstone project while at Prairie View. 

Thomas found some of their grandmothers’ recipes, modified them and decided to open Darlean’s Market & Cafe after bringing his sister on board. The business has been catering for a while now with events for the city of Port Arthur, Greater Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club of Port Arthur and more.

“We’ve been doing quite a few and now we want to escalate, put a food truck out here,” Thomas said. 

The food truck will be open from 11 a.m. to around 3 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

The address is near Lamar State College Port Arthur and Woodrow Wilson Early College High School and not far from city hall and other city offices and more.

“We’re trying to do something for the community, for the downtown Port Arthur area because they are also in the process of revitalizing. There’s no food down here other than one local place,” he said. “We want to bring something closer to the college kids, something affordable for the college kids, as well as the city of Port Arthur and the other workers in the areas so they have something affordable close to work where they can get it in a timely manner and get back to work.

On Monday Thomas, his wife Angela, along with Rhonda Jones, Angela Linton and Jerry Fontenot manned the trailer and the pit as the first customers arrived. 

“My dream is to turn this from a mobile food trailer  to a brick and mortar,” he said. “So I’m looking at, in the next two to three years, building a brick and mortar here in this spot, in this location.”