Cousins Maine Lobster food truck rolls into Pensacola

The newest Cousins Maine Lobster food truck rolled into Blue Wahoos Stadium in Pensacola on Saturday.

Lisa and Gary Noble and their son, Cade, are the family behind the franchise that will serve from Mobile, Alabama, to Panama City.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out Cousins Maine Lobster of Mobile and Pensacola, you will soon enough.

After Saturday’s Grand Opening event, people can check out the calendar on the website to see where Cousins Maine Lobster is rolling to next.

The newest Cousins Maine Lobster food truck debuted in Pensacola on Saturday and will serve from Mobile, Alabama, to Panama City.
The newest Cousins Maine Lobster food truck debuted in Pensacola on Saturday and will serve from Mobile, Alabama, to Panama City.

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“Jim and Sabin, the co-founders, they just say to treat every customer like it's your mother,” Cousins Maine Lobster Franchisee Lisa Noble said. “And that that's been my philosophy too. It’s also true in sales and marketing. You know you're gonna be successful if you treat people right, and do the right thing. That's what we want to do.”

When Jim Tselikis and his cousin Sabin Lomac came face to face with the investors on ABC’s "Shark Tank" back in 2012, they knew they weren’t like most entrepreneurs.

“It's funny,” Tselikis said. “A lot of businesses that were going on 'Shark Tank' had some business history: multiple years, history of sales. We were shooting that show with about 2 1/2 months of business under our belt. We just went on with a concept, and we had done just about $180,000 or $200,000 in sales, so the numbers were still pretty strong.”

The concept was a food truck based in Los Angeles that brings the taste of Maine Lobster to your back yard.

“The beauty of the food truck is that we can go to the market,” Tselikis said. “We can go to people instead of having people have to drive or come to us. The one thing we knew, early on, is that we had an incredible product.”

Longtime "Shark Tank" investor Barbara Corcoran knew it, too, and for those reasons, she was in.

“We never realized at the time that we were privy to the highest quality lobster. It's there in our backyard in Maine when we were growing up,” Tselikis said. "But the quality, the accessibility didn't exist in Los Angeles. Barbara came with the idea of scaling the business, being franchised, and we now have more than 50 Cousins Maine Lobster food trucks.”

Similar to the Shark Tank pitch, Tselikis encourages prospective franchisees to do their due diligence and cultivate a well thought out business plan.

The newest Cousins Maine Lobster food truck debuted in Pensacola on Saturday and will serve from Mobile, Alabama, to Panama City.
The newest Cousins Maine Lobster food truck debuted in Pensacola on Saturday and will serve from Mobile, Alabama, to Panama City.

Once they are chosen, franchisees are required to complete an intensive 12-day training process with corporate leadership.

With their training and their grand opening event in the rearview, the Noble family is ready to roll to a community near you.

“You know, we could be anywhere from Mobile to Panama City,” Noble said. “They just need to follow us and make sure they download our app so they'll have our schedule too. March is almost complete. The end of February got about three more dates to fill in. The people are calling. They're finding out. The buzz is on, and we're getting calls every day to put somewhere.”

For more information, visit www.cousinsmainelobster.com/locations/pensacola-fl/ or call 850-558-4750.

Kalyn Wolfe is a freelance columnist for the News Journal. Send new business tips to pcolanewbiz@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Cousins Maine Lobster of Mobile and Pensacola opens food truck

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