New Jersey pork roll meets Northern Colorado with new food cart
Taylor Wagner and Liam Hye get asked a question so often that they've published it at the top of the website for their new food cart, Jersey Cowboy.
"What is pork roll?" it reads.
"I have to explain what (it) is about 50 times a day," Wagner said with a laugh Tuesday as Jersey Cowboy — which opened in Fort Collins on May 1 — wrapped up its day popped up in front of South College Avenue's Covenant Tattoo shop.
Nearby, Hye — Wagner's younger brother — stood at the helm of their food cart's griddle as slices of the processed meat sizzled next to a pair of fried eggs and toasted kaiser roll.
Pork roll, Hye dutifully explained, is a New Jersey thing.
"It's salty and sweet, like a country ham," Hye said. "But, of course, it's not ham. It's pork roll."
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The meat, which is often pan fried and served on a breakfast sandwich with egg and cheese, is so engrained in New Jersey culture that Hye said you can typically tell where someone is from by what they call it.
While Wagner and Hye grew up in Connecticut, their family is from New Jersey and the two spent almost every summer on the Jersey shore, Wagner said.
Therefore, they call pork roll, well, pork roll.
If you come from the northern stretches of the state, it's called Taylor ham — a nod to pork roll's creator, John Taylor.
After moving to Colorado more than a dozen years ago to attend Colorado State University, Wagner kept cooking pork roll for herself in Fort Collins. When Hye moved out to join her in 2020, the two often found themselves sitting across the table eating the sandwiches for breakfast, he said.
"I moved out here to start a food truck," Hye said, adding that he wasn't sure what food he wanted to sell at first.
"I needed help," he said. "And who better to help than the person sitting across the table from me?"
Hye and Wagner decided to team up and open Jersey Cowboy, which currently has two fixed sandwiches on its menu. The Jersey is the most classic option, with fried pork roll, eggs and American cheese on a kaiser roll.
"We make it exactly how our parents make it and how their parents made it," Wagner said.
The Cowboy is similar but swaps out pork roll for bacon. Both sandwiches are $9 and come with onions and special sauce for $1 extra.
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Special sandwiches pop up on the cart's menu on a rotating basis. Its latest special is the Notorious P.I.G., a breakfast sandwich with pork roll, bacon and chorizo.
While Wagner and Hye have been contending with Coloradans who have never heard of pork roll, they both said they've also seen the opposite reaction.
New Jerseyans who have found themselves in Colorado often run up to Jersey Cowboy when they see it. And a couple weeks ago, while stationed outside Covenant Tattoo, Wagner said she and Hye even saw a school bus turn around on College Avenue after its driver noticed their sign.
The driver, originally from New Jersey, was en route to Laramie with a busload of people.
But he had to stop for some pork roll.
Where to find Jersey Cowboy
Jersey Cowboy will be roving around to various Northern Colorado locations. To find an updated schedule of its stops, visit jerseycowboycart.com.
Erin Udell reports on news, culture, history and more for the Coloradoan. Contact her at ErinUdell@coloradoan.com.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins restaurants: Jersey Cowboy cart brings pork roll to town
