By: Robin Yocum
No one would ever accuse Sarah Slagle of being impulsive.
Well, okay, they might, a little.
After attending a Columbus Food Truck Festival, she got so geeked up about the idea of owning a food truck, that 24 hours later she was in Monroe, Mich., buyinga camper she found on Craigslist.
So, she might be a little impulsive. And, technically, it’s not a truck, but we’ll let that slide for now.
Sarah is the owner of Sunny Sips, a drink truck – or trailer – that specializes in smoothies, cold brews and refreshers, like lemonade and iced tea. She can be found all over Delaware County in her cute, silver and yellow trailer.
Here’s the back story. Sarah is a Delaware County girl, having graduated from Big Walnut High School in 2015. She grew up working in her mother’s restaurant, The Grapevine, in Westerville. She went off to Ohio State to major in business and vowed that she would never, ever again work in food services. Never, ever! It absolutely wasn’t going to happen . . . until it did.
She was a loan processor at a bank when she and her future husband, Tyler, bought the 1956 trailer for $1,000. It had been some dude’s man cave, so it took everything short of a hazardous waste team to clean it out. The process was slow, and it was another few years before it was ready to roll, so to speak.
This happened in June 2021 when Sarah and Tyler visited the Groovy Plants Ranch in Marengo. They were waiting in line to check out on a sweltering day when they overheard the cashier say, “We need a drink truck here.”
It was kismet, and Tyler said, “Tell them you have a food truck.”
Not to be overly critical, but Sarah froze like one of her delicious smoothies. That’s when Tyler did his super hero thing and ripped open his shirt to reveal a T-shirt with the Sunny Sips logo and said, “Never fear, little lady, we have a drink truck.” Or something along those lines.
“Can you be here next week?” the sweaty and parched attendant asked.
“Done!” he said, pulling out a debit card to pay for some tomato plants and marigolds.
Now, things were getting real. Sarah had an actual gig. Then, repeating those famous words uttered by virtually every entrepreneur in the history of entrepreneurship, Sarah said she figured getting a menu of smoothie recipes ready would be, “super easy.”
We’ll pause the blog here for a minute so you can quit laughing and catch your breath.
However, she set a menu and was at the Groovy Plants Ranch the next week.
Sarah had anticipated that Sunny Sips would be a weekend gig while she continued processing loans. That was before her spectacular debut at the Groovy Plants Ranch. Weekday requests for the Sippymobile came rolling in and she was gone from the bank a month later.
Her menu includes such smoothies as Buckeye, Island Vibes, Strawberry Banana, Tropical Mango and Dragon Fruit.
Now, I know what you’re all asking yourself: Is the Dragon Fruit authentic? Sarah promises that no dragons were dismembered or hurt in the creation of the drink. I don’t know what dragon tastes like, so I can’t verify this, but she seems pretty honest. With that said, I plan to take my grandkids to Sunny Sips for a Dragon Fruit, and I promise you that I’m telling them it was made from Puff or Figment or Falkor.
Here’s another fun fact: Sarah had no idea how to back up a trailer the entire first year she was in business. Tyler did the driving. Now, she drives a crew cab pickup and can back the trailer into the tightest of parking spaces. In fact, she now has two Sippymobiles, so there’ll be plenty of smoothies to go around.
If you’d like to have Sarah back up one of the silver and yellow trailers at your next event, give her a call at 740.602.9470, or message her on her Sunny Sips Facebook or Instagram.
