{"id":31266,"date":"2023-10-07T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-07T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-food-truck-brings-cajun-twist-to-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:37:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:37:43","slug":"new-food-truck-brings-cajun-twist-to-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-food-truck-brings-cajun-twist-to-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"New food truck brings Cajun twist to Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A new food truck called Mountain High Diner, owned by Chase Edwards of Mountain High Catering, offers Cajun food in downtown Durango. (Courtesy of mountainhighcatering.com)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A new food truck has taken over the parking lot behind the American Legion at 878 East Second Ave., and it\u2019s adding a Cajun food option to Durango.<\/p>\n

Mountain High Diner<\/a> is run by Chase Edwards, who is originally from Austin, Texas. Edwards spent over 30 years traveling to different places and working in the restaurant industry. He was a self-taught chef before going to Le Cordon Bleu in his late 40s to learn how to cook.<\/p>\n

His passion for Cajun food started when he was working in the French Quarter in New Orleans during the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would always cook jambalaya when I needed to feel invigorated,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a very satisfying dish and very comforting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he doesn\u2019t want his food truck to be Cajun specifically, he said it\u2019s been a style he\u2019s had interest in lately, and that menu could change when he\u2019s feeling something new. However, he does admit that there aren\u2019t many Cajun options in the Four Corners, especially when it comes to serving po\u2019boys, one of Edwards\u2019 other signature foods.<\/p>\n

A po\u2019boy is a sandwich that usually consists of roast beef, chicken fingers or some sort of fried seafood. Mountain High offers roast beef, sausage, fried catfish, fried shrimp and calabacitas po\u2019boys.<\/p>\n

Other menu items include vegetarian red beans and rice, as well as a braised achiote chicken taco plate.<\/p>\n

Edwards said his intent with parking outside the American Legion was that he was hoping to draw an office crowd. The truck is open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Mountain High currently operates during lunch hours only because of the Legion\u2019s use of the parking lot in the evening.<\/p>\n

In addition, Mountain High Diner has been a part of a few events in town, most notably the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally. The eatery was part of the Food Truck court at the fairgrounds during the event.<\/p>\n

Edwards felt his business did well during the motorcycle rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the other vendors, I might have even been top dog,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know \u2013 that can\u2019t be verified.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Edwards, it is about finding a following, which means a permanent place he can park his truck for a full day. He said he has a few options lined up, but would not disclose them until that arrangement is finalized.<\/p>\n

Mountain High also offers catering services because the truck offers a full kitchen, and Edwards has the ability to cook more than just his normal Cajun cuisine. Another benefit to the truck, like many other food truck vendors, is that the upfront cost to operate the business is cheaper than having a brick-and-mortar location.<\/p>\n

Food trucks can cost anywhere from $28,000 to $114,000 to get the business off the ground, according to data collected by Business News Daily.<\/p>\n

The average fast casual restaurant costs between $250,000 to $400,000 to start up, according to data collected by Forbes. However, this depends on the restaurant\u2019s location.<\/p>\n

Edwards said the most appealing part of owning the truck is simply the freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor cooks that want to create menus or something like that, it\u2019s hard to find that opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mountain High Diner looks fuel lunch time rush downtown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,314,28,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-downtown-durango","tag-headlines","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81379,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31266\/revisions\/81379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31266"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}