The following that Fox Valley food truck "Kangaroostaurant" has had is getting really excited about the move to their first brick and mortar home.

As reported in the Appleton Post-Crescent last week, owners Jay and Kelly Barnes will open the doors in the former Plum Hill cafe at 313 Dodge Street in Kaukauna on February 19th.

It'll be called the "Kangaroost".

I spoke with Jay and Kelly by phone today and here are some of the interesting tidbits I discovered about the seismic shift in their small business.

The Barnes' say it all started with reading the P-C and finding out about the closing of Plum Hill. That's when they tried to make contact with the building's owner Dave Klister. But they were given a bad phone number.

Not long after, Klister's daughter wanted to book the Kangaroostaurant to cater her wedding, but they had another commitment. But that got the conversation to move to getting their foot into Plum Hill's door.

After a meeting with Klister, set up by his daughter, both sides came to an agreement.

"He liked our local beliefs, he’s very much excited and on board with the restaurant," said co-owner Jay Barnes.

It turns out that this relationship got off to a great start, because this winter has not been kind to the food truck.

"One night we were wondering if we were going to make it through the winter on the truck, and the next night we had a restaurant, and we decided to open it 3 weeks later," said Jay Barnes. Kelly added, "It’s really hard to be a food truck this winter, it’s really killing Jay and I."

The Kangaroostaurant will run on Wednesday, then once more on Valentine's Day at the Death by Chocolate event in Appleton. After that, the truck will get a short hiatus, in order to get the brick and mortar off the ground.

And that means job creation.

"We’ll look at hiring up to 20 people to staff the truck, restaurant and catering events by the summer,” said Kelly Barnes. 

Coming up tomorrow, check out Part 2 of this interview with the Kangaroostaurant gang. What will the menu will be like, what they may or may NOT feature when it comes to drinks and a twist on the weekends.

You can follow Kangaroostaurant for menus, locations and updates on Twitter and Facebook.