At the window of the Harvest and Heart SRQ food truck, co-owner Eleonora Raso splits open an avocado, mashes it by hand and smears it across sourdough bread she baked that morning. Luigi, her husband and co-owner, works alongside her, as they’ve done for years.
Their ties to Sarasota go way back: Eleonora’s uncle owned Bacco’s downtown in the 1990s; her grandfather ran a hotel on St. Armands Circle. Both Rasos completed culinary school in Italy; Eleonora earned a master’s in baking. They ran two restaurants on Anna Maria Island until Hurricane Helene devastated them. “Overnight, we lost everything,” she says. After a hiatus, they started fresh on wheels last October.
“I got that passion from my grandpa and my uncle,” Eleonora says—a passion that shows up in the food. She bakes using organic, unbleached, no-bromate flour. Ingredients come from local farms. Breakfast sandwiches stack bacon, egg and cheese, or smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers and red onion on a New York-style bagel. Lunch brings protein bowls over arugula and quinoa, topped with grilled chicken or seasoned ground beef, plus rotating specials. Zero seed oils or preservatives. Coffee is organic, mold-free, ground to order. “Everything is strictly selected daily,” she says. “We do the shopping ourselves.” The truck posts its weekly schedule on Facebook, popping up in Lakewood Ranch, Parrish, the Knights of Columbus on Fruitville Road…