ORLANDO, Fla. – Benjamin Paniagua and Zachary Allam are turning their popular food truck Wafu into a brick-and-mortar business, setting up shop on the second floor of Orlando’s East End Market.
“We take over the lease April 1,” Paniagua said. “And according to all the contractors, we can be done in a month. So May 1 is the ideal hope of at least a soft opening.”
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The couple will be taking over the spot once occupied by Dochi, which sells Japanese-style mochi donuts. Dochi is moving downstairs into the space previously occupied by Old Hearth Bread Co., according to Paniagua, allowing Wafu to move in.
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The move to a brick-and-mortar location comes after about a year of the pair traveling around the state selling taiyaki out of a trailer.
“We’re going because we’re going from St. Pete to Audubon Park and all (the cities) in between,” Paniagua said.
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Taiyaki is a sweetened, japanese cake prepared very similarly to a waffle. Wafu actually roughly translates to “Japanese-style.”
It is shaped like a fish — a sea bream specifically — and usually filled with azuki bean paste, custard or chocolate, though there are also savory versions.
“It started where wealthy individuals in Japan at the time would eat this fish (sea bream) and on the streets (vendors) were already making something similar to taiyaki where it had a waffle or pancake outside with a filling,” Paniagua said. “Someone came up with the idea — almost like a marketing strategy — of making it look like this fish — that means good fortune and that wealthy people would eat — and it took off in popularity over 100 years ago. It’s almost on every single block in Japan. It’s a staple.”
The idea for Wafu came from Allam’s love of Japanese culture.
“He traveled to Japan on multiple trips,” Paniagua said “And me, I wanted to start a business in food, but I didn’t know what. And then when I went to Japan with Zachary, together we were looking and we discovered taiyaki.”
The two felt as though taiyaki was something they had never seen in Florida before and decided to import the idea, but they did not make their first venture into selling the taiyaki until the pandemic hit.
“We kind of just thought it would be a side thing on the weekend at our local farmers market here in Lakeland,” Paniagua said. “And it started to become really popular and we were like, ‘Oh, wow, this is kind of cool.’”
At the time, the couple was already working together in banking, though they had previous experience in the service industry.
“I was a broker for a bank for eight years and before that, I did 10 years of hospitality where I worked in resorts here in Central Florida,” Paniagua said. “I moved to Australia. I worked in hotels and resorts all over and I traveled and backpacked there. So, that’s actually where I discovered Japanese culture, visiting the Asian communities in different cities — in Melbourne, Adelaide — that’s really where I was hanging out at the time. And Zachary — we both worked at the same bank. Actually, he was a lead teller there for the same amount of time and before that, he was a manager at Starbucks.”
As the popularity of Wafu grew, the pair upgraded their operation to a trailer.
“(From) 2020, we were in the tent at our farmer’s market until April of 2021 and then from 2021 until now, we’ve been in the trailer,” Paniagua said. “With the trailer, we were able to ramp up our events to pretty much a full schedule. With that, we were able to replace our income from our jobs. So we decided, ‘Well, heck, let’s quit our jobs.’”
After a year of success selling their Japanese-style waffles, the pair jumped at the chance to move into East End Market. The new location will offer Wafu double the space of their current cart operation and give them opportunities to expand their menu.
“(We’ll be) offering our soft-serve (ice cream) full time, which will be really great, because now we’re limited on how just the difficulty of getting to events and doing it,” Paniagua said.
In addition to ice cream and sweet taiyaki, Wafu will also be offering customers at East End Market savory taiyaki.
“On the savory side — which is really popular — is our bacon and cheddar. Our most recent favorite is kimchi and mozzarella,” Paniaugua said.
The move into East End Market will also mean a move for the couple as they plan to leave Lakeland and take up residence in Orlando.
“We knew our customer base was in Orlando, mostly, and it just kind of aligned where Orlando came out on top,” Paniaugua said. “And just also I felt really comfortable with moving and deciding to place the shop in Orlando with the other just the culture of Orlando with other business owners... the culture of encouragement. It was more than I was getting anywhere else.”