To keep their food truck and their personal life running smoothly, partners Caroline Perini and Miley Holmes let a lot slide … easy
TAKE IT EASY | Perini, left, and Holmes turn the mini-burger into a gourmet experience — including a portobello slider, inset — in seven minutes flat. (Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice)
JOSE RALAT-MALDONADO | Contributing Writer
ralatmaldonado@gmail.com
Six food trucks are gathered in the Sigel’s Greenville Avenue location one Wednesday night, and the Easy Slider Truck is the only one with a steady line. The consistent business and breezy service is as welcoming as the adjacent truck seems abandoned. One customer knocks on the rig’s exterior counter and utters a tentative, “Hello?” The question goes unanswered for several minutes. Eventually, all the trucks are turning tickets, but none are as busy as Dallas’ first and only gourmet slider truck, owned and operated by partners Miley Holmes and Caroline Perini.
The couple, along with friend Darius Holley, is taking orders, making passing cracks, asking about on-hand ingredients.
“Eighty-six the Nutty Pig,” Holmes calls out. They have exhausted their peanut butter supply.
The dwindling stock is in stark contrast the stress levels in the Easy Slider’s culinary heart. The trio works in a Lilliputian space with a facility as stunning as the French Revolution — three ounces of Angus beef topped with prosciutto, Gruyere, grilled red onions and a slather of Dijon mustard. They were meant to do this.
From the moment they met six years ago, Perini and Holmes knew they wanted to run a food truck. At the time, the two were working at the House of Blues in the West End: Perini as logistics manager, Holmes as a music hall supervisor. Instead of touring vans and Marshall stacks, Holmes and Perini traded in what they call “the ultimate street food.” Few people, if any — we haven’t met one naysayer yet—are prone to disagree. One bite of the Sweet & Lowdown (beef, bacon, goat cheese and a smear of strawberry jam) and you’re hooked.
“During our soft opening at Double Wide, our very first customer returned three times for our sliders. I was 
shocked,” recounts Holmes. “That’s when I knew something good was happening.”
Negotiate the competing demands of a romantic relationship paired with a business partnership that’s going gangbusters took some adjusting. “At first it was difficult to switch off,” Holmes explains. “We used to talk sliders constantly. Now, when we’re off, we’re off.”
“You just make it work,” adds Perini.
Whatever they’re doing is working professionally and personally, but Holmes and Perini are taking it in stride, never identifying as pioneers. “We hope to keep our heads down, keep providing creative, high-quality food, and have a good time doing it,” they agree.
“Our priorities are creating quality food and great experiences, and it is very exciting to see people respond to that in a positive manner,” says Holmes. “We certainly aren’t the first women, gay women or couple to build a successful business. It has become obvious that our fans identify with us as people, which is super cool. If we can inspire one person out there to pursue the wacky dream job that they were born to do, it’s worth it!”
Follow the Nutty Pig at EasySliderTruck.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 3, 2012.