By LOIS KINDLE
Folks around these parts will be excited to hear the Sweet Tea Tiki Bar is available locally four days a week. Offering the best of Earl Bush’s own brand of sandwich cuisine, the food truck is now on site at the Ruskin Bait Shop, 1519 U.S. 41 S, Ruskin, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
Earl Bush prepares one of his popular breakfast sandwiches, while his wife Annette awaits a Sweet Tea Tiki Bar food truck order. The couple enjoy working together and serving their own brand of sandwiches for breakfast and lunch to hungry customers.
EARL BUSH PHOTO
The Sweet Tea Tiki Bar sells a Shrimp Po’ Boy as one of its weekly specials for lunch from time to time.
EARL BUSH PHOTO
This Meathead Melt sandwich, comprised of smoked brisket, grilled onions, sweet peppers, cheddar cheese and sweet BBQ sauce, is served with French Fries as one of the Sweet Tea Tiki Bar’s lunch menu.
LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
The Sweet Tea Tiki Bar offers full catering for all kinds of events and celebrations, and its catering menu can be adjusted to accommodate customer needs.
EARL BUSH PHOTO
The Sweet Tea Tiki Bar sells its own brand of tea, both frozen and bottles, as pictured here. Sodas and water are also available.
EARL BUSH PHOTO
Coming soon to the menu is Earl Bush’s Dynamic Duo, featuring his Seabreeze-style deviled crab and Bushboyz Cuban.
EARL BUSH PHOTO
The Brisket Egg & Cheese Cuban is a customer favorite at the Sweet Tea Tiki Bar food truck. It’s comprised of slow-cooked brisket, two eggs made to order, cheese and garlic mustard aioli.
Anyone who knows him knows the quality of his fare.
“The food is awesome,” said Marlin Miller, owner of 1st Rate Auto in Apollo Beach. “I’ll be coming here whenever I have a chance.”
Waiting for two different breakfast sandwiches he had ordered, he noted he’s known Bush and enjoyed his food for the past two years.
“The lunch menu is also awesome,” he said.
Ann Strawser, of Riverview, agrees.
“Their frozen tea is absolutely delicious, and their menu is amazing,” she said, noting the Sweet Tea Tiki Bar has come to the Valhalla community where she lives. “The owners are super nice. I love seeing a small business like theirs doing well.”
Here are some examples of what draws diners to Sweet Tea Tiki Bar. The breakfast menu features assorted Cuban sandwiches, including Brisket, Egg & Cheese, Bacon Egg & Cheese, Sausage, Egg & Cheese and Fried Egg & Cheese, plus a weekly special. This past week it was a loaded breakfast burrito stuffed with pulled pork, hash browns, eggs, cheddar cheese and mustard garlic aioli in a tomato-basil wrap sound.
Earl’s lunch menu includes items like an Italian Banger, Meathead Melt Sammich, Bushboyz Cuban, Seabreeze-style Deviled Crab and Kids Tiki Nuggets. All come with French fries and mustard garlic aioli. There’s also Earl’s Seabreeze-style Deviled Crab and for those with a sweet tooth, his “sinful” Sticky Bun, a honey bun with Reese’s Peanut Butter Drizzle, crushed Oreos, caramel sauce and chocolate sauce will fit the bill.
Bush said new menus are coming in about a month to be posted on the Sweet Tea Tiki Bar Facebook page. He said he’ll soon be adding the Bait Bucket, a half-pound of fried shrimp, with super crisp fries and lemon-lime tarter or cocktail sauce.
The food truck’s own Frozen Sweet Tea is a customer favorite, as is its bottled sweet tea brand. Sodas and water are also available.
LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
Customers start lining up early at the Sweet Tea Tiki Bar food truck to order Earl Bush’s freshly made breakfast sandwiches. Bush and his brother Jason designed the Tiki man logo and gave their vision to Tracy Cannon, of South Shore Signs, who “ran away with it,” Bush said.
“We take all methods of payment, except ex-wives, ex-husbands and children,” Bush said. “We already have plenty of those.”
Working alongside Earl is his wife and co-owner, Annette Buzbee Bush, who’s in charge of pretty much keeping things running smoothly. Fifth- and sixth-generation Ruskinites, respectively, they both have the gift for gab and know anyone who’s been in the area any length of time. And they’re fun to be around and make quite a tag team.
“I’m the money handler, people handler and Earl handler,” she said, as he playfully protested in the background.
If you can’t make it for breakfast or lunch, the Sweet Tea Tiki Bar sets up at other locations during the month and offers full catering for BBQs, private parties, fishing tournaments and just about any event or celebration. Its catering menu can be adjusted to meet customer needs.
‘We’re really food people,” Bush said. “I enjoy customer interaction and have been in the food business since I was 13. I just turned 50, so it’s been a minute.
“I know how to stack flavors to make our own unique brand,” he added. “It’s what makes our food special and keeps people coming back for more.”
For more information on the Sweet Tea Tiki Bar, call Earl at 727-678-8310 or Annette at 813-767-4099.