MILWAUKEE — Ron Holloway wants your dog to eat well.
“We believe most dog food or pet treats could have a better ingredients list,” he says.
He and his wife Solo are the owners of food truck Woofbowl – and they’ve spent a long time perfecting their recipes just for your fur baby.
“Antioxidants, anything to boost the immune system,” says Solo. “For instance, in our burger, we have pumpkin in there. Dogs are eating the treats, but they don’t necessarily know that it’s good for them and so it’s like we’re tricking them into eating well, right? But they love it!”
If you thought it was people food, you wouldn’t be the first.
“Our burger looks like a burger,” Solo says with a laugh. “We have people come up and say ‘can I add lettuce and tomato on it?’ And we’re like ‘its for dogs!’”
But for Ron, the food truck is about a lot more than making dogs and their humans happy.
“I was in a very difficult place, dealing with a lot of trauma that I hadn’t reconciled,” he says. “One night, one dreadful night I almost lost my life. The car was totaled, everyone who saw the wreck thought ‘whoever is driving that vehicle is surely dead.’”
Ron says the anxiety-induced blackout that caused his car wreck was a moment of awakening. He wanted to find a way to help people and bring joy to the world.
“Woofbowl has changed my life, it’s been a spark,” he says.
“What I like most is what it does for my husband,” Solo adds. “He’s at the window smiling and laughing and we could have a bad day but as soon as that window goes up, he’s a whole ‘nother person.”
Part of that joy is being a part of their customers' lives.
“We’ve had people do wedding proposals here, bark mitzvahs, yappy hours, pupciñeras, I mean it gets weird!” Ron says. “And we like it weird.”
Bringing customers together is just the icing on the doggy donut.
“It’s mind boggling, we’ll see people talking in the comments and meeting in the comments section or at our truck and now they’re going to dinner together or now they’re best friends,” Ron says. “And it’s like, ‘wow that was something we created, something we were part of.’ You can’t put a dollar on that, it’s priceless.”
“It’s very cathartic,” Solo adds. “We laugh and smile all the time, especially at the window.”
