South Florida

Stew On This To Launch Crestview Comfort Food Trailer

Stew On This will serve rotating soups and stews across the Florida Panhandle with a built in pay it forward program.

Image from Stew On This on Facebook

CRESTVIEW, FL — Stew On This, a new comfort-food trailer from longtime restaurateur Nicholas Sozo, is targeting a spring opening ahead of the spring break season. The business will serve communities across the Florida Panhandle, operating between Pensacola and Panama City Beach.

Sozo told Business Debut the trailer plans to regularly park at local churches throughout the territory, using their underutilized weekday parking lots as consistent, community-centered service locations, with stops rotating on a weekly schedule shared on social media.

What to Expect

Stew On This is built around affordable, one-bowl comfort meals designed to be fast, predictable and easy to take home. The trailer will focus on soups and stews that can be served quickly during a short dinner window, with clear pricing and a streamlined menu aimed at serving local families.

The concept is intentionally simple, allowing the team to move efficiently from community to community while maintaining consistency from stop to stop. Each meal will be served with a homemade roll, with select items occasionally paired with a sandwich.

Among the core dishes is chicken and dumplings made from a family recipe by Sozo’s wife, Elisa Sozo, who will operate the business alongside him. Nicholas Sozo said her Atlanta-rooted recipe will be one of the cornerstones of the menu.

Other staples will include house-made chili, with rotating items such as gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, and tomato bisque served with grilled cheese. Seasonal soups and stews will be added as ingredients and weather allow.

“This whole model is built around speed, clear pricing and being able to serve local families consistently instead of just chasing tourists,” Sozo told Business Debut.

Community Focus and Pay-It-Forward Meals

A central part of Stew On This’ mission is a pay-it-forward meal program that will be integrated directly into daily service. Customers will have the option to purchase a meal in advance for someone in need. Those meals will be tracked on a digital display mounted outside the trailer, showing how many pay-it-forward meals are currently available.

When someone requests a pay-it-forward meal, they will be served with no questions asked. Once the meal is claimed, the count on the display will decrease accordingly. Sozo said the goal is to make the process visible, accessible and dignified.

“That’s going to be a big part of our branding and who we are,” he told Business Debut.

The trailer also plans to partner with local churches throughout the region, using their parking lots during weekdays as consistent, community-centered service locations. Each stop will typically occur no more than once per month at the same location, with a portion of proceeds donated back to the host organization.