Credit: Submitted Photo
Credit: Submitted Photo
Tasty Bacon’s is known for its smash burgers, hand-dipped corn dogs, millionaire’s bacon, loaded potatoes and breakfast items.
With the expansion, each unit will have a piece of Tasty Bacon’s in it.
Tasty Pizza and Potatoes coming soon
Tasty Pizza and Potatoes is opening Dec. 1 in the former location of Subway at the Wright-Patterson Main Exchange in Area A.
Customers can expect build-your-own pizzas and potatoes, calzones, soups and much more. Specialty pizzas will include:
- Big Patty Pizza (a smash burger-inspired pizza with a smoky pizza sauce, cheese, hamburger, millionaire’s bacon and grilled onions)
- Spicy Dave pizza (a Hawaiian-inspired pizza featuring millionaire’s bacon)
The pizza sauce will be made fresh on-site.
This location will be ran by John Hansen’s parents, David and Cheryl Hansen. They moved to the Dayton region in July from Montana to help with the food truck.
“Phase three of our plan was pizza and potatoes,” John Hansen said. “It’s the type of truck my parents wanted to open, but the brick-and-mortar opportunity came up.”
David and Cheryl Hansen come with a background in the food and beverage industry.
“We were buying a bar in Hot Springs that was also a restaurant,” Cheryl Hansen said. “We made our fresh dough there. We did our pizzas there.”
Tasty Pizza and Potatoes will be open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.
A second food truck
As they work to open Tasty Pizza and Potatoes, the owners plan to take a couple weeks off in the winter to give Tasty Bacon’s food truck a facelift and to start Tasty Sammiez, a food truck that will be ran by Zimmerman.
Tasty Sammiez will specialize in sandwiches and chocolate dipped desserts.
“We just made ourselves the first rendition of the Cuban sandwich,” Zimmerman said. “I’m going to use the millionaire’s glaze to make a yellow mustard sauce for the Cuban.”
Chocolate dipped desserts will include ice cream, cheesecake and eclairs. Customers will have the option to order it the “Tasty Way” with various drizzles, candies, bacon and whipped cream.
Tasty Sammiez is expected to open Jan. 31, 2026.
An early start was key to success
When asked if they thought they would expand this quick, the owners admitted that they did not.
“John and I have said since the beginning that we feel like we got lucky, for lack of better words, that we started at the time that we did because nobody else was out,” Zimmerman said.
Tasty Bacon’s began serving the public at the end of January.
“It’s cold to be on a food truck selling breakfast and selling burgers and corn dogs, but people go out and they’re looking for that kind of stuff,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman, a Fairborn native who studied culinary arts at the Greene County Career Center, was previously working at TJ Chumps.
“We found ourselves working at the same kitchen about two years ago and then when I was looking to open a food truck I called him up and said lets go get out of the industry and go start our own thing,” John Hansen said.
John Hansen, who was active duty in the Air Force for nearly 10 years, returned to the Dayton area in 2022 after being stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 2013.
“While I was stationed in England, I was talking about getting out and starting a food truck,” Hansen said. “Most of my career in the Air Force has been in the kitchens and nutritional medicine.”
Zimmerman was planning to get out of the restaurant industry, but after buying the food truck, it “rekindled” his love for food and cooking.
Fresh food and a community focused mindset
“I think it’s good Americana food done right,” David Hansen said. “We try to be consistently good every single day. Every single meal that we send out, we want it to be great.”
All bacon is cooked fresh every morning. They go through about 15 pounds of bacon each week.
As for the potatoes, the food truck goes through about 35 pounds a day.
“We’re coming up on a year and one of my favorite things to say is I really haven’t worked a day,” Zimmerman said. “There’s been some crazy days, some early (days), long nights, but it truly is some of the most fun work that I’ve ever done.”
The owners are looking forward to taking care of more people with their expansion.
“It’s always about the community first and that’s what really drives this truck forward,” John Hansen said.
For more information and updates, visit the food truck’s Facebook or Instagram (@tastybaconsfoodtruck) pages.
Natalie Jones writes about food and dining in Southwest Ohio with an emphasis on the Dayton region. She may be reached at natalie.jones@coxinc.com.
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