Wilmington food truck Grimmburger plans to move into its first brick-and-mortar space in The Forum later this summer.

Grimmburger owners Matthew and Sammie Jo Grimm have signed a lease for the space formerly occupied by Epic Food Co., a health-focused restaurant that closed late last summer. They are currently renovating the space and aim to open the restaurant by August.

It’s been a long time coming for the couple, who had been looking for a brick-and-mortar space for over a year when the spot in The Forum became available, Matthew Grimm said.

“For the past year and a half, two years, we've been seriously looking at spaces, and we've had a couple of different opportunities that didn't work out for one reason or another,” he said.

Before starting the food truck, Matthew Grimm worked for Cook Out for nine years. He moved to Wilmington from Atlanta to help the company develop its Taco Roos concept. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the company shifted its focus away from Taco Roos and Matthew Grimm began thinking about starting his own food truck.

Matthew Grimm opened Grimmburger with his wife Sammie Jo Grimm in July 2021. At first, the food truck was open on weekends as the two worked full-time jobs during the week. But as business picked up, they began adding days and quit their jobs to work on the food truck.

“We’ve both been just doing this full-time since the beginning of 2022,” Matthew Grimm said.

Initially, they were “blown away” by the growth of the food truck’s customer base and began looking at their options for establishing a brick-and-mortar. They had a few requirements for the space. First, they wanted a “second generation” space that had previously housed a restaurant to reduce needed renovations and costs.

“In a second-generation space, a lot of the bones of what you need for a restaurant are already there,” Matthew Grimm said. “So that kind of eliminates a lot and narrowed it down.”

They also wanted a location on the eastern side of Wilmington in the Ogden or Porters Neck area or along Military Cutoff Road. Matthew Grimm said they chose the area because it’s “a little underserved food-wise” and is in an area the food truck currently serves.

“It's very centrally located to some of the existing places we go with the truck now, so we’re not like alienating the customer base that we've spent all this time building up,” he said.

The menu at the new brick-and-mortar space will feature the same smash burgers, sides and house-made sauces served up on the food truck, but will also include a few new items that have yet to be announced. The restaurant is set to have a “pretty serious craft beer selection,” Matthew Grimm said, along with wine.

Once the brick-and-mortar location is open, the Grimmburger food truck will no longer operate, and they expect to hire between 15 to 20 people to operate the new location.

While it’s exciting to have finally secured a restaurant space, Matthew Grimm said it’s also nerve-racking because they don't know how the brick-and-mortar space will be received.

“It was kind of a goal for a while,” he said, “so it feels good to hit that milestone."