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Organic Breakfast and Brunch Truck Coming to Astoria's Athens Square Park

 The bourbon chicken hash dish from The Breakfast Shack.
The bourbon chicken hash dish from The Breakfast Shack.
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Courtesy Joe DeMato

ASTORIA — A new food truck will launch in the neighborhood next month offering breakfast and brunch to residents on-the-go, according to its owner.

The Breakfast Shack will be parked at 30th Avenue and 30th Street outside Athens Square Park beginning in June. Queens native Joe DeMato, 29, started the truck business to bring his love of breakfast to the mobile-food masses.

"It's my favorite meal. I could eat it any time of day," said DeMato, who grew up in Bayside, while his parents and grandparents hail from Astoria. "That's how I learned to cook first when I was little."

With a background in hospitality — he spent several years at the Carlyle Hotel, working "almost every job" including gigs in the kitchen, behind the bar and running the staff cafeteria — DeMato always hoped to open his own business.

The Breakfast Shack

With the Breakfast Shack, he plans to incorporate as many local and organic ingredients as possible, as well as humanely-raised meats, like grass-fed beef.

"The menu items will rotate depending on what's available and what's seasonal," he added.

His signature dish is the "Shack Bites," which are made with scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon and cheese that's dipped in pancake batter and rolled in honey corn flakes and deep-fried.

"Basically breakfast in a bite," DeMato said.

Other dishes include braised short ribs over cheesy jalapeño grits, a pork chop with tostones, sweet potatoes and a fried egg over bacon shallot jam, and bourbon chicken hash.

Coffee comes from White Coffee, which has been producing java beans in Astoria and Long Island City for decades.

The truck's take-out containers will be made from either compostable or 100 percent recycled materials, as will its utensils and coffee cups, DeMato said.

The Breakfast Shack is expected to open the first or second week in June. It will operate on Mondays to Fridays from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.