Popular food truck to open first permanent location in Oswego

Each week restauranter Mona Herrada slices, sautés and serves thousands of hungry customers who line up for her tacos and flautas at her food truck, Freddie’s Off the Chain.

These days, Herrada is getting ready to open her first permanent Freddie’s Off the Chain location at 11 S. Madison St. in downtown Oswego. Herrada doesn’t yet have a set opening date, but said it is expected to open “soon.”

“We have been working on this restaurant since Covid ended, so about three years now,” Herrada said. “We have had so many setbacks, but we are almost there.”

But this time of year, despite putting on the finishing touches to the new restaurant, Herrada’s focus shifts. When it comes to the holidays, she turns her devotion to cooking for her family. And when it comes to Christmas, there’s one thing they all want: tamales.

“One year I made 700 tamales,” said the mom of five.

On Christmas Eve, Herrada leads the tamale making process, with her grown children and their families stepping in to make the fresh masa, fillings and wrapping the tamales in the corn husks for steaming.

They make savory tamales filled with rice and beans, chicken and verde salsa and, of course, sweet tamales too.

Herrada’s family background is Italian, but through marriage she learned how to cook Mexican food. She was an accountant who cooked delicious meals for her children including her oldest son, Freddie, who told her time and again that her food was, “off the chain.” He insisted she needed to open a restaurant so everyone could enjoy her cooking.

Seven years ago, Freddie died and it devastated Herrada and her family. Filled with grief, she was in a deep depression. She remembers how her daughter pleaded with her to go on living for the rest of them. They needed their mom.

Herrada, inspired by Freddie’s love of her cooking, decided to pursue what he’d once asked of her. She purchased a food truck and one of the first places she parked it was at Freddie’s favorite festival, Prairie Fest in Oswego.

The food was a big hit at Prairie Fest, so Herrada began bringing the trucks to more events and hungry customers followed. She’s catered corporate lunches, company picnics, weddings and parties. Her food trucks are a favorite at many local school events, too.

“My food is really, really good,” she said. “This restaurant means my son will live on forever. It’s all about him and I want people to know who my boy was.”

While she waits for the permanent location to open, her food trucks are still rolling, where her customers can find her tacos filled with hand-trimmed steaks and her delicious cakes she makes on special occasions, like her coconut cake with whip cream frosting, her tres leches cake or her German chocolate flan.

“Too many people count on [the food trucks], the schools count on us,” Herrada said. “We do home games for Oswego East High School, Plainfield North High School and Plainfield South High School. We do the Homecoming dance for Oswego High School. We do many many events, so I need the food trucks.

“The people of Oswego have welcomed me with open arms,” she said.

Entertainment editor Aimee Barrows contributed to this story.