After an early career in finance and a family health scare that changed everything, Abby Ripberger decided to purchase a faded 1973 camper and turn it into a comfort‑food operation that has since grown many offshoots, including a new stall, The Love Bug, at The Garage Food Hall at downtown’s Bottleworks District. Her elevated homestyle American cooking leans hard on what her grandparents taught her along with a love of the elemental flavors of salt, pepper, and butter.
What were you doing before you became a restaurant owner?
I grew up in Tipton and was working in investment banking and transportation—the corporate world. My son, Hank, was born in 2012, and in July of 2019 he was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease. He had gotten strep throat the December before. The bacteria got in his bloodstream, landed in his heart, and damaged his aorta and his mitral valve. From December to July, we were in and out of doctors all the time, treating all these individual symptoms. In July, he stopped walking, stopped talking, and stopped swallowing, which landed us in Riley for test after test. We lived in Riley for like six weeks. I’m a single mom, so when we went into Riley, I just left my job at Beck’s Hybrids and didn’t go back. They were fantastic about it. I finally just had to choose between being a good mom and being a good employee. I picked good mom. So, in March of 2020, I quit my job.
March of 2020 was also when the whole world shut down. Did you have a Covid plan?
I had been waitressing on the weekends for a friend of mine who owns a couple of restaurants, and we were doing a meal prep business at the time. And then I saw an old 1973 camper on Facebook. It was a pull-behind on a monster truck, painted like an American flag. It had a window, and they sold T-shirts out of it.
And that became The Love Bug food truck?
That was six years ago. I knew how to cook. I had been cooking for my family and friends for years. I had worked in the industry. In Covid times, the food truck worked out great. I was already set up for individual packaging. People could come up and get what they needed, and they could leave. That led into catering for all these corporate venues, and it just kind of grew from there. I was ghost kitchening, and we kept running out of space in the ghost kitchens. The old Knights of Columbus in Tipton came up for sale. It had this event space in the back, a kitchen, a space that was their bar that we’ve converted into a cafe, and it had an upstairs where I could put an Airbnb upstairs. It’s called The Greenhouse now.
How did your new space inside The Garage enter your radar?
I saw a Facebook post about it, and I was like … Wait a minute, I can do that. I filled out their form on the website and got the automated message that they were full at the moment. So I put it out of my mind and went on with my life. About 45 days later, I get an email from the management team saying they were interested.
What is special about your menu?
I would call it elevated home-style American. I have German grandparents and Polish grandparents. I used to cook with both of them, so my menu is heavily influenced by the type of food I ate as a child. There’s a meatloaf sandwich on the menu, but it comes with a fresh herb aioli and our house pickled onions. We make our own sauces, and I try to do everything as scratch-made as possible. If I can’t make it myself, I buy it from somebody who does make it.
What cooking tips did your German and Polish grandparents teach you?
One of the things I tell people is that salt, pepper, and butter are the secrets to good food. If you’re making a turkey sandwich, salt and pepper it. If you can’t figure out why a dish doesn’t taste like it does at a restaurant, it’s butter. Those are elemental flavors, so don’t be afraid to use them. It will change the way that your food tastes.
What are your favorites?
My boyfriend’s sister makes her own butter. If I’m not lucky enough to get that, I am a Kerrygold girl. And then, I love a nice finishing salt with big flakes.
How is Hank doing these days?
I’m telling you, that kid for the longest time was glued to my side. Not anymore. He’s just a normal teenage boy. His room is a mess. He doesn’t like to mow the yard. But he is healthy, and [his condition] is managed with medicine. That’s the best-case scenario. He really is my biggest cheerleader.
