By Lyndi LeSeur
When walking into the Home Depot store in Provo, it’s hard not to notice a small shed painted light blue with black cow spots sitting right outside the entrance to the building.
The Crazy Cow is the name of the shed and inside sits a small business.
Erica Oaks opened The Crazy Cow two months ago in front of Home Depot hoping to break from the standard hotdog stand.
The Crazy Cow sells rib eye steak sandwiches, handmade beef tamales, and homemade churros, all of which Oaks makes fresh daily. Foot-long hotdogs are also sold at the stand along with chicken breast sandwiches and flan, a sweet custard dessert.
Everything is all-natural, Oaks said. There are no preservatives.
BYU students always get 10 percent off of every order, she said.
Oaks drew her inspiration for the food from her parents’ cooking when she was young in Peru. Her mother made tamales often and steak sandwiches were one of her father’s favorite meals. Oaks decided to sell them in honor of her father.
Oaks grew up in Lima, Peru, and moved to the United States when she was 18, hoping the U.S. would offer a more prosperous life.
“It was like on Beauty and the Beast, you know, ‘there must be more than this provincial life,'” she said.
Oaks wanted to open a restaurant, but her husband told her it would be too much work. They decided to so something on a smaller scale.
Oaks took her idea to Henry Lucke, who was then working at Home Depot in Lindon. Lucke liked the idea and asked Oaks to set up her stand at the Provo store where Lucke had just become the store manager.
“It’s phenomenal,” Lucke said. “It’s doing really well. She’s done a really good job with it.”
Most customers found out about The Crazy Cow by going to Home Depot and seeing the shed outside.
“We just came to the store and saw it,” said Alfredo Ramos, a Crazy Cow customer and Provo resident. “So we thought we’d try it. It’s very good.”
Vanessa Richins is a service representative from Provo who comes to Home Depot in Provo often for her work. She eats at The Crazy Cow almost every time she visits The Home Depot.
“I come here at least twice a week,” Richins said. “I usually get the steak sandwich and the churros. The churros are huge! Everybody should come try it.”
