Mo’ Bowls the food truck was founded in 2014 by brothers Tyler and Jesse Collins. In 2018 with the opening of their restaurant space [200 S 23rd Ave e7] Connor Lynch joined the team while also working towards a degree at MSU in Education.

When Covid hit Connor ended up getting laid off from being a teacher in the Bozeman schools, and stayed on as Mo’ Bowls’ sole employee through the shutdown. Tyler, Jesse, and Connor worked on takeout orders only, and were able to keep the business going. Covid began to wane, Ty started a family and decided to move closer to his wife’s family, offering Connor the opportunity to keep the restaurant going if he wanted to. So Connor quit his job teaching high school in Manhattan, and he and his wife Kerry, a civil engineer, took over in 2021 for their first food truck season and just reopened the restaurant location in February of 2024.   

Mo’ Bowls food truck has been voted top 3 Food Truck in the Bozeman’s Choice Readers’ Poll all 9 years, most often taking the #1 spot. And if you haven’t devoured a heaping bowl of mac and cheese for yourself, get on the comfort food train and let them dish you up a bowl of warm satisfaction immediately.

Angie Ripple: How was the Mo’ Bowls food truck conceptualized?

Connor Lynch: The whole concept is based off the idea of comfort food. Everybody loves mac and cheese. And from there we just kind of ran with the menu, coming up with all these fusion ideas. We have everything from just our original four-cheese mac and cheese to a red curry mac and cheese to a bacon cheeseburger mac and cheese.

The truck has filled the comfort food market, as well as doing a lot of late-night food. We like having that relationship where we’re either downtown late night feeding college kids and tourists and bar patrons and it’s a lot of fun, and it just kind of grew from there.

AR: What would you like people to experience when they visit your truck? 

CL: We just want them to have a good time and enjoy it.

We all live here locally, all our money stays here. And we want them to feel part of the community and welcome, we have everything from MSU students to the ski bums working for us. And so hopefully they enjoy their experience, enjoy the food, and get to feel like part of Bozeman and that’s a big thing for us with the truck, we do as many local things as we can.

We’re very fortunate. We’ve been able to make partnerships and donations with Big Sky Youth Empowerment, with my background as a teacher I love supporting those guys. We’re doing a charity event with Eagle Mount in a few weeks, and we like just being able to be a part of the community and give back and hopefully, people can feel that when they’re with us.

AR: What menu item do regulars keep coming back for?

CL: Our two best sellers are a tie between the bacon cheeseburger mac and cheese and the chicken parmesan mac and cheese. We also have been doing a lot of specials, that started last summer on Sundays at Outlaw Brewing, we always have a different special. And now we’ll be able to rotate down to the restaurant so we find a lot of regulars coming back to see what our bi-weekly specials are and what we’ve done crazy with mac and cheese now.

AR: What’s your favorite menu item? 

CL: My favorite menu item is the fajita mac and cheese. It’s just this creamy pepper jack with steak and cilantro and tortilla strips. It’s really good.

AR: Where can people find you most often, or how do they keep track of where to find you?

CL: We post our weekly food truck schedule on our Instagram and Facebook pages, that’s the best way to keep track of us in the summer. And we’re at Outlaw Brewing every Sunday. We’ll be at every Music on Main, we’ll be at the Sweet Pea Festival and then from there with the truck, just follow us to see where we can find ourselves plugged in around town.

AR: What would you say makes you unique in the greater Bozeman food scene?

CL: I just think that we’re a unique menu in the greater Bozeman food scene and in terms of what we’re doing with the fusion mac and cheeses. It’s kind of something different that you don’t find in a lot of places.

You know a lot of places do mac and cheese, but they don’t go as crazy as we do with it in terms of red curry, or crab rangoon, we do all sorts of stuff. So it’s just a unique menu thing. And then our late night menu is definitely focused on being affordable and we try and keep it that way. I feel like we’re one of the few places in town you could feed a family of four for under $50 or $60 for a full dinner. So that’s just kind of where we fit in, we like bringing something unique and different and providing options for people that are still affordable.

AR: What do you enjoy most about being part of the Bozeman community?

CL: 13 years ago I came here for college, or to skip school and go skiing and attend Montana State. Since then I’ve just been very ingrained in the community and I like that the food truck gives me the ability to stay there. I’ve done everything from being a Cub Scouts leader to, shoveling snow out of Bobcat Stadium, to working Music on Main’s and Christmas Strolls and I taught in the community and have all these great relationships. I like that the food truck gives us the ability to still be a part of some of these integral Bozeman things that make Bozeman unique and why people fall in love with it. And I really enjoy that with the food truck we’re able to do things like give back to some of those examples I gave earlier like Big Sky Youth Empowerment, Eagle Mount, we also partner with Big Brothers Big Sisters, just things like that that helps keep the community tight-knit and that feeling of Bozeman that I feel like most of us are in love with and are why we stay and why we live here.

AR: Thanks for giving teaching a try! What’s coming up at Mo’ Bowls that you want the readers to know about?

CL: Just our standard staples with the community at Music on Main and the Sweet Pea Festival and everything else. And hopefully, we have a really busy summer and we’re looking forward to seeing everybody back and enjoying what Bozeman in the summer is.

The Mo’ Bowls restaurant is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. We’re hoping to eventually expand those hours past bar close, but we’re still working on staffing and getting our late night really catching on in order to justify those bit longer of hours. We do have great proximity to campus, but it is a little tucked away here in the Albertson’s Plaza.

A heaping bowl of Bozeman’s Choice Comfort food is waiting for you at the Mo’ Bowls food truck, order up a fan favorite or find your own special signature go-to each time you visit.