Get on the Red Bus, with Gusto

Get on the Red Bus, with Gusto

Johnny Monarch's co-owner Brian Lichorowic is on board as he helps a recent patron.

Photo by M.J. McAteer

By M.J. McAteer

“We have the distinction of not being attempted before,” Brian Lichorowic says about his unique Marshall eatery, Johnny Monarch’s.

Few would dispute him.

For starters, Johnny Monarch’s is located in a red double-decker bus that looks like it could have come from London, but actually was shipped from Krakow, Poland.

Johnny’s and a second bus that dispenses wine, dubbed “the Bubble Decker,” both sit on Marshall’s main drag, near the now-defunct IGA, making for an incongruous sight in the country town.

The oddity of Johnny’s physical space is zestfully matched by its menu, also unlikely to have been attempted before, at least around here. It’s a yingyang affair and not for the timid.

Leaning down from the balcony-like window in the bus kitchen, Lichorowic likes to tell customers, “We have stuff that’s really, really good for you, and we have stuff that is really, really bad for you. No grey area.”

He explains to the uninitiated they can blow the doors off the diet by ordering say, American Pie, a concoction of ground beef, fresh herbs and spices topped by a “massive” layer of homemade mac-ncheese. Accompanied by a side of double mashed potatoes and a whoopie pie for dessert, the damage comes to a whopping 3,100 calories.

A lot of first responders, police officers and equine exercise riders go that route, he says. Or, customers

Johnny Monarch’s co-owner Brian Lichorowic is on board as he helps a recent patron. can eat what’s good for them and order a “veetball” sub or the nut loaf.

What customers can’t have are fries, sodas, or chips. Lichorowic is against junk food; his offerings are all organic and local to the point that he keeps a small greenhouse on one corner of Johnny’s lawn. He also has commandeered part of the old IGA where he grows hydroponic vegetables for the restaurant and his associated business, Feed Bag Foods,

“I can grow better than I can buy,” he says. “Our goal is to grow 70 percent of what we serve here.”

By “our,” he means he and his partner, Lorrie Addison, who designed the bus kitchen and often works as “the window passer.”

Pre-pandemic, customers could eat on the bus upper deck, but the choice now is to eat outside at a picnic or stand-up table or do take-away.

Recent patrons Sue Lubkowski and Kerry Cornwell, both from Warrenton, were a Johnny’s first-timer and a veteran, respectively. They opted for a picnic table, and the first-timer said she was favorably impressed.

“Awesome. Delicious. Very fresh.”

“Never had a bad meal,” said Cornwell, the veteran.

Lichorowic says that’s because he’s a food “thoroughbred.”

“I’ve got six generations in me of some type of food,” he says, explaining that he grew up helping in a family restaurant in upstate New York that could seat 1,500. “I thought it was normal to clean and debone 500 chickens every Wednesday.”

Lichorowic has added to the Johnny’s fun quotient by offering entertainment on Wednesdays and Saturdasy and has installed a small wooden stage on the lawn. All musical genres--from reggae to rock to classical--are welcome.

“I don’t care if it is a kid with a bassoon, as long as there is noise.”

Lichorowic believes Marshall has the potential to become a gastronomic destination. Already, there’s his own eclectic restaurant, Red Truck Rural Bakery, The Whole Ox butcher shop and Field & Main restaurant. If they all worked together, he thinks it could happen.

Meanwhile, he’ll be serving up the Hillbilly Beans, if you’re indulging, or JM’s power salad with quinoa, if you’re not.