One year ago, I officially dragged myself out of the trenches of corporate accounting. Don’t get me wrong, the typical nine-to-five staring at spreadsheets was perfectly fine. However, my alter ego was nagging at me on a daily basis, consistently telling me that there had to be something more thrilling I could do for a living. Something that could coincide with my side gig of publishing romance novels.

Now, I had thought of the idea before. Coffee and books. They go together just as well as cheese and wine, and I just so happened to have a deep passion for both.

“I’d call it Eliza’s Lattes and Literature,” I told my husband one day while I was deep in a chasm of hyper-focusing desperation. And, to my delight, he slowly responded, "You know ... that's a really good idea."

Therefore, we hit the ground running. Of course, the intent was to start up a small brick and mortar where customers could sit, sip, shop, read, or write. With this being a new venture, though, funding was a challenge, so we had to get creative.

I bought a bare-bones concession trailer halfway across the country.

I remodeled it with my dad to create the perfect little café and indie bookstore on wheels.

I left my accounting job.

The only problem remaining was how to power the thing, and we were growing incredibly leery of generators. Loud and gas-guzzling, they didn’t fit the vision I had mustered up, and I was certain the sights, smells, and sounds could drive customers away before they had the chance to peruse my shelves.

That was, of course, until my husband started looking into the Ford F-150 Lightning.

Days upon days of relentless research and wattage calculations left us with the shocking conclusion that, yes, this could work. Not only would it be silent, but with everything running in the trailer peaking at 29 amps — I’m talking espresso machine, grinder, water pump and heater, two refrigerators, ice maker, lighting, plug-in décor, and even air conditioning — the electric truck would power my business just as well as a generator.

The whole concept seemed too good to be true, and I won’t lie, we were skeptical. But, after taking the F-150 Lightning for a spin, falling in love, and putting some deep trust in our electrical calculations, we took the jump. We traded in our gas truck for electric, and with the Ford Power Promise, an entire charging station was installed in our home at no additional cost to us.

I just had to put the F-150 Lightning to the test. After all, there’s nothing like hands-on experience. For all we knew, we could have cranked those numbers out until we were blue in the face only to be left duped by our own math. Not to mention, I had no idea how well the electric truck would tow my 24-foot-long baby business.

With fingers and toes crossed, I hooked the trailer up. I pulled up the camera system on the main display. I hit the accelerator. And, hand to heart, I gasped because it didn’t feel like I was towing at all.

All that was left was our final concern — how long the electric truck could reliably power my business. We had a general idea, of course, but this would depend on day-to-day operations. Naturally, I had tested out concurrently running every single appliance, but the only thing that would simulate a full day’s work was to actually do it.

Day One Arrived

I towed my trailer to my chosen operating location, a nearby park.

I plugged it into the 30-amp outlet in the bed.

I slung espresso and sold books for a solid eight hours.

When the day was over and my coffee-scented adrenaline high was waning, I checked the remaining battery. Well over eight hours of pouring coffee and running the fridges, and I had plenty of charge to spare.

One year ago, my nagging alter ego was right. There was something more thrilling I could do for a living, and it just so happens to be run by a silent powerhouse of a vehicle. The F-150 Lightning has been powering my little café on wheels since early 2025, and there is no way I’m going back.

Elizabeth Modisette is a writer, the owner and operator of Eliza’s Lattes and Literature, and an F-150 Lightning customer.