TORTUGA SALOON

The pirate-themed food truck that creates memories for your family and friends.

Who We Are

More than a food truck.

Tortuga Saloon, LLC, was created by Charlie Russell in 2022 shortly following the destruction of Hurricane Ian in our community in Port Charlotte. Motivated by a broken heart for his home town, Charlie quickly got Tortuga Saloon off the ground, determined to raise money for IDES. IDES was an organization that his family worked directly with to meet the needs of many in his hometown during that time. From Tortuga Saloon's online store alone, Charlie was able to raise a couple thousand dollars for IDES within a short time frame.

Future Plans

Focused on the Experience.

This AI-generated picture shows an example of what Charlie would like for Tortuga Saloon to become: not just an online store, but a REAL "Saloon" on wheels.

Charlie's vision is to create a pirate-themed homemade ice cream and homemade soda food truck that offers a unique experience with the goal of giving back to the community of Port Charlotte and the great state of Florida. Imagine if Jack Sparrow ran a food truck: while the Rum would be excellent, you wouldn't just come for a drink, you would go to see Jack Sparrow. Charlie's vision is for pirate characters to serve soda and ice cream to create a fun experience that is safe for children but entertaining for all ages.

Tell Us More

Real Soda, Ice Cream, & Coffee.

Ask Charlie to make you a soda, whip up some Ice Cream, or pour you some coffee sometime. He'd love to! He's very proud of his simple, old-fashioned, home-made recipes that are not difficult to scale with the right equipment.

Soda

Italian-style soda is simply syrup and carbonated water. But unlike mainstream soda that relies on cheaper chemicals, Charlie relies on more natural and classic, old-fashioned flavors to achieve a soda that might not be "healthy," but it does result in a less chemical aftertaste. For example, here's a list of some of his favorite homemade sodas that he makes with easily found ingredients and a soda stream:

"The Remedy," made from "Datil Sting" honey, locally grown in Florida and infused with Datil pepper. Datil is only grown in Florida. It's like a spicy ginger ale, but much sweeter. It's delicious, but Charlie likes to think it is a good allergy remedy.

"Pirate Kola," made from a simple cinnamon syrup and kola nut drops. Kola nut extract is part of Coca Cola's original recipe, which gave it a more natural source of caffeine. No, we're not talking about the Cocoa leaf part, we're talking about the "Cola" part. Coca Cola no longer uses Kola Nuts, but it does have a more natural taste. Charlie says it "hits your system easier." He also measures the amount of liquid to keep it around 50ml, similar to the amount of caffeine in a modern day Coca Cola, but the original Coca Cola probably did have a higher dose.

"Cinnamon Rootbeer," mostly based of of Sprecher's rootbeer syrup. Charlie was most impressed by their root beer syrup, and it was the closest he could find to the more traditional, old-fashioned style of creating rootbeer. Thanks to FDA regulations, the true original root beer taste is impossible to use. However, Charlie found that if he added sarsaparilla root extract to Sprecher syrup, which is FDA approved and sometimes used as a natural herb, he was able to get very close to the original, natural rootbeer taste. However, to give it just a little more, he likes adding some cinnamon syrup to it as well, which is a nice pair.

"Maple Beer," which is simply maple syrup and carbonated water.

Charlie also makes a "Buttery Beer," a butterscotch cream soda. Unlike his other sodas, this syrup does come from a more mainstream syrup supplier. Charlie likes to keep an air of mystery about where he "discovered" this supplier, like it comes from some pirate legend of a buried treasure in Orlando. However, if you ask him nicely, he might share the "secret" of his supplier with you.

Ice Cream

Charlie's homemade Ice Cream recipes are a real treat. Some of his favorites are "Butterscotch," "Cinnamon," "Honey," "Dole Pineapple,"Peppermint," as well as many others. Some of these obviously pair well for a soda float. However, if it's vanilla ice cream you want, Charlie says he can't beat Blue Bell - especially since that might be useful to have a larger supply of for rootbeer floats. Charlie also makes edible cookie dough as a replacement for cookie-dough flavored ice cream. He loves bubble-waffle cones as well.

Coffee

Inspired after a visit to Hawaii, Charlie was determined to learn the art of beach coffee. But when you think of local beach coffee, what do you picture?

Tortuga Saloon's current coffee for sale is a Caribbean based coffee supplier, imported from Columbia. Its light roast makes it smooth and sweet, and its origins give it a more citrus note. It works excellent for both drip and espresso. While it comes form a different country, we can still claim that Florida is part of the Caribbean, right?So ... it seems fair to consider it for a local Florida coffee shop.

But it's also really hard to beat the taste of the beach from Hawaiian-grown coffee. Charlie also gets coffee from Hawaiian suppliers like the one he visited with his wife Faith. Usually medium-roast, you might picture macadamia nuts and hear the ocean waves, but you'll notice a distinct chocolate note as well.

Will we add milk and cream and syrup to your coffee? Of course, if you ask. But you might discover that our coffee doesn't need as much sweetners as you usually need - that's because it's grown in richer soil, the best is picked out from the rest, and it isn't burnt. Most of the cheap "dark roast" coffee you might be used to is burnt to mask the taste of bad, stale, and maybe even moldy coffee. Not ours. Coffee snobs will respect it, but its sweetness if for everyone.

Invest

Who is Charlie?

Charlie's experience is unique.

While qualified, Charlie has learned more from observing what he calls "general success" from various lines of work.

In college, he did get some small experience in the food industry (and selling Cracker Barrel merch).

After college, he had some success in creative arts ministry for a multi campus church in Chicago.

After moving to Nashville, he had success running his own freelance marketing business, Charlie Creates Marketing.

After moving back to Florida, Charlie had some success as a pastor in young adult ministry.

Each of those places taught him valuable skills for this venture: food prep and salesmanship, design and media, marketing, and leadership.

But Charlie says that's not what he learned from the most.

In 2020, he watched some businesses succeed, and other small businesses fail to rise to the challenge.

in 2021, after miraculously recovering from a near death experience, he learned that there are more important things in life than money.

In 2022, he watched his father lead a distraught and physically broken community to hope (through New Day Christian Church).

Charlie sees this food truck idea as more than a business: to him, it's a ministry. Charlie grew up on Focus on the Family's "Adventures in Odyssey," where John Avery Whittaker, the wise old owner of the ice cream parlor taught kids to use their imagination, find courage, and find Jesus. Similarly, he sees this food truck as an opportunity to do something beyond soda, ice cream, and coffee: it's giving good memories that your friends and family need, it's putting a smile on your face after a bad day, it's helping your event, it's adding joy to your business, it helps your fundraising campaign, it's going to your wedding, your birthday party, your core memory, it's making big donations to organizations that care. It's scooping ice cream the way Jesus would.

Learn more about Charlie's experience at charliecreates.marketing/meetcharlie

Organizations We'd Like to Give to

Here's a list of some of the organizations that have made a real difference in our community that we would like to be able to raise a significant portion of our profits for. While an official plan has not been made at this time, we would like to continue to give 50% of our profits to local organizations making a difference in our community.

IDES.org, the original organization we were created to support, that helps provide aid to natural disasters around the world.
New Day Christian Church, Charlie's Dad is the pastor there. One of the fastest growing churches in the nation, New Day is a multi campus church based out of Port Charlotte, reaching thousands for Christ, and a tremendous financial aid to our community.
Pregnancy Solutions, where Charlie's wife Faith works as a nurse. Pregnancy Solutions is a local crisis pregnancy center that brings care to expectant mothers in need.
Restoring Oaks, a local organization dedicated to fighting human sex trafficking in Charlotte County. They are currently raising money to build a safe house in our area.
Port Charlotte Pirate Football, where Charlie's Dad is one of the coaches, and his brother played football in high school. The Port Charlotte Pirates are a symbol of our community. After one of their young coaches on staff tragically passed away, and after being hit after hurricanes and many other personal obstacles, the Port Charlotte Pirates have overcome incredible odds to become one of the more successful football programs in the state of Florida. Charlie's dream is to one day bring the Tortuga Saloon to Port Charlotte Pirate football games.

We are open to adding other organizations as well.