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Pooh’s Soul Food Truck has been parked outside the Bellport train station along Montauk Highway for just two months, but there’s been no shortage of customers from day one.
They come in droves, stepping up to the window for Southern-style cuisine hard to come by in the region: fried whiting fish, chicken, pork chops, shrimp and clams, all smothered in a special seasoning. Plus popular sides like collard greens, candied yams, waffle fries and macaroni and cheese.
But it’s the man inside the truck, making everything from scratch behind the grill, Chavon Fredericks, a.k.a. Pooh, who brought many of them to the spot in the first place.
“OK, we back out here! … Pooh’s Soul Food Truck! … Bellport, baby!” said Fredericks, in full hype-man mode while seasoning wings in a TikTok video that drew more than 3,200 likes and 700 shares last month.
He throws a wing in the air and catches it before signing off with the phrase he ends all his social media posts with: “Bliiiiing!”
Across TikTok and Instagram, where he has more than 10,000 followers combined, Fredericks, 50, has blended his mouthwatering grub with his life-of-the-party personality, comedy and plenty of dance moves to spread the word about his business, which is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 8 p.m.
“That’s just who I am. … People are loving it,” Fredericks said inside the truck last week, waiting for the next rush of the day. “They’re like, ‘Yo! I had to come see how you are in person.’ … And it’s crazy because every ethnicity stops. … It doesn’t matter who you are. Everybody just loves this food.”
Fredericks, a Wyandanch native, said his mother gave him the nickname “Pooh” when he was a baby, after the beloved bear who often had a “rumbly in his tumbly” when he was hungry for honey.
“I’m 50 years old and I still got the name,” laughed Fredericks, a North Babylon High School graduate who spent time in North Carolina during his formative years. He learned a lot, he said, including “Southern hospitality.”
While he was always surrounded by good meals growing up, it was through his wife, Sharon, that he learned to cook soul food, the kind, he said, that “grandparents made.”
They eventually brought their shared passion and recipes — including the secret seasoning he now puts on everything — to a restaurant he opened in Wyandanch about 20 years ago.
Though that venture was short-lived, they never stopped cooking soul food together.
“This is what we eat at home, even when we’re not working,” he said, whipping up a shrimp basket for a customer.
He already has plans to grow the business.
“I just wanted to do it the right way this time,” he said. “I already knew what I had.”
Before getting his food truck in October 2025, which started out in Mastic Beach and Shirley before heading to Bellport, Fredericks worked as a barber for years, operating his own shop in North Babylon. The experience helped prepare him for his customer service-heavy role.
“Barbers are like therapists,” he said. “You get really deep with people. I love pouring out my wisdom and joy. And it’s similar here.”
In addition to catering events, Fredericks served free hot dogs to kids this summer, sponsored a bus trip for Knicks fans to attend a championship parade in New York City and organized “Suffolk County vs. Everybody,” a friendly cooking competition and networking event at the American Legion in Babylon.
He also recently launched a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of food, ingredients and supplies to feed families in need, as well as veterans, seniors and anyone else who could use a hot meal.
“Let’s come together as a community,” he wrote on the page. “Let’s fill plates, fill hearts, and remind people that they are not alone.”
Fredericks, who provided meals for people in need during the holidays last year, said giving back is just as rewarding as running the business.
“There’s no feeling like it,” he said. “Food is a form of happiness, once it hits your stomach. And it connects people.”
Kaniesha Brown, of Bellport, said she saw a video of the food truck on TikTok and had to stop by for a container of shrimp, fries and mac and cheese.
“There’s no brick-and-mortar soul food stores, so when you see something, you have to support it,” she said. “I heard a lot of good things.”
Follow his journey
Top: Chavon “Pooh” Fredericks serves up Southern-style favorites from his food truck in Bellport. (Credit: GLI/Kevin Redding)
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