ST. PAUL, Minn. — The motto of Greater Tater, a new Stillwater food truck run by two lifelong friends, is “It’s what’s inside that counts.”

In part, it’s literal: The trailer’s signature menu item is stuffed “potato kegs,” which resemble enormous tater tots with a variety of fillings, from bacon-jalapeño to reuben sandwich to breakfast eggs and sausage.

But the motto has a figurative meaning, too, especially for David Kaetterhenry, who has Down syndrome.

“I want to let (our customers) know that I may have this Down syndrome, I want to show them that I don’t want to be different,” Kaetterhenry said. “I think special needs need to be out there, so we can show the world that we can do it.”

Kaetterhenry and Chas Lecy, both 28, met as elementary schoolers at Stillwater Evangelical Free Church and quickly became friends. They went to school together, worked at summer camp together and are both passionate about food, Lecy said. They’d been bouncing around the idea of opening a food business for years, he said.

So in February, when Lecy and his father saw another food vendor was selling their trailer, the two friends jumped on the opportunity.

“I have this dream to have a three-story restaurant,” Kaetterhenry said. “I remember that me and Chas’s dad talked about this restaurant, so God worked through Chas and (his dad), and they got the food truck and asked me to be part of that.”

Kaetterhenry’s dream restaurant would be a tropical, Caribbean-themed spot, he said — admittedly a bit different from Greater Tater’s menu, though it makes the food truck no less exciting.

And since the duo decided to start the business, it’s been a whirlwind, Lecy said.

At the end of May, Lecy quit his job of 10 years working for his family’s construction company, Cornerstone Concrete, to focus full-time on the Greater Tater. He and his wife have spent months overseeing logistics of bringing the trailer up to health department code, securing operating licenses and designing the branded wrap for the exterior. The potato kegs they sell are made by Stone Gate Foods, a local manufacturer.

Already this summer, Kaetterhenry and Lecy have brought the trailer to several fairs around the St. Croix Valley and western Wisconsin.

Kaetterhenry is the culinary brains of the operation, the two friends said. Outside of the food truck, he works at Hagbergs in Lake Elmo, cutting and cooking specialty meats, and previously worked at Culver’s and Kowalski’s Market.

So at the first fair they worked, his and Lecy’s plan was for Kaetterhenry to start out manning the fryer while Lecy took orders. But the duo quickly realized Kaetterhenry had a knack for working the window and chatting with customers, something other jobs had not necessarily allowed him to do.

“We want to get our customers to be part of me and Chas’s friendship,” Kaetterhenry said. “We want people who come up to us to enter our friendship, the history of us.”

Kaetterhenry has also been coming up with other menu ideas beyond the stuffed potato kegs.

“Within the first day, he was doing the register, and he was killing it,” Lecy said. “And something David is really good at is making unique ideas out of anything. We have plans, in the future, of making a ‘Davey’s Special’ menu and showing people his creations.”

Besides food, Kaetterhenry was also a Special Olympics athlete for many years. He ran track and played basketball on the St. Croix Valley Lumberjacks team, and also competed in soccer, flag football, bowling and golf, he said. In fact, he just got a new set of golf clubs this summer — though he hasn’t had much time to play, given the food truck.

“It’s been so fun,” Lecy said. “Just a different chapter for both of us, in our lives and our friendship, working with each other every single weekend. We’re not sick of each other!”

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