“Little” Joe Almallah is becoming a big part of the national-caliber boys high school basketball tournament, the City of Palms Classic.  

The tournament concludes with the championship game, to be nationally televised on ESPNU at 7 p.m. Wednesday. During halftime of the event’s 37 games or in between them, fans file outside of Florida SouthWestern State College’s Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers to buy food at Almallah’s concession stand, “Little Joe’s.”  

This marks the Cape Coral-based cook’s third consecutive City of Palms. In previous years, Donny Overholser organized what was known as the “Backcourt Cafe” on behalf of the Bishop Verot High School Athletic Booster Club. 

When Bishop Verot stopped running the concession stand following the tournament’s first year at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in 2016 it opened the door for Almallah and his business. 

Even those not interested in the tournament can find Almallah throughout the year across Southwest Florida. The Pittsburgh native moved to Haines City in 1991 and then to Cape Coral in 2001. Since then, he turned his food truck business into a big one, working about 30 special events such as fairs, Cape Coral bike nights and art festivals throughout the year.  

Most of the food items are priced between $5 and $12. A team of about 12 employees staff each event, but sometimes Almallah employs up to 35 people if he’s operating two events at the same time.  

“We like giving people what they don’t expect,” Almallah said. “We give them high-quality food. Most people expect just a hot dog or a hamburger. We try to step everything up as high as we can and give them a quality product.  

“We have specialty desserts for the kids. We have funnel cakes. We have different types of lemonade. We do mango, strawberry or raspberry.”