We just wanted to order shrimp. That’s how TAILBITE’S began.

Our very first guest ordered five large buckets of shrimp.

It was opening day in Tartu. A queue was waiting, and we soon realised in the kitchen that we weren’t quite ready for a start like this. Preparing those five large buckets took about half an hour.

A friend had come to support us on opening day. Her order of five buckets gave us our first proper lesson straight away: cooking your favourite dish at home and serving hungry guests are two very different experiences.

But before that day, there was another evening. And a simple wish: tonight, it would be nice if someone else did the cooking.

A business idea instead of dinner

We, Tõnis-Denis and Pille-Riin, often cooked shrimp at home. We breaded them, cooked them and experimented. We loved shrimp, but preparing them took time. One evening, we thought we’d order an equally lovely dinner to our door instead.

We browsed the food delivery apps. We were looking for a generous helping of shrimp. Something we could put on the table and enjoy sharing.

That evening, we couldn’t find what we were looking for.

We picked up our phones to find dinner and came away with a business idea. If we wanted to order food like this, perhaps someone else did too?

And that’s how we started creating TAILBITE’S.

From our home kitchen to a food truck

We wanted to create something we could launch and test in Estonia, with the potential to find a place elsewhere in the world too. Tõnis-Denis’s background in business and investment training gave us the confidence to try. Now we also had a concrete idea to work on.

We started testing recipes, looking for a name and working through the practical questions. How would we prepare the food? How would we serve it? How would we organise work in a small kitchen? And how could we show a passer-by, in just a few seconds, why they should stop at our window?

Ironically, wanting a night off from cooking led us to start cooking for a lot more people.

For us, shrimp were the star from the very beginning. We wanted to give our favourite food more room in street food and serve it in a way that felt simple, enjoyable and inviting.

Five buckets and our first lesson

Those five buckets on opening day taught us how much kitchen organisation matters. At home, we could make the recipe well, but in the food truck we had to learn to prepare several orders at once. Each working day brought new lessons: what to prepare ahead, how to divide the tasks and where a queue could build up.

Food service was a new field for us, and we learned as we went. We developed our own recipes and gradually brought our home experiments into the food truck. Alongside cooking our favourite dish, we now had to learn how to keep an entire kitchen running smoothly.

We also quickly realised that our own enthusiasm wouldn’t automatically rub off on everyone. Some guests have loved shrimp for years. Some come out of curiosity. Others watch from a distance at first, wondering what exactly we’re doing in this food truck.

These encounters help us find our own identity too. Someone tries shrimp for the first time. Someone comes back. Someone brings a friend. Each moment helps us better understand who we’re doing this for, and why.

Two cities, plenty to learn

Working between Tartu and Tallinn gave us even more to learn. With two locations came two teams, different guests and more daily decisions. We felt the distance between the cities too. We wanted to serve good food in both places and make sure every guest felt welcome.

Through it all, we also want to show how TAILBITE’S is growing. To share what happens in the kitchen, our experiments and the everyday work of building a business. That way, you can get to know us before your first bite and follow along as we take our next steps.

From a small wish to a big dream

We’ve dreamed big from the start: we want to grow an idea born in Estonia into an international shrimp brand. We know that takes work every day. We need to refine our recipes, look after a good team and give our guests a reason to return.

If we could tell ourselves something at the start of this journey, it would be simple: get started and give it a try. Even knowing all the difficulties along the way, we’d still want to bring this idea to life.

Our story began with a wish to order a generous portion of shrimp to our door. It grew into a venture that has brought new people, long working days and plenty of learning into our lives.

And somewhere at the beginning of that story, there will always be a friend who ordered five large buckets on opening day.

When you come to try shrimp at TAILBITE’S, you become part of the next chapter too. Enjoy!