IAMA FoodTruck owner having his slowest night ever. AMA about the rough parts of starting your own business, or foodtrucks in general.

How does

It just

I'dDo you accept credit cards? If so I'd like to purchase $50 worth of food to be given directly to the homeless if possible, otherwise to a shelter.

Edit: PM if it's feasible

Edit for reasoning: I'd like to help out a fellow redditor starting a new business but I can't buy food from his truck, cause geography. Donating the food solves that problem & feeds some less fortunate people hopefully. & I appreciate the kudos friends but I haven't made the purchase yet. Still waiting on a link.

Gah! Wish I had seen this one last night. Was way over my head with questions. Yeah, we use Square as our cc service. Shame I wasted this opportunity to do some good. You're an awesome person for even thinking of this.

Are you turning enough to pay all expenses and earn a livable wage each month, consistently?

I'm doing this pro bono right now. I have two other jobs to try to make ends meet. Delicate balance, need to work on the truck to get it successful, need to work other jobs to survive, and each of those eats the other.

How do you handle dietary options? Do you ever get odd requests from customers?

Also, a couple of suggestions; Find some tech companies and ask them if you can set up in the parking lot during lunch time. Food trucks seem to do well there. Also, breweries that don't serve food are another great place to set up and catch the after work crowd.

I offer prosciutto for the carnivores, Daiya for the vegans, and udi's for the gluten-frees.

Yeah, tech lots are the dream. Cold calling is 70% of my life haha

Oh shit I just saw that you are in ATX. I am too! I'm too drunk to drive to a food truck now but I would like to come get some grub and support ya this weekend. Where are you located?

Drunk driving is a bad idea. Hit us up at @thrilledcheese and I'll feed you someday!

thrilledcheese

Marry me.

Already married, but something on the side maybe?

Kidding honey, kidding.

I'm starving. What food do you serve?

Award winning grilled cheese sandwiches.

Hey! I design floor plans for food carts. From someone who actually has to work in one, what would make life easier/less complicated? What are some problems you come across on a daily basis (appliances, space, water tank size, etc)?

Edit: I've received a lot of PM's asking to help design a food cart for someone. Unfortunately the software I use isn't available to me outside of my work (which is booked pretty far into the future) so I legally cannot use it for freelance work. Sorry guys!

PM me and I'll shoot you some good info. Way too much to say right now on that topic

I'd love to see what you have to say, though!

Short version: assembly lines are great. Make your fridge the first stop, get what you need onto a prep surface, which is next to your cook surface, which is next to your wrapping station, which is nest to your service window, which is next to your sink for cleaning what you just used, which is next to the fridge so that you can use it all over again.

I own a gourmet food truck in Orange County, Ca and have been running for 3 years. Welcome to the biz and get used to many slow nights. Picking the right venues and passing on the shit ones will be much more profitable. In the begining you have to kinda take every event but there will be a time when BIG events will be all you get invited too. Good luck, its a brutal buisness. Im am at this moment lying in bed with pain throughout my whole body from cooking since 9am at a massive beer festival.

Godspeed fellow trucker. Get some rest. This is my first truck on my own, but I was on another in DC before this. I really miss the chaos of working on a successful truck right now. Hope to get back to it soon

What were your approximate start up costs, and what did that include?

This whole thing was funded solely by myself and two friend-vestors. So, our costs were very low in comparison to many, and we've suffered for it. ~35K covered buying the truck, converting it from nothing into a kitchen (brother in law is a contractor and electrician, so that was cheaper than it should have been), licenses, supplies, food, salaries, diesel, etc... Everything.

To put it in perspective: the companies who will convert your truck into a kitchen for you (byo truck), charge more than my entire launch budget.

Why have you suffered for it?

I started work 2.5 years ago, launched 6 months ago. If I'd had more money, I'd've launched 2 years ago.

Food trucks rule

You rule

All cities have such different laws for food trucks. Are you allowed to have a liquor license and serve drinks off the street?

*I'd also like to know what kind of food you're serving up...

Oh, if wishing made it so! Rollin' Wit' Bourbon has been a dream truck of mine for a while. Sadly, it's soda and water on my bus. (Austin is where I am btw)

Have you ever had a territorial dispute? If so, how did it get resolved?

Contrary to most thought, more trucks at a location help our business instead of hurting. There are salty people sometimes though.

Good luck man. It's better to struggle; pursuing your lifelong dream and eventually succeeding as opposed to wasting away in a dead end, mediocre job that you hate.

A-motherfucking-men. Thanks!

I went to a gig last night and there was a creperie booth out the front and my friend and I were discussing whether or not the chef could possibly be happy dealing with drunks and idiots at 2am. When you say its your dream can you elaborate more?

Drunks can be hilarious, or rage inducing. But, hell, they all have money.

As for the dream thing, making grilled cheese sandwiches and playing Magic have been my only hobbies for as long as I can remember. So, I took the one that is most logical to make money off of... Also, I'm not that great at Magic haha.

I've always wanted to open a restaurant that served only grill cheeses and variations thereof... please, for me, just call your plain Kraft single grilled cheese with butter on white bread "the missionary position." Please :)

I wouldn't dream of offering such a thing as singles on my truck! Fun fact though: missionary is actually what they called the "orange cheese, white bread" category in the Grilled Cheese Invitational. Boy, I miss that event!

I have dreamed of starting a lunch-time-only soup and sandwich shop that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches. Different breads, cheeses, meats, veggies. I make a mean grilled cheese.

I accept your challenge. Meet me at dawn at the Kitchen Colosseum.

Ive worked at a casino I understand that view on drunks completely. Do you have to work most nights?

Have to? I want to. The hard part is getting invited to enough places where I'm allowed to vend. I'd work 24/7 if it meant this thing succeeds.

I admire your passion dude. Cant see it failing with that sortve dedication

Thank you

Most chefs are drunks so...

I resent that... Now, where's my bourbon?

What city are you in? How often do you get parking tickets? I know that here in New York a lot of food truck owners have just given up because of the seemingly arbitrary enforcement of parking regulations by the NYPD.

I'm in ATX. Since the laws here require being on private property to vend, my tickets have been super low (and just due to me being dumb and not reading a sign). On my old truck in DC, where street vending was legal, we got a ticket a week, sometimes more.

If you're having a slow night, I'm sure we can send some Redditers down there now.

At Lala's on Justin Ln... Feel free to deliver :)

Hey, you're in my hood! I'll try to head over there soon!

Hope to see you!

I would love to hear of a reddit flash mob cleaning you out of stock!

So would my wallet haha... But I actually don't have much on the truck tonight. I prepped for a slow night anyhow, just hot this slow haha

I'm in CA, so I won't be able to stop by. But you have a captured audience here, why not advertise your location in your top post.

You're giving something to the community, I'm sure people will be ok giving back :)

I didn't want to be advertising (I'm fine with it as a side-effect), I was honestly thinking about answering questions of those who had them.

There is your problem right there. It's the location. You need to be somewhere with higher traffic. Have you tried getting a location on the east side yet?

Of course. It's complicated.

What is hands down the best grilled cheese recipe you can think of?

The one that got me trophies was: Coffee and Lavender Cheddar, with Thick-Cut Dark Chocolate Covered Bacon, on Crème Brûlée Sourdough

How did you come up with that flavor profile? And how/where did you find coffee and lavendar cheddar?

Barely Buzzed by Beehive Creamery is the cheese you seek

Did you form an LLC for your business to help prevent them taking everything you own in the event of bankruptcy or a lawsuit? Also, how much time a week do you spend in your food truck (lunch, dinner, etc) around Austin? I feel as though it would be so very hit or miss and be difficult to appropriately manage inventory (depending on what you're serving) to eliminate waste and maximize profits.

Yes, LLCs are the way to go... It's been 6 months and hit-or-miss is the perfect term. We have great press, but we have few opportunities to vend. I'm only working 2-3 days a week, I'd like to be doing 6.

Why can't you do 6 nights a week?

It's a matter of being invited to enough places for 6 nights a week. Also, I need to be making money, so I need time for my other jobs for now

How many customers do you see on an average week?

How many customers do you need?

Right now, I'm only seeing 50-100 a week (due to not being out many days), to turn black I need to be seeing 300 minimum.

• Where do you even buy a food truck?
• How did you manage to design and paint the outside?
• What kind of food do you sell?

Craigslist (wasn't a foodtruck when I bought it).

Hired some spray artists to go nuts. Paid them in beer.

Grilled cheese

I have a cousin who's a chef. I was suggesting that we get him a food truck and have him open a restaurant that way. Other than auto repairs and fueling your store, what are some unique challenges with making the change from chefing a dinner rush versus a lunch rush in a truck?

The lack of staff. A truck is only so big. You can only for so many people on it. The jobs get folded together. The head chef is also a line cook, a prep cook, dishwasher, expo, taking orders, etc. The small team has to band together and everybody kinda does a little of everything. It's a whole different animal.

despite being pro bono, do you have a limit to how long you'll be continuing this, or any certain expectations?

I hate thinking about it, but yes. I have a stop date if I can't make it work. I dare not speak it.

Aw man, opening a food truck is the dream I share with my girlfriend. Thanks for doing this AMA, it's giving me some notions about that I should expect.

"One does not simply..." always comes to mind.

I go to school in Boston where the food truck presence is amazing (Roxy's Grilled Cheese is by far my favorite), but I'm originally from Kansas City where the food trucks are... lacking, at best. What makes a city a good or bad place to have a food truck? Pedestrian traffic? Tourism? Drunk people?

Parking laws. I started in the DC scene, where you could park (almost) anywhere with a meter. Here you can only vend on private property, this means you need to be invited. Complicated. I want to just pull up and open my window.

Makes sense, I suppose, although Boston has designated food truck spots all over town so it doesn't really apply.

Sounds like heaven

Since you own a food truck, I'd imagine you can eat whatever you like. What did you make yourself to eat today?

Actually, today I ate at La Salsa... Twice.

How is the rate of crime and/or robbery on a food truck compare to another restaurant?

To be honest, I don't have numbers on that. I know people who have been held up in their trucks. It's also easier to drive a truck away than a brick and mortar.

You should take a run up to Dallas sometime, and you should try to hit up my employers in Austin! I'm sure that they wouldn't mind some grilled cheese at lunch.

Do you have contact info for the property manager for where they work? Because I'd love to feed them... And if I thought this truck could survive 4 hours on 35, I'd head that way, but that bumpy road would crack us in half

What does the card say in your pic? Tried to zoom in but print is still blurry. Also, things picked up yet or still a slow night?

Still slow, but a few happy customers. The card says the same thing as our about section on Facebook.com/thrilled cheese. Silly story I made up about myself.

Thanks for answering. From what I've read in this thread you seem to have the most important ingredient to make this successful, you got a lot of heart kid. I wish you all the best in your venture.

Thanks! You're an awesome person.

Do you have any employees or is it just you? A friend and I want to open a greenhouse together and I'm curious about all the sorts of stresses and pains that you wouldn't expect from starting a business.

It's mostly just me. I have help from the wife and my sis for free when they can, and one employee when I need him. But, I need to save that money for when I really need him haha

How often do you (and food truck people in general) get into turf wars with other food trucks?

Not often enough. I want a reason to mount that chain gun on my hood.

Why is food truck food so expensive? Street food in other parts of the world are the cheap alternative to sitting down but in the US, it seems to be the same price as sitting down and having a meal and sometimes you're still expected to tip. I'm generally willing to pay this price but I suspect many people are not which is why they don't often eat at food trucks. Is the cost of running the business genuinely reflected in the price of food or is the price high for the "coolness factor"?

I can't speak for other trucks, but I charge what I can afford to. If I was using shitty ingredients, I'd be robbing you, but bread alone costs me 75¢ a sandwich.

Whats on the Menu?

Just posted a pic to @thrilledcheese

A friend of mine started up a food truck about a year ago, seems to enjoy it a lot. How do you like it? What are the ups and downs?

I love it, when I'm on it. When we are off the road (for repairs, or lack of invites to locations) I'm losing my mind. It will be amazing, I've just gotta push through until it is.

What is your favorite cheese?

Beehive Creamery's "Barely Buzzed"... Incredible

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Hard to say, but booze helps

Do you have investors or did you come with your own capital out of savings? On average,what is your overhead?

Me and two friends were the investment front. Right now, my overhead is a little to embarrassing to broadcast, but in theory it should get better :)

Do you think that six months ago was the best time you could have gotten into the business? What's the biggest gripe you have with customers that visit your truck? What would you do differently if you could restart?

No. 6 months ago was the wrong time. Thing is, I started work on this truck two years before that. I had a mountain of setbacks, but it was too late to pull out. Just gotta make due with the situation and be awesome anyway.

What books have you read that were essential for success?

Oh the places you'll go

Do you still play Magika?

Any chance I get

You should park out front of a cluster of bars. Especially at closing time.

Yeah. That's the dream. Sadly in ATX, you need to be invited by the owner to park anywhere. It gets complicated.