America’s latest food craze really isn’t so new. Just get back to your childhood summers when the only thing that might split up baseball games or pool parties other when compared to a mom’s voice was the sweet siren call of the ice cream truck rolling into your neighborhood.
Take that image – except replace kids with business professionals and switch out the ice cream man for a gourmet chef – and you have custom truck builders, visiting an area near you…if they haven’t arrived already.
Growing up in Morocco, Yassir Raouli likely never heard an ice cream truck’s melody. But after trying multiple ventures in New York City – waiting tables, managing night clubs and opening an on line clothing shop – Raouli developed an idea, Bistro Truck, that might carry him to retirement.
“I did research, and I desired to take up a restaurant. I always wanted to have my own, personal place,” he says. “What made sense was the foodstuff truck.”
In the event that you still haven’t caught on, the foodstuff truck is exactly what it says it is. A whole restaurant, from your kitchen to the cash register, is self-contained in a truck or van. Food truck owners, who often double whilst the chefs, drive their restaurants to individuals as opposed to letting individuals arrive at them. From there you begin to notice differences.
You will find food trucks that cater simply to the lunch crowd, and others to only the dinner rush; some do both. A number of food trucks are nomadic, posting a week’s-worth of locations on sites such as for instance Twitter and Facebook and making them reliant on the customers’Internet savvy to guide them to their current locations. Others, like Raouli’s operation, are parked daily at exactly the same spot in exactly the same neighborhood.
Oahu is the emphasis added to the quality of food that defines the existing wave of food trucks. Besides the venerable ice cream man, people have been eating street food in the United States for decades – at hot dog carts in Chicago or brat stands in Boston. But during the last several years customers across the country have experienced the pleasure of myriad gastronomic options. Los Angeles includes a kosher taco truck (Takosher). Kronic Krave Grill serves South American arepas four days per week in downtown Austin, Texas. And, and in addition, in Portland, Ore., owners pushed the politically correct limit with Kim Jong Grillin ‘, a Korean BBQ food truck named after the controversial North Korean dictator.
“I believe we kind of revolutionized it,” Raouli says of Bistro Truck’s menu, whose daily specials feature items like chilled watermelon soup, kofta kebabs and strawberry panna cotta. “We were among the first to offer gourmet food.”
Whether Raouli spearheaded the gourmet food truck revolution might be arguable, but the success of his Bistro Truck is unquestionably not. In late August 2010, on the one-year anniversary of its opening, Bistro Truck was named among five finalists for New York City’s annual Vendy Awards, a food truck competition whose quirky name belies the competitive seriousness of the event.
Bistro Truck’s nomination should give the business some much-needed notoriety that can offset the obstacles facing food trucks. For instance, at traditional restaurants any mishap could be mitigated by a dessert or cocktail on the house. Food truck owners, however, tend to be restricted to a first impression. Patrons be in line, order their food, make the payment, grab their food and go. There’s so short amount of time for interaction with the customers that the vendor must nail the experience to ensure repeat business and positive word of mouth.
On another hand, there’s the advantage of intimacy. “We cook everything before people, so we have a one-on-one interaction with an individual – better than what we’d have at a cafe,” Raouli says.
This is the exact reason Fares “Freddy” Zeidaies – three-time Vendy finalist and the winner of this year’s Vendy Cup – got into the business. He has the experience of previously owning a brick-and-mortar restaurant, one that generated solid business but left him unfulfilled.