Running a Food Truck For Dummies. Richard Myrick

of popular food trucks thanks to Americans’ love of hamburgers. Other popular American favorites are grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, French fries, mac ’n’ cheese, and various types of barbecued meat.

      ❯❯ Mexican cuisine is known for its varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices and ingredients, many of which are native to the country. Tacos, burritos, tamales, and tortas are menu favorites of many food truck owners because they’re easily massaged to fit into various concepts.

      ❯❯ African cuisine (for example, Ethiopian, Moroccan, or South African) traditionally uses a combination of locally available fruits, cereal grains, and vegetables, as well as milk and meat products.

      ❯❯ Italian cuisine is hard to explain without mentioning pizza and pasta, but these two dishes tell you almost all you need to know about this style of cuisine. Some truck owners vending Italian cuisine regularly serve these dishes along with veal and eggplant parmesan sandwiches.

      ❯❯ Asian cuisine (such as Chinese and Japanese) typically consists of rice or noodles, with a soup. Foods are made from fish, meat, vegetable, tofu, and the like. Food items are typically flavored with dashi, miso, and soy sauce and are generally low in fat and high in salt.

      ❯❯ Mediterranean cuisine is full of fresh vegetables and high in flavor. Options for food trucks choosing Mediterranean cuisine include (but aren’t limited to) kabobs, gyros, pita sandwiches (vegetable, shawarma, falafel, and lamb), hummus, and baba ghanoush.

      ❯❯ Thai cuisine is often confused with Chinese cuisine. The primary difference is in its flavoring. Thai food has a balanced mix of sweet, sour, and spice. Bánh mi is by far the most popular of the foods coming from Thai-themed trucks, such as the Bon Me Truck out of Boston.

      ❯❯ Indian cuisine may provide the widest variety of food for your menu even though it’s most known for vegetarian fare. The real treats of Indian cuisine are chicken and fish tikkas, naan, and samosas.

      Other styles of cuisine to investigate include Caribbean, Cajun, Cuban, German, Philippine, Native American, Spanish, soul food, seafood, Tex-Mex, vegetarian/vegan, and Vietnamese.

       Just desserts

      While some of the savory trucks provide minimal coverage of various dessert favorites, other food truck owners focus their attention on these sweet delights – everything from ice cream, waffles, cupcakes, shaved ice, whoopie pies, and brownies. You can even find trucks that provide more ethnic styles of dessert on their menus, such as cannoli, tiramisu, crêpes, and baklava.

      

You may wonder whether dessert trucks can provide enough income to justify multiple dessert trucks in one area. Don’t think twice about it – they can. Dessert trucks provide a wonderful way for customers to enjoy a full meal by simply going to multiple trucks that are parked near each other. In Chapter 7, I discuss in more detail how savory and dessert trucks can work as a team to maximize the sales of both trucks. So if you’re looking to provide your customers a sugar rush to jumpstart their day, this avenue may be perfect for you.

       Tasty beverages

      Although food trucks serving alcoholic beverages haven’t been approved en masse, nonalcoholic beverage trucks have. Consumers are constantly attempting to improve their health, and food truck owners have latched onto this phenomenon by providing these customers with a mobile option. Trucks that sell nothing but juice or smoothies have made their way onto the streets of some cities with much success.

Starting the selection process

      After you know the food choices available to you (see the preceding section), consider these items when you begin the process of selecting a food concept for your truck:

      ❯❯ Having a unique concept: Make sure your idea is different from the ideas behind both food trucks and similar casual brick-and-mortar restaurants in your locality. If ten Mexican cuisine trucks or restaurants already exist in the area, you may want to avoid opening another one. (See Chapter 3 for details on determining what’s already in your local food truck market.) However, if you decide to open a truck with a popular concept anyway, make sure you offer something that differentiates you from the others, such as fusing the basic taco with another ethnic cuisine.

      

The mobile food industry is on the leading edge of concept development. Food trucks have developed concepts, such as grilled cheese sandwiches or Korean tacos, that hadn’t yet been seen in the restaurant industry. So don’t be afraid to try something new.

      ❯❯ Making sure your concept is easy to understand: Although differentiating yourself from your competitors is important, you must make sure your idea isn’t so different that people don’t get it. This type of consumer confusion can lead to your downfall because customers typically avoid eating from establishments that they’re completely unfamiliar with.

      

The logo and decoration of your truck is half the battle. Customers buy with their eyes. Your vehicle’s curb appeal will be a key factor in landing customers out in the street. (I discuss how to present and decorate your food truck in Chapter 7.)

      ❯❯ Sticking to one basic cuisine: Don’t try to compete directly with local full-sized restaurants that, based on kitchen size and seating capabilities, can offer more extensive menu options. Focus on a specific style of cuisine for your concept. This strategy allows you to fill your menu with crowd-pleasing items that you can consistently produce to a high standard.

      ❯❯ Keeping up with current food trends: Stay up-to-date with the mobile food industry and understand the latest food trends, such as the desire for healthy local meals and ingredients. Don’t hold strictly to these trends for your overall concept, though, because trends come and go. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t create a concept that allows you to update your menu to use trendy items, such as bison or elk. Check out Mobile Cuisine (www.mobile-cuisine.com) and Nation’s Restaurant News (www.nrn.com) for food trends making their way into the mobile food and restaurant industries.

      ❯❯ Being inspired by others: Don’t be afraid to take someone else’s idea and make it better. If you find a great food truck while traveling through different parts of the country and want to create one with a similar concept in your town, don’t be shy – go for it!

      

General industry etiquette is not to rip off and duplicate exactly. Food truck operators, like great musicians, know how to pay homage to those who have come before them.

      ❯❯ Making sure you have the necessary staff or culinary skills: If you decide to serve Vietnamese cuisine but don’t have any experience with Vietnamese cooking, for example, you need to either hire a chef who does or learn how to cook Vietnamese food on your own. Take classes at a nearby culinary school or speak with restaurant owners in your area to see whether you can learn from them. (I provide information on hiring a chef in Chapter 11.) If these options don’t appeal to you, find a different concept for your truck.

      ❯❯ Thinking about the locations where you’ll operate: If you plan to operate in an area in which the demographics of the population don’t fit a specific style of cuisine or concept, you may need to consider another concept. Check out Chapter 3 for information relating to understanding market demographics.

      ❯❯ Considering the time of day you plan to operate: You need to contemplate whether you plan to work morning, lunch, dinner, or late-night hours. If