the battle on burnet takes place Tuesday, Dec. 13th at Roll on Sushi Diner

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.  We would be faced with a challenge that we just could not turn down.  So when Chip and Chad Reed of Roll on Sushi Diner asked us to participate in an Austin Fusion Showdown with bacon as the key ingredient, we gladly obliged.  On Tuesday, Dec. 13th, from 6PM-10PM (seatings at 6PM & 8PM) we will be putting our culinary skills to the test at Roll On’s location at 5350 Burnet Rd.  Two teams battling it out in an open kitchen to put the best bacon-centric dishes on a plate.  6 courses in all, plus sake and beer pairings.  And if that’s not enough, we’ll have an Alton Brown-esque MC hosting and DJ’ing at the event.  Eating dinner is a culinary excursion.  The Battle on Burnet is a culinary experience.  Please join us.  You can purchase event tickets for $29.95 at http://battleonburnet.eventbrite.com.

the Eater Awards for 2011 were just released

The prestigious Eater awards came out Monday this week, and we were honored to win Food Truck of the Year 2011.  It has been a long, strenuous journey to the top since we launched in 2010; it’s nice to be recognized for our hard work.  We strive to continue to produce a top product.  We have multiple projects lined up in the near future which will introduce our fans to broader, more diverse flavors.  You can view a full list of Eater Austin’s award winners here.

the Google PUNCH'D event is set for Thursday, Nov. 17th from 12PM-5PM at the UT-CoOp parking lot

For our centrally located fans, make sure to check out the Google PUNCH’D event this Thursday, Nov. 17th from 12-5PM in the parking lot right behind the UT Co-Op.   We’ll be slinging out free tacos to anyone who downloads the PUNCH’D app. and gets a QR code scanned by us.  That’s right.  FREE tacos.  You can thank our friends at Google for making that happen.

Big news, ATX! This Saturday, October 29th, we’ll be participating in Aftershock, a food truck mash-up at Circle Brewing Company (2340 W. Braker Lane) from 12PM-3PM.  Circle Brewing will be serving samples of their new seasonal brew, Hooligan Hoppy Irish Red.  And…of course, five of Austin’s best food trucks will be dishing out their full menus, including Chi’Lantro BBQ, Be More Pacific, The Jalopy and The Evil Wiener.  Don’t miss out on a chance to catch all of these mobile trucks in one location for one day only.  Weather calls for a beautiful day, so no excuses ATX!

the San Francisco Street Food Festival is set for Saturday, August 20th from 11AM-7PM (www.sfstreetfoodfest.com)

For those that haven’t heard, half our team will be off to San Francisco next week to serve up banh mi and pad thai tacos at the San Francisco Street Food Festival.  The festival is scheduled for Saturday, August 20th from 11AM-7PM.

The festival itself is going to be fantastic.  An estimated 50,000+ San Franciscoan’s are projected to come out for the event, which consists of over 60+ types of vendors.  In addition to the San Francisco based vendors, there are also food trucks from 6 other cities (identified as street food hotbeds) including the well known Skillet trailer from Seattle and the Nom Nom truck from LA of Food Network fame.  We are pumped to be a part of this eclectic group of vendors.

The days leading up to the event are going to be chaotic at best.  We’ll have less than 48 hours to prep for 3,600 tacos.  This all while having to train our prep cooks, line cooks and other volunteers assisting us the day of the festival.  It’s going to be non-stop work, but in the end we hope that San Francisco get a feel for what our food and the peached tortilla are about.

For those that have family and/or friends in San Francisco, be sure to let them know we’ll soon be on our way.  It’s time for the West Coast to get peached.

-Eric

So I’ve been in “the game” for almost a year now. I’m not sure if that makes me a food truck professional, but I think it makes me qualified to speak on what it takes to run a food truck. I get a ton of emails and phone calls asking me what the business is like and how to get started, so I’m going to lay it out for everyone with 10 “commandments.” Take them at their face value. They may not apply to everyone. But from my experience, I think they would be tough to argue with.

(1). It’s not about the money, it’s about the brand.  For those that open a food truck looking to get rich, I would advise you to consider other career alternatives.  The only reason you should open a food truck is to establish a brand and test your product (or to further extend your brand awareness if you are operating already as a brick and mortar).  Yes, I’m well aware it’s a business and at the end of the day you need to make money.  And yes, to survive you need to look at your P&L’s.  Just don’t expect to feed your 401K off this gig.

(2). Talk to people operating in your city. Absolutely go to the trucks in your area and talk to the owners.  Find out what challenges they have encountered and what the market is like.  You’ll have to separate some fact from fiction, but most of what you’ll hear is probably the truth.  And if you can’t find anyone to talk to, you can call me. 512.761.3241.  And I’ll try my best to shoot you straight.

(3). Say goodbye to your family and loved ones, at least for a while. Go ahead and laugh but it’s the truth.  If you have a family, friends, etc., unless they are in this venture with you, you won’t be seeing them for a while (at least early on).  You are embarking on the most challenging endeavor of your life – when you do have free time, you’ll be too exhausted to do anything or see anyone.

(4). Fail to market, and simply fail.  It’s true, mobile cuisine is a trendy sector of the food industry right now.  Everybody wants to get in.  But it’s fierce and there are a ton of competitors.  People won’t dine at your establishment just because it’s mobile; you need to market yourself.  So budget your resources accordingly.  Not down with social media? You’re starting the race a mile behind.

(5). Expect the worst, and don’t get discouraged. You are a kitchen on wheels.  You will absolutely break down during your operation.  Your refrigerator will likely stop working, your battery will blow up, your window screens will tear apart…  This is all part of the “fun” of mobile cuisine.  Expect the worst, temper your expectations and you’ll be better able to deal with these hurdles.

(6). Food trucks are built by a team, not an individual. Do not plan to undertake this endeavor by yourself.  You won’t last more than a month.  Make sure you have partnered up with strong operators who you trust and can help you run your business.  Don’t feel safe leaving the cash box with them?  You probably should partner with someone else.  You will have money stolen from you at some point, just make sure it’s not your operating partner.

(7). Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your food truck won’t be either. This is a marathon – a grueling one that lasts through the change in seasons.  Understand that and take it one day at a time.  Make sure to pace yourself and take care of your mind, body and soul.  Only the strong survive.

(8). Understand this will be the most challenging ordeal of your life. 9 out of 10 food truck operators will tell you “don’t do it.”  Don’t operate a food truck.  Why?  Because it’s really….damn….hard.  It’s a ton of work with tight margins.  I haven’t met a food truck operator who didn’t say this was the toughest challenge they have ever had.

(9). Have an end game and stick to it.  Whether it’s selling your product wholesale or opening up a brick and mortar, an endgame provides daylight at the end of the tunnel.  It makes the job palatable and provides you with a concrete goal.  If you don’t have an endgame and want to operate the truck forever, well…I guess that’s your call.

(10). If you build it, they will come.  Create a niche, put out a great product, and people will appreciate what you’re doing.  No other platform for selling food provides the type of interaction that a food truck offers.  And if your food is fantastic, you’ll develop some of the most loyal customers around. Knowing that you can have a positive impact on someone’s day can be worth more than the sales you generate.

To those who take the plunge, best of luck.

-Eric

banh mi slider - photo courtesy of A Taste of Koko

Last month I sat in my Atlanta hotel room staring at my Blackberry in the early morning when my twitter account lit up. @technosailor, a loyal customer of ours, had tweeted a link to an article written about food trucks on salon.com. I read it. And then I re-read it. I agreed and I disagreed. Regardless, the article, carefully but not always accurately drafted by Aviva Shen, deserves a response.

Although you can read the article for yourself, I’ll quickly brief you on it (if Ms. Shen is going to point out the lawyer in me, then I will employ my legalese to the best of my knowledge). Ms. Shen writes that in the food truck world, a new owner-operator is at the helm all across the country. Former white collar workers – lawyers, Wall-Street analysts, whomever – are now dipping their hands into the restaurant world by launching these modern day food trucks. While they have little to no culinary experience according to Ms. Shen, what they do have is experience in the business world. Under this “umbrella” of experience falls significant marketing and branding knowledge in addition to perhaps even an education in finance, accounting, etc. The premise of Ms. Shen’s article is simple: these modern day food trucks can survive largely on the brand they create and product they promote, rather than on the quality of the actual product itself.

I’ll give Ms. Shen this much – she’s right with respect to the creative branding and marketing that has been put out by the modern day food truck. Have you seen Komodo Food’s truck/website ? And don’t tell me the Lime Truck’s bright green truck wrap doesn’t look appetizing. What Ms. Shen strikes out on is simple: without a great product, food trucks will not survive, marketing be damned. Food trucks are not always accessible. Customers travel from near and far to sample the creative morsels being whipped up in commissary kitchens. A lot of the times, people go out of their way to hunt down a food truck.  You think they do this because of creative marketing?  Yea, I didn’t think so.  Food trucks are held to the same standards that apply to any business in America: fail to put a product out that people want to purchase – in our case a product that tastes good – and your business will collapse.  Not many businesses thrive in the modern landscape solely based on the ploys of their marketing department.

Since this isn’t a trial brief, I’m going to make a couple more points and then leave it to you to form your own opinion.  There’s an implication in Ms. Shen’s article that anybody with business savvy and some capital banked from a previous high paying gig can murder it in the food truck world.  In fact, it may even be dare I say it, easy, to do it.   It’s not that easy.  Owning a food truck is incredibly grueling work.  Don’t believe me?  Check out this Q&A and this Behind the Scenes look at Manila Machine, a recently shuttered truck in Los Angeles.  I don’t care how much capital you have to start with – if you are long on capital but short on work ethic, you will fail in this business.  And you will fail within weeks, not years.  It’s a 6-7 day a week job, with constant attention to detail.  Perhaps, Ms. Shen, those food trucks you cited are successful because of the work ethic adopted by the owners in those white collar industries – in addition to the business savvy and marketing/branding prowess which carried over.

Finally, is it wrong that certain truck owners didn’t pay their dues in the restaurant industry before they launched their own trucks?  In case you didn’t get the memo, business school, law school, working at an i-bank, whatever, are all grueling tasks which can at times eat the life out of you.  Moreover, if owner/operators didn’t pay their dues in their previous career, I can guarantee you that they are paying them now.

-Eric

the patio at star bar - photo courtesy of Peter Tsai

For those that haven’t heard the (old) news, we post up at Star Bar (600 W. 6th St.) every Friday and Saturday night (and soon to be Thursday night).  Star Bar has an awesome patio to enjoy our food – comfortable tables and chairs, HD flat screen TV’s, an outdoor bar, and a washer “course.”  What more do you need?  The Austin food truck experience doesn’t always have to be about standing up and eating off the truck.  For those that want a more “upscale” experience, stop by our Star Bar post-up for a weekend meal.  And make sure to top off that pad thai taco with an ice cold Shiner Bock. For gourmet street food, make sure to pay us a visit!