BBQ food truck questions?

So my mother is retiring in a couple months and is under the impression that she can't take it all with her. Which I'm like hell yeah! She is liquidating a few assets and wants to help my sister and I each start our own business. This came about at a Cookoff, I was being asked all kinds of questions by her and was like "why are you asking me all these questions?" Then she told me about her plan. I was like OMG! I don't wanna work at Home Depot all of my life. The only reason I took this job was for the set schedule, vacation all and sick days. I used to be in the restaurant scene. Worked at Applebee's as a bartender amd moved up to kitchen manager. Worked at Chilis as a bartender and became the bar manager. Had extremely good #'s thanks to some business classes I took alon the way at blinn college. I feel extremely confident in this venture and have it all planned out. I would like some of the vendors that do BBQ, sandwiches, sides, catering to chime in and lemme know if I'm missing anything on this truck. At first I plan on using my vault and adding it to a cpt-1 double tandem Pitmaker trailer with a magnum sniper and insulated firebox, towing it and cooking on site. If its as busy as I hope I want to run a double magnum sniper and double vault setup. I have eaten at every BBQ Mecca in Texas and know I can produce the same results. a place right down the road that my buddy manages said i could buy all the meats from him at a few cents/# over cost. Our city has lots of events and cities neighboring have even more. Here is the finished quote and layout.



This is the exterior of the truck but it will have our BBQ logo on it.
Will be serving pinto beans, my moms top secret cole slaw, fries, stuffed pulled pork potatoes, pulled pork sandwiches, brisket, sliced brisket sandwiches, and at bigger events the infamous Disneyland turkey legs, and ribeye blt's. Not pictured will be a butter bath bun toaster for final sandwich assembly.

dwfisk said:

Wow, what a plan! I don't do vending or catering, but as a customer who frequents food trucks & trailers, have you considered a fold out awning on the customer window side. i'm thinking if you make the ordering/pick-up window a comfortable spot (Texas sun & rain) compared to competitors it might just increase your business.

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That's a great idea keep em coming. Addded

I have watched every episode of the Tyler Florence great food truck race. Those trucks are small and under equipped for what I want to do and the volume. It is a great series and love picking up every bit of advise i can. when its something i love doing im like a sponge. Here is the updated layout.

cpw said:

every successful vendor I've seen at a BBQ event has big obnoxious signs and lights and flags and all that sort of stuff. Maybe think about some sort of marquee that you can put up and take down that would go on top of the truck (plus it would help hide the exhaust hoods).

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Once the project is completed down the road, we are gonna do a complete vynl wrap. Will have a custom canopy tent designed with lighting to create a beautiful ambience. Just gotta get into business first. Will worry about all the red tape later. There will not be screens on the srving window, just a insulated sliding window

Pyle's BBQ said:

Honestly, I don't see how anyone with cooking experience would want to work in that kitchen. If you want speed and you do, there is no steam table to hold finished product for sandwiches. You will want a holding area for fries and your baked potatoes. Get a dry toaster the butter one will be a big mess. This is the one I use Prince Castle and get very good results. What are the 6 burner stove, flatt grill and charbroil grill for? You do not have anything on your menu that would dictate that equipment. A cold table near the serving window for cold side would help in serving. These are just a few things I noticed.

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Well, lucky for me that you wouldn't want to work in it then. It's a limited menu and do not require but all of that. I'm about fresh sliced In front of the customer service. If you don't do that in Texas, you probably don't have a very successful BBQ restaurant.
The 3 foot table near the fryers will have a Glo-ray infrared heat lamp. The burner is a step up design that has a convection oven below. On that we will make the BBQ sauce fresh, pinto beans and whatever else we need it for. The reach in will have all the cold sides along with the sandwich build, which the last pic clearly shows That is a full sized proofer that can hold 25 briskets including sides, without sides even more. The flat top will be for burgers, the charbroiler will be for the ribeye sandwiches. I will have a butter bath bun toaster, the same one I used in Chilis for 5 years similar to the one you posted with a pan to roll them first. if the service window is of a certain size it will pass HD Inspection. The guy that is going to build this IMO is top of the industry. He builds them according to your states HD codes, all you gotta do is pay him and they make it happen. This is not gonna typical food truck you see on tv the little 18-20 footers, its a 31' long freightliner with a 26' work area. There will be no cramping. I have worked in high volume commercial kitchens (45-70k weekly sales average)since I was old enough to work and even before that when my parents owned a restaurant at one of my grandmas hotels. There is a big following of vending in our area and I expect no problems of business and will choose my own hrs and events. Got 2 friends that vend carnivals and antique festivals and make over 100k with just a basic vending trailer with a flat top, fryer and beverage station, nothing fancy. Will be mainly Doing Brenham football games, ATM games, antique festivals, and local carnivals. Might even open up one day a week like snows bbq. just like debeers diamonds, hold back product, create demand. It will have a HWH hydraulic leveling system so I can pull up anywhere, push a button to level up, push a button to get the generator going and prep and cook. Generator uses 1/2 gal hr of fuel@50% load which is right about where I will be. All advertisement will be from a website that will sell all of my rubs once I market them, and the vinyl wrap will have info on it, as well as social media advertising which is free via Skype, Facebook and twitter. Hell you never know, guy fieri might even stop by one day. I appreciate some of the concerns, but I pretty much got it all figured out.

TailGateJoecom said:

No need to speak to someone that way when they are giving you legit advice that you asked for. This is a pretty quick way to turn people off from offering any advice, just my opinion.



Great that you "have it all figured out." Than why did you start this thread?

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The thread was started to add any ideas to the already existing ones. Don't go hacking up what I said like the liberal media. Already and pretty much aren't the same. Pretty sure I don't need any lessons in semantics, but how else are you supposed to respond to Pylebbq's opening statement. Some people post to degrade, down, help, debate, naysay, and even whistleblow. Just depends on the nature of a post and how it's construed. Sorry if ya took it the wrong way. What was gonna be your helpful Idea to the OP?
People that poke have no problems takin pokes also. :boink:

landarc said:

I do wonder, at least out here, all trucks and tents need to have separate money/order windows from food/serving windows. Have you either built in the ability, or determined that you will not need separate windows?

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:biggrin1::boink: where you live again? Oh yeah that's right CA. We were doing a job there a few years ago and rented a lull telescoping lift and it popped a hydraulic line spilling about 3 gal of hydraulic fluid on a aspalt parking lot. Before we knew it there was police and a hazmat crew that we had to pay for to dig up the parking lot surface and repave it. Talk about a crock of ****! Wtf is in asphalt? Petroleum hot oil! Needless to say we never accepted a job there ever again. Anywhere else you just sprinkle a bunch of absorbent granules on it, scoop it up and dispose of it properly, but noooooooo we had to do it the $10k
Way. Just pokin at ya a little lol

little bit of r & r said:

You started the threading get help and see what everyone else would do and when they offer advic you insult them. Best of luck in the venture but I think it is time you are taught some humility through a bought lesson. Every successful business owner listens for advice from everyone.

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So you beleive that this venture needs to fail for me to be taught a lesson? Thanks, but no thanks. And I'm here to listen. There have been some great ideas posted here. Some through email and pm also. Lets not make this thread about the Fable of the scorpion and the frog. If ya have any helpful advise for the truck, then by all means please post it, and leave the personal attacks at me out of it. Thanks for all the posts guys. I have made some changes according to some comments.