BBQ food truck questions?

[Fooskey]

Originally Posted by Pyle's BBQ

"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." - jmoney7269.

Sorry for giving my assessment of what you are missing. After running my BBQ place for over a year and having to make changes that would improve work flow from the original lay out. I pointed out things that I though would make your life easier. I don't care if you slice in front of customers or not. You will need something to hold the meat between customer. If you plan on running back to the proofer every time you make a sandwich that is your call. Also pulled pork will have to be somewhere, I didn't see where you are holding that. Since you have this all figured out.

Good luck.

On this note, I think this is where you have to look at your business plan, the investment, and how much food you want/need to get out the window in a given time.

My personal goal was to get at least 150 people served per hour during peak times. This is nigh impossible without proper holding equipment for finished product.

To put $200k into a business, pay the event fees/commissions, labor, fuel, etc, you need to be able to do high volume. The line behind your window will only queue so long before people settle for an alternative, even if they were interested in your product.

I began with the question, "What do I need to do to get that many people to my trailer?". Some will say just the aroma of BBQ will do it. Others say all you need is a sign. Personally, I think it is a lot more than that, but it is at least a question that must be addressed. I see a lot of people starting businesses that they are probably very good at, but they fail because they don't get the sales side.

[jmoney7269]

Very good situations and possibilities that I have overlooked. Won't be pulling any triggers till I get it right. Thanks for all if the replies and just wanna be the best I can at what I do. The ice and water is definitely a big concern, as well as bumping butts while I'm cooking with my helper.

[Packmanjim]

Impressive, sounds like to me you have done your homework and you have the food service experience to make it work.

[HBMTN]

Originally Posted by little bit of r & r

With 200k you would've better to open a restaurant than trying to vend. Vending is not as glorious as it seems.

You dang right, my set up is much smaller than this rig but I can tell you if 200K popped in my lap I would be opening a restaurant way before buying a food truck of that size.

[jmoney7269]

Originally Posted by Packmanjim

Impressive, sounds like to me you have done your homework and you have the food service experience to make it work.

Obviously I didn't do it good enough. I have raised my eyebrows a couple times already. I still wanna do the truck and not a restaurant, I'm married to my wife, not my job

[Fooskey]

jmoney, if you want more information, feel free to pm me. I am happy to set you up with my guy for a quote. He did some great work and I can show you pictures throughout construction of mine, if you like.

[Fooskey]

Originally Posted by jmoney7269

Obviously I didn't do it good enough. I have raised my eyebrows a couple times already. I still wanna do the truck and not a restaurant, I'm married to my wife, not my job

No offense, but if you are contemplating spending 200k and are not going to treat it with all the respect you would a restaurant, you should take the money and put it into a mutual fund instead. Unless you are very wealthy, 200k is not an investment a part timer makes and you will never get good enough to compete doing it part time.

You will either get your ass kicked a few times at events and it will light a competitive fire under you, or you will quit and sell everything for pennies on the dollar, turning your $200k into 70k, very quickly.

[FLAQUE]

2 KEY rules to a successful food truck....Very good food and GREAT marketing!! Unless you have food as good as Franklin's because he didn't do any marketing in his original trailer.

[C Rocke]

Hey Money - Couple things, and it may not be an issue there in TX, but would be here in CA. 1 - Here, you cannot cook in another vehicle unless the product is transported to the serving vehicle in NSF containers. 2 - Here we need a seperate order and pick up window, as the HD does not want money and food passing thru the same window. 3 - Center aisle needs to be at least 34 inches.

We do bottled drinks due to logistics of fountain sodas (Ice, water, bag in box storage) and we can replenish anywhere. Think about plenty of overhead shelving for bread, food containers, etc. Onan generator if possible, propane powered if possible (Refrigeration depends on a good generator).

We bought existing trucks, (both 98's) which are gasoline powered (Easier to find mechanics, based on the odd hours needed for repairs). We are fast, and serve quality, and can do about 80 tickets an hour. We run the truck with a max of 3 workers.

In our 3rd year and still going strong, but there are always issues. PM me if you want to talk - Best of luck.

[PanamaExpat]

Hey C. Rocke... You wouldn't happen to be able to post an overhead view of the layout of that truck would you?

[Fooskey]

Originally Posted by C Rocke

Center aisle needs to be at least 34 inches.

That could seem like a throwaway line, but it is surprisingly difficult. I could not meet that, even with the trailer being max DOT width.

[gtr]

Originally Posted by C Rocke

Hey Money - Couple things, and it may not be an issue there in TX, but would be here in CA. 1 - Here, you cannot cook in another vehicle unless the product is transported to the serving vehicle in NSF containers. 2 - Here we need a seperate order and pick up window, as the HD does not want money and food passing thru the same window. 3 - Center aisle needs to be at least 34 inches.

We do bottled drinks due to logistics of fountain sodas (Ice, water, bag in box storage) and we can replenish anywhere. Think about plenty of overhead shelving for bread, food containers, etc. Onan generator if possible, propane powered if possible (Refrigeration depends on a good generator).

We bought existing trucks, (both 98's) which are gasoline powered (Easier to find mechanics, based on the odd hours needed for repairs). We are fast, and serve quality, and can do about 80 tickets an hour. We run the truck with a max of 3 workers.

In our 3rd year and still going strong, but there are always issues. PM me if you want to talk - Best of luck.

Would love to see your truck by Universal Studios for lunch one day - lots of hungry folks there - we get 4-9 trucks a day. There's a woman who has a blog and email blast detailing vendors - give her a holler if you come. Vendors tend to not like to come on Tuesdays - that's when Kogi comes and they tend to draw everybody away from the other trucks.

Sorry for the hijack - just trying to get some good BBQ over here!

[C Rocke]

Originally Posted by PanamaExpat

Hey C. Rocke... You wouldn't happen to be able to post an overhead view of the layout of that truck would you?

No overhead, sorry - I will see if I can scareup some pix.

[HBMTN]

Originally Posted by jmoney7269

Obviously I didn't do it good enough. I have raised my eyebrows a couple times already. I still wanna do the truck and not a restaurant, I'm married to my wife, not my job

I'm just trying to help you out here, if you spend $200k in food truck business you and your wife both will be married to it. That is unless you have an another income source to support you and are spending $200k from savings. My wife and I opened our concessions and catering business in 2010 with a start up cost of about $40k and we are both married to it just to keep up with it's growth and make a little profit.

[jmoney7269]

Thanks,
My wife is a doctor here in Brenham so the truck will definitely not be the main source of income. She makes 4x what i do now. We wouldn't be pulling anything out of savings, it's gonna be part of my inheritance from my mom. She doesn't believe that we should get it all when we are too old to enjoy it, so she is giving partial soon. Going to pay off heathers medical school loan, our house we are about to build as well as start me a business. That way anything we do will be straight profit on whatever we do. I love cooking and BBQ, might as well make some $$$ off it while I'm doin it.