If ten years ago, someone suggested buying dinner from a truck on the street, they would be answered with disgust and shock. However, that is no longer the case.
Within the last five years, the food truck industry has grown and become an acceptable and even trendy way to get food.
According to The Restaurant Network, today, about 2.5 billion people eat food from street vendors like food trucks, and that number is only growing.
“We really enjoy serving customers and being out on the streets with them,” Manny Heckman, owner of Captain’s Curbside Seafood, said.
Heckman, one of the newest food truck owners in the area, has already worked various events in the truck and loves its new opportunities.
“I think my favorite part is the creativity. Being able to have fun and create new foods and watch people enjoy them. Just like any business, there’s challenges as well as rewards,” Heckman said.
Many food truck owners attest to the hard work and tough circumstances that go into owning and operating a truck.
Heckman speaks for most in saying, “It’s hot, you can have things break down, sometimes you’re in difficult spots with parking and moving around, you’re in tight quarters.”
He and his wife, Janice, bought a food truck as an extension of their current seafood store. They hope to grow the food truck’s popularity in the coming years.
“We are looking at it as a potential retirement plan,” Heckman said. “Over the next five years, if we can build the food truck business up to be busy enough, we can simply run the food truck from April to Oct. and then go down to Florida in the winter.”
Not all food trucks are built from current businesses. The Fresh Truck Bistro was started in lieu of a typical brick-and-mortar establishment.
One of the six co-owners, Dan Pohlig, said, “[We] saw a potential need among suburban office park workers for a more convenient, high-quality lunch option.
Often workers in these office complexes needed to drive at least 10-15 minutes to get to the nearest food option which often turned out to be fast food,” Pohlig said. “We thought we would bring a variety of cuisines right to them and had a tag-line that we would be closer to them than their own car.”
After starting based on this idea, the truck has continued to grow and move into various different venues.
“We’ve pivoted to a strategy that focuses on very high volume opportunities at food truck festivals, fairs, special events and catering,” Pohlig said.
Food trucks not only include full meals or hot dinners. Petrucci’s is a concession trailer that offers water ice and ice cream.
“It has been very successful for us,” Bernadette Auth, owner, said.
Auth said, “Having a concession trailer would allow us the opportunity to serve more customers, promote our name and brand, and earn more income, without the overhead expenses that another store would incur.”