April 18, 2025 • 51 mins
Tune in to hear how Columbus chefs Shanika and Jomar Sheppard of Marlow’s Cheesesteaks went from selling water ice at local festivals to running a full-on brick and mortar Philly-style restaurant – and now, they’re bringing the food truck back!
In this episode of The Restaurant Roundtable, the Sheppards share exactly what it takes to build a food truck business, why they went brick and mortar, and what’s next in their culinary journey.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We was well shared a good bit and ugly has
anybody had a good experience with the food truck festival organizer?
Was it ever real information?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I did want to give a brief little history and
a small primer of kind of like where the food
truck phenomenon that were in kind of came from. And
you know, food trucks started as a way to feed
workers in big factories, and you know, a little truck
would pop up with commissary and.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
People would go and get food.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And then kind of like the modern food truck boom
kind of started in Austin, Texas, where they made a
law that every bar needed to serve food, but most
of them weren't equipped for it. So even to this day,
if you go to Austin, their food trucks behind bars often.
And that's kind of where chefs realized that, like they
can do really creative things. It doesn't have to be
hot dogs, tacos, the things that you normally think of
(00:54):
people would basically do like Nichelin Star level food of
these food trucks. And that's even carried on to Columbus.
I know, your next door neighbor always has a food
truck behind their restaurant because they built a bar that
purposely didn't have food, so that so they could bring
in food trucks. So you know that that lives on
to this day.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
And interestingly enough, the cheese steak started by Pat OLIVERI
was he was on a hot dog cart at construction
sites and they he was part of cheese steak in
just to try. They loved it and it boomed from there.
So the first cheese steak was right off a hot
dog cart.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So you can be creative even a hot dog.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
What was a Shakeshak's start was also a hot dog
carts Danny Meyern that up into this smash one. So
if you look for a history, they were in Madison.
That's why the original location was still in Madison Square Park, yep.
And that became what it is now from that. That's
why it's called Shakeshack and Shakeshack hot dot cart. But
if you go to the Shakeshack now too, you'll still
see that they have uh hot done with the MANI I.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Love that are Our food truck game here in Columbus
is like medium too strong and getting stronger.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
As we will talk about, you really.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Have to fight here in this episode the first time
that I ordered tripe. Actually I thought that it was
fish because I didn't know. I was very unpleasantly surprising
that dish came out. My name is b J.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Leurin.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I am the chef and proprietor of Chapman's Eat Market,
Gingerrabbit Jazz Lounge and be soon to be open Metsi's
wood fired Italian here in Columbus, Ohio. And we are
actually coming to you live from ginger Rabbit Jazz Lounge.
And welcome to the Restaurant Round Table, a podcast for
chefs by chefs presented by Kraft Tines Away from Home.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Hi, everyone, Shanika Shepherd here representing Marlow's Cheese Steaks and
I'm an aquarius.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Jamar Shepherd, co owner of Marlow's Cheese Steaks. Fact about myself.
I played basketball at Carmel Doherty, home of Katino Mobile
and Kyle Lowry.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Hello.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
My name is Abas Sharburu. I have two restaurants of Columbus,
Ogny and Joyous. An interesting fact about myself.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
You're born.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You're the original Pilics.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
That's very interesting.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
I suck at sports, but I qualified for Junior BIXT
three times.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Your pensyl Hi.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I am k Triope. I own Hey Cake.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So if you're a chef, a restaurant owner is tying
to be one, you'll want to pull up a chair.
In this episode, we're diving into the fast paced world
of food trucks. We're diving a little deeper into Marlow's.
So I kind of wanted you to share with the
audience how you all got started. I know you have
multiple locations now and kind of just like give us
(03:30):
a little bit of history about your business and how
you got started where you're going.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
So right now we have four locations. We have a
brick and mortar at in our Gahana location with a bar.
We have a we're OSU Stadium in the Shoe. We're
also at Bud Dairy, and we're at North Market Downtown.
The story north Market and we started when we came
there from Philadelphia. We started with a water ice cart,
(03:57):
which was an Italian like kind of soft serve, and
my wife kind of picked up she could pick it
up from here. She knew we needed bigger ticket items.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Yeah, so we started with the water ice, which is
like Italian ice on the cart and we would go
to festivals and you know, with the Italian ice, it's
like three, three or four bucks for small five you know,
six bouts for a large. So there's a huge appreciation
(04:28):
that I noticed out here in Columbus for food, especially
at the festivals.
Speaker 7 (04:33):
So I'm like, we need a bigger ticket.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
So water ice is big in Philly, and we're like, okay,
we're already doing water ice. Let's keep the Philly thing going,
and let's do cheese steaks. So he's had plenty of
He's had way more cheese steaks than I had in
my day.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Oh, so that's fired.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
So we're like, okay, you know, let's start doing cheese steaks.
So opportunity presented itself. We knew someone that had a
friend that was selling a trailer, so we went to
go take a look at it.
Speaker 7 (05:11):
It was vented.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
You know, we didn't know, you know, what the response
was going to be, but we're like, all right, we're
going to go for it. And it was seven by
fourteen sized trailer, small, and we just hit the road.
Our first event was almost two events in one day,
so let's and learn from that.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
What was your first event life?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
It was June Team. She double booked our lines of
the state wrapped around the corner.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
The second event, called and said, hey, we don't have
a food truck out here. You guys can't stay out there.
We need you right now. We told the people about
fifty people online we were going to another event. They
followed us, some of us, some of them beat us there,
and it was a line waiting for us. Again. It
was about seventy to one hundred people when we got
to the next event. So that was our first experience.
(06:03):
And when we went into Gahanna, we're so we're we're
not traditional chefs. We do cheese steaks, and we're entrepreneurs
at heart. So when we went into the restaurant, we
knew that that was going to be something we were going
to have to be at every day unless we expanded,
so kind of right off the bat, that wasn't our
(06:24):
intention in the beginning to have multiple locations, but we
knew I didn't want to kind of be a slave
to the restaurant. I said, we have to open up more.
So that's what led us, so we our first our
second venture was Bud Dairy, which has a hatch space
from under camera Mitchell that kind of contest you your
kitchen theories, and so we wanted to know if we
(06:45):
could run two at one time. So when we went there,
we were the highest grossing hatch space ever at that
at that moment, and that led us to two, and
other opportunities led us to North Market. Then they came
running and you know, kind of the floodgates open.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
How long did you wait between opening the gehanda one
and then checking out the second location at the hatch?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
A year? A year? Yeah, and we went through.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
So we've only may be our third year being open
and we've went through four. Wow, in three years.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
That is impressive expansion.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
What what have you felt to the biggest challenges of
expanding neck that quickly?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
I'm just going to say having just making sure that
you have staff and then right daff staff.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
And having your operations and systems together yep, so everything
is coherent and moves accordingly with theach os psychosymmetry between
all of them, between ordering staffing, moving different pieces around
like a chessboard.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Have you found there any advantages as you've expanded, as
it made it easier in any way?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Well, I would say we well, we definite one of
the things that we do is that we'll cross train
people in the kitchen. So you know, you start off
at one station and then once you've mastered it, you
moved to another station. You master that and if you
show signs that you know you're equipped and capable of
working on the grill.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Yeah, stuff is kind of teamless. So it's no like
I can't miss under order any kind of any kind
of location now because I could just draw from one's
way way easier. If somebody calls out, we can kind
of have somebody. So just being cross operational like that,
that's one of.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
The i's Like see I'm a russa Rosie or a
ton of dead and you have like more purchase power.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Now, absolutely we get yeah, shout out to that. They
give them rebates and everything. They call them craveling out
the woodworks for our business now so rob me other
like food companies and stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:43):
Yeah, So you know we started on the trailer, went
to a brick and mortar, but based on like some demand,
you know, our brand you know, becoming.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
You know bigger.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
We've you know last year alone the amount of people
that were contacting us asking do you guys have a
food truck I'm having an event, and then us going
to festivals last year with the water ice and he
would have on the Marlow shirt and they're like where
the cheese steaks at like every event that we did
and they were asking for the cheese steaks. So I
(09:19):
was like, we need I think we need to get
a food truck. And there's you know, the weather's warmer.
Speaker 7 (09:23):
More people are going to be outside.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
The amount of events that are being added to the
list are increasing year over year, so I think that
it's worth it to.
Speaker 7 (09:38):
Go back to a mobile.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Full disclosure, this is all her idea. I'm going to
help out, but I'm not going to be in there
on that food.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
I would just say, like the band, you know, more
people are going to be outside, so we just want
to be in front of those people. They might not
necessarily be coming and door. So you know, more companies
are bringing food trucks. You know ow people are returning
back to work, so catering is big. I don't have
(10:12):
the percentages on what catering is forecasted to do in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
But depends on what happened.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Question, Yeah, where did you struck your food trailer?
Speaker 7 (10:24):
So our first event was all that Mount Marten.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
She booked a food festival. It was it's for June teen, Juneteenth,
and she booked two of them, not knowing how the
turnout was going to be. So we didn't have the
food truck raptor or anything we wrote. We had a sign,
a sign that said cheese steaks.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
And okay you would give us a little bit more credit.
It was legally printed it it was.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
It was up there, it was flying in the wind,
and we had a line around the corner as soon
as we opened. And what happened was it was over
at three thirty and we told them we were going
somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
We had a prior.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Event already a commitment, and so we left at three thirty.
We were extremely tired and exhausted.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
By then.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
It was we still had a long line, maybe fifty people.
When we went to the next event. The people at
the previous event had driven to our next event and
we're waiting another line as soon as we pulled up again.
And that was our very first event.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
So how did you get to lead to the first event?
Was it like a concert? And was like that?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
It was a June June tieth many more part also,
so yeah, yeah, so that was our first experience, so.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
Did not obviously didn't expect to get that type of
response because we didn't promote, We didn't do anything, so
we just set up.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
Eat the cheese days.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Suff screams are made of right, so I would definitely.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So had social media is before you had any kind
of following? Did that like, what were your next steps
after that? Did you get social media after that?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
To like we did?
Speaker 4 (12:05):
He had a social media but it was basically the
water ice.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
So that was our follo from Columbus. So can you
explain the water ice to me?
Speaker 4 (12:13):
So it's you're familiar with kind of like an Italian
like anywhere. It is like a like sort of like Readers,
but a lot smoother. So Readers was starting a Philadelphia also.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
So it's been sale to be exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, awesome.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
So so it is it like a benchade, I said's flavor, what's.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
A kind of mixed in and it's not water is
the there's the like ninety five percent of the ingredient
to it, and then this kind of goes into a
machine and it comes out like like almost like soft serve.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Oh so it should be like kind of creamy. Yeah,
because there's a.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Creamy texture, no dairy.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
It's like a sore bay, but not for us, like
they got initiated, like it's pretty big, like Riders is
readas and the other one is like wits. I think
it's like prison customs got like big around here and
we like like go into them, but we didn't really
know that the origin story of or why they were popular.
Also just called it Italian ice or something, and.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
It's like that this is called depending on the part
of the city or.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Water ice exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So so you went from water ice, water ice to
cheese steaks and then was that like an epiphany for
you after you sold out both of those food truck events.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Yeah, to me it was yeah, because you know, people
underestimate the power of the food truck. You think you
getting you know, I mean the lack of a better words,
we call it a roach coach.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
In Philadelphia.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
You'll get to the roach coaching. So when they were
actually coming off with them saying this is one of
the best cheese steaks they ever had, or it was
the best cheese steak that they ever had in their life,
and there's multiple people, we were like, we have something here,
we might have hit the jackpot.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So so then obviously you ended up with brick and mortars.
You're very successful now with multiple locations, but now you're
going back to the food.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
The hardest was it moving from food tricks to brick
and mortar or having multiple brick and mortars.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
Or the multiple Yeah, I would ult yeah, I would
say having multiple two because you know, the time that
we're in staffing is a challenge in the restaurant industry
and it's a lot more training that you have to
(14:25):
do upfront with the staff because we're not we can't
be at all three at the same time with you know,
the food truck or food trailer. You know, you sign
up for events or you know, if you're blessed to
get you know, like a contract where you can have
a food truck like you know stationed at os U
(14:46):
or you know in a gas station or you know
office building like you know where you're going.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
And the kind of the more I thought about it,
it's kind of like the chicken in the egg, And
I'll probably ask you guys to a chicken and egg
theory as far as what would how would you rather
do it? Would you rather have a food truck and
kind of blow up and have a following and then
to follow you to your restaurant. Would you have a
restaurant and make your brand so big when you get
a food truck, they already know you when you when
(15:13):
you when you know with the food truck.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I mean, I think that either one is a viable
concept considering that they're successful either way. I think that
a good way to find out if you will be
successful what the concept is to be the food truck. First,
it's a lower barrier to entry, and also you can
be much more nimble with that. If you open a
brick and mortar, then you're building something out. You've got
(15:35):
a specific intent in mind, and if that doesn't pop,
you're in a lot more dire straits than if you
do a food trut tron sound that isn't quite good,
and depending on.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
The food that you're making, that is actually it could
be more difficult the other way. And I'm not just
trying to play devil's advocate. I swear it's hard to
get people to want to find you. So if you're
just trying to find casual people who just happen to
upon you at a festival, that's not necessarily the problem.
But if you're trying to build a following and you're
(16:07):
constantly moving, you have to figure out how you're able
to communicate so that they can constantly move to.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So what you're trying to say is the restaurant industry,
no matter what, is very difficult.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It's shocking, and I think the listeners are not going
to believe it.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
The joy.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Good question, I would say, I think I again my
perspective by being ableit different. The didn't start off in
an industry, and you know, you always hear about the
dream and you visit those few trucks, you have those moments,
but to do it itself, I worked on some trucks before,
and I've always wanted to kind of have on one
of one of my people, one of my like you know,
I would say executives, people that have been with us
(16:45):
for a long time. They're dream is to have a trip.
So I'm kind of pursuing it from a business minded sense.
But before all of those single things, I think the
one thing that you were saying is correct that the
industry is challenging. But the challenge that you face is
what makes you. So if you start, I started and
pop ups. So the challenges that I had is I
had nowhere to make foods, so I had just shoved
up in my car with oil. So I would I
(17:07):
would love to have had a food truck where I
could just as these had things that I could move
to site and then you know, I shove them onto
I didn't have any of those. So it's a different
challenge if you start with restaurants or challenges how do
you do stuff or others, and with food truck your
challenges like how do you get people?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Where do you put all your food?
Speaker 5 (17:20):
I think the challenges that you embrace early on your
career can start either angle and then once you start
overcome those and you can see the next day. So
for me, it's yeah, I don't know the logistics of
getting the permits of the gas and all of those
things for a food truck and for restaurants. But for
others who have food trucks, it's like, oh, yeah, you
want to do something on site, I got you. Like,
the skill set's different. They can all kind of bounce
off each other. I think hospitality in general it's a
kind of a factor all those But yeah, I mean
(17:41):
I would have loved to have just even had access
to somebody else's truck back then.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Because the stuff I.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Did at the beginning, you know, it was probably it
was borderline legal. I don't know, you know, it's like
you don't know if it's okare or not. Sometimes you
find out I don't recommend that, but I recommend looking
at your local laws. But at that time, I was like,
I just had a mission and I wanted to make
it done. And my mom is really pissed off that
I wade through her stoves, ruined her basement and would
just have like her dick, she couldn't put food in her.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Friend, you know.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Pivot off of what she said, though, have you heard
or have you heard about the food trucks they have
now where you could kind of run them just for
events that's already has the permits and everything. That's a
brilliant idea.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Done that I have.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
So there's been times in my life that I she
is not to remember. But thankfully, like they say, and
you say a story again, you you now relive that trauma.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
So and I have done it.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
I told her Pillow a few of these, I guess,
like I was once asked fair food for ant. It
was like one hundred and fifty people or something like that. Yes,
from someone else's food truck. Somebody else's food truck that
wasn't even a truck. It was a truck that was
designed as like, I your you organidition truck for kids.
So the first thing we learned about food trucks is
how they're built. Are interesting? This just for kids? So
it was like down, you're serving with this, like because
(18:51):
at the height of it is yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
The second thing we learned is there's no open flames
on that. There's so much stuff to learn. I think
that that experience was ultimately we execute well, we executed,
but it was challenging and the challenges that went along
with it were great learning lessons for trucks and how
they work and running a truck is would be awesome.
Like if I was okay, I got to do an
event somebody's house, it would be cool. I think that
(19:14):
challenges tooms of.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
These trucks are.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I've done events on a food truck before. When you
mentioned that you were doing a food trailer, is there
a difference between the trailer and oh.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
It's a big difference.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Well, because what the biggest one of the obvious one
is one to drive, and then one has.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
The should be the legal distinction of difference, so people
know exactly.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
And I could tell you one thing.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
If we were to get a food trailer, not I'm
not opposed to it, but I would never make the
event because I'm not good with hitching. Oh no, they
if the event was at twelve, it'd be two o'clock.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
Where are you at? I'm still stuck because yeah, it's
very challenging.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Now, I got it.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
He's a wiz, add it.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I got to assume the advantage of a trailer is
you just need to get a vehicle to toe, whereas
a food truck.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Yeah, food truck mechanics your things.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
And then the other thing is, even even though you're
in pursuit of a food truck, you kind of have
to be wary of diesel and gas because the diesel
truck is it lasts longer, but it's less mechanics to
know how to work on the diesel trucks. We come
and find out gas or gas less else that will last.
(20:28):
But we'll see any mechanic could work on the regular
guess difference.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
It's like truck is like you drive it and then
trailer is put per legal destination.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
If you were like going I get one approved or something.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
Like what's what I was going to ask? How the
regulations the same regulations?
Speaker 6 (20:44):
Yeah, they are so like so you have to go
through the same inspection like the Columbus Public.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
House, don't need the.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Correct the single hand washed st you have to get
the propane.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
Test done.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
Yeah, But then is there is there a cart then
like a hot dog because I don't see.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Yeah, so then they have it's like a grill cart,
so like the ones that are on High Street late
at night. So then that's a So that's kind of
that's considered like a knockdown.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
It's not a trailer.
Speaker 7 (21:13):
It's like it's a push cart.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, So in this process, is there something that you
think that people don't know or that we should know
about trailers?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Definitely want to check with the local laws just to
make sure that you know you have you're getting the
right inspections done. The other thing is like the right
of way, so like that's a separate fee that you.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Have to pay.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
You have to get both whether you get a food
truck or a trailer as to get inspected every single year.
So you have to, and you have to stay abreast
of you know, yeah every year.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, so, and you need to ask questions at the
events that you book. Some people just book events that
think money is gonna come rolling in, but you have
to kind of do the numbers will kind of turn
out as.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Much as if you got a replace they say, like
like a like an event for let's just say it's
like a bar, like afferend of parties, Like, hey, it'd
be really cool if your truck was here, Like do
they pay you a fee to be there? Or are
you just depending on sales for the nights for your revenue? Yeah,
nobody shows up if it's like raining outside, screwed.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
It's on you.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
You you know, may made an agreement, say like I
have a minimum, so if I don't hit this minimum,
you're responsible for covering the minimum you.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Pay gas, staff, transportation. Sure, and you have to depend
on people to show up or not show up.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
Yes, just like getting the work and mortar. Want to
show up or people won't show up?
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Wordy, you have ac though, you know it's a little
b if you're outside somebody else's like at least bricket
orders heero at home. Yeah, correct, truck here in somebody
else's home. So it's always like it's like there's.
Speaker 7 (22:50):
Homework and there's a finder street food finder too.
Speaker 6 (22:53):
So back to your call out about you know, your
comment if you know, if you're going to events and
people don't know who you are, but then you know,
once you meet people.
Speaker 7 (23:04):
And they're like, oh, they really like it.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
You just have a QR code, tell them to scan
it and it's a local app street food finder where
you can just list where you're going to be at
so as you you know, build up your following, just
tell them.
Speaker 7 (23:18):
To check that out too.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
But do you do it?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
And then like like jazz or obsessor fest, like how
does that work in the same and you just have
to defend on the ticket like how does that?
Speaker 6 (23:26):
Yeah? So like so that's that's another thing when you're
doing when you're doing a festival, the fees are not cheap.
You have to pay, but you have to pay so
like yeah, some of them are like yeah, okay, like
a weekend, so then you have to and then if
it rains, it still goes like you don't get your
money back, and then you can increase your your prices
(23:47):
at those festivals too, because there's no other place for
people to eat.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
And I think when people go into a.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Festival or like an arena, like they know that they're
going to pay somewhat of a premium, But you don't
want to outprice yourself either.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Compabi.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I'm just curious.
Speaker 7 (24:06):
I think I think so.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
But you also have to be selective with the events
that you do book and you know, when you're first
starting out, you might not know.
Speaker 7 (24:15):
I would just suggest, like, don't chase every event, like do.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
Your homework and then make sure you're going into an
event where people are going to want what you are serving.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
Sorry to sidetrack, but h one of my dreams is
always been in the past and was to like, you know,
I'm you know, maybe I say too much money. I
was born here in Columbus, so like watch your high
state football and I see like the crew and stuff.
You guys are thereright like you guys are in the
we did the whole what it like, Like you said, fund
is a profitable is it? Like I've always been curious,
(24:47):
Like we always go there and you get the fit
wonder it seems like it's very stressful.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
On the other side of yeah, it's stressful, but it's
profitable it all. It depends your price points and kind
of how you operate your business. Just because we worked
the stadium a lot ourselves. You know when they cuts
down on employee, do.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
You find enough to be like you do it because
the financial order, you like like to see all the
people that come in and that kind of introduced. So
it's like the little bit Yeah.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
And I also think it's good for just brand recognition,
Like we've got in like catering orders off of it.
We've gotten people who you know, haven't heard of us,
and you get a chance to say, well make sure
you check us out.
Speaker 7 (25:25):
You know we're here.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
It's one of the.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Times where you actually got exposure.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yeah, the football team.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
So I was like, is it almost like I would
imagine for a lot of people it might be like, oh,
you you got it there and you've made it right.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
You're in the same now, You're not to worry is
that you No?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
No, no, absolutely?
Speaker 5 (25:45):
What are the challenges that kind of come up with that?
Like when you you go into like a place like that,
what's like the new challenges you face?
Speaker 6 (25:51):
Well, the space that we're in is small, Like we're
operating off of a cart.
Speaker 7 (25:56):
Okay, So luckily for us, we have.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
You know, three other locations so where we can store
things and then we can bring them in, you know,
or they've given us some access to their.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
You know, we love to shoot, don't get me wrong.
But it's an old stadium, one hundred years, little power outages.
That's all everything set up on electric. So that's you know,
when you go in the stadium, some of them are
old dealing with just electric.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
We don't have.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Uh, I got a story for you, like the hood
fence or when I want to say.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
I just I just had to do that hockey game.
It's cold and I had to cook and then I
had to end up started making food like made to
order because it was an electrical issue. So the hot
box went so.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
We couldn't remade story.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
Yeah now on a fly.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
So yeah, questions at off topic.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
But I want no part of the If you had
a truck out as a background, but that makes it.
I mean I can have a try because we had
a generator. Yeah that that that helped. Like guys like, yeah,
that's a nightmare. That sounds like a nightmare.
Speaker 7 (27:08):
You can't pay it. You gotta pivot and you got
to make it work.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
And when you let you know, customers know up front,
like hey, is being made the order it's going to
take maybe six seven minutes. People appreciate that and it
actually bought more people over because you're chopping, you get
to see the meat on the grill, so they think
they're getting the show.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
So honestly, well, I mean it sounds like food trucks
have some challenges for sure, but we all have a
dream in our heading in the food truck is part
of it. Give any favorite things about being semi like
a modular or rebel business so to speak.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
I actually like going to the events because I actually
like talking to like the people and you always so,
so that's what I like, just you know, being outside
and like we did this year, we're doing the Ohio
Black Expo. They have common sense, they have Marcia Ambrosia.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
So you know, I get to see the concert, get
to hear the music.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
And country fast we do, so we'll see him, hopefully
we'll get to be home.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
You have any favorite things about food truck said? It
sounds like you were excited to see like the line
form and like that is that sort of a set
at the beginning, what's your favorite like food truck experience.
You were right on the experience of the truck. So
do you feel it both ways? Like if you're on
that side of cooking on the food truck, you feel like.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
You answer, well, yeah, when I'm cooking, I don't see
anybody because my back's turn and it's just like.
Speaker 7 (28:34):
I got a story too, and we don't.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
We don't have a clueless going on why I don't.
I'm just steady focused on the tickets.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
But you enjoy the focus.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Yeah, it kind of has helped me focused, But I
kind of didn't. I didn't want I wanted to give
out the food truck business. But now that our brand
is big, so big, we have to go back and
kind of, you know, kind of pick up some of
the extra.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Like there's a lot of festival festivals and.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Every time we're out and they always say, where's the
Marlow's truck.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
So I would say, like not having a trip, they
ask us to do a lot of events, right, it's
really hard for us to be like, hey, staff, seven
of us come from different places, full of your cars
with these things. Show them find a plug out lit
by find the truck. At least you have some controller.
It's like, hey, you can show up as your brand
as Marlow's. You have our deckta truck. You can put
a disco ball or whatever you have, like the spells
(29:28):
coming out like don't want to be fun right.
Speaker 6 (29:32):
Es tomate your brand either, Like even if a lot
of people don't know, like people.
Speaker 7 (29:37):
Look at the menu like, oh that seems interesting.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
We did this one event when we had that trailer
and I thought the village people were going to come
after us with pitchforks because of the week time.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
Yeah, nail to our defense, because of the web the
way tar. Yeah, we were at like over an hour
and twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
This is when we like kind of first started.
Speaker 7 (29:59):
Yeah that I will to our defense.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
The event organizers told us that it was only going
to be about three thousand people and it was going
to be multiple.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Trucks, and it was two trucks and it was people.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, or even fit that much food on it.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
It was just new.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
We all have limited experience or massive experience. Has anybody
had a good experience with the food truck festival organizer?
You know, whatever information.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
It didn't you didn't finish the story either. They were
running they were writing the tickets. This is like Mels Diner.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, day posting it.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
They had it all on their on their shirts and
it was so many of them.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
Yeah, one of them series.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, go ahead, we.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Have real information.
Speaker 7 (30:57):
Yeah, real information and friends of people that were to organizers.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah, Tasha, she was pretty cool.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
And then we did another one last year in New
Albany and it was like the communication was perfect.
Speaker 7 (31:11):
People were out there, you know, directing where you set up.
That that was a good one.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
It's like, yeah, but you do have to before you
sign anything, you need to read.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
The fine print.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Just communicate, because there are some people who some event
organizers that are like just getting started or they just
don't that.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
What they're doing.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
A sore point might be the communication from the side
of somebody who maybe has never operated a food truck
or like just has an expectation that's unreasonable to be like, hey,
you show up, and is that like a pretty common
thing where someone's like, oh, just the truck to show up,
Like is that kind of what you get from somebody?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
And a previous experience for where I helped manage a
space that supported food trucks, the amount of calls and
emails that I would field from people who are like,
we just need food, and but we want them to
pay us two thousand dollars to park at this unknown festival.
And I was like, there's so many competing things here
that mean you're not going to have food at your festival,
(32:09):
but we need it, you know, like just an expectation
that food will be there, regardless of whether there's a
market and.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Sometimes dead festival.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Hower, or if there's an electric cookup or waste water
or any of it. That there's just an expectation that
it just happens.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
And that's any dependent on mother nature perform.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Weird on How about stapping for food trucks? How does
that work? If it's not you?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
It was just us.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
So now best version.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
We're going to give some of our people staff they
want to get out?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Do you? Hey, you've always wanted to be in a truck, right?
Speaker 4 (32:52):
What are they cook?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Are there any specific characteristics she'll be looking for in
somebody that's interested in food truck?
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, dependable.
Speaker 7 (33:03):
I want to work on the truck because working on
the truck or trailer is very different than working space. Yeah,
communicate to.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
The confined space. You got to talk.
Speaker 6 (33:17):
And be personable because the person who's at the counter,
you gotta be able to talk to customers, be comfortable
with talking to the customers, and talk them through quickly
because when you got a line of twenty, you can't
spend all day, yeah, you know, with one person.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
And then the other thing is it's not so much staff,
but when you're at a fuss, you can't have your
whole menu, so it has to be short, simple. So
you know, people outside when it's hot, you.
Speaker 7 (33:46):
Know they're not going to want examily show. You got
to scale back.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
So yeah, so you.
Speaker 6 (33:52):
Guys ready for the next segment. The text kitchen brainstorming.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
But so delicious.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
So in this segment, we're just going to figure out
a way to whip up a tasty solution. So let's
get cooking, all right, So assume price is.
Speaker 7 (34:09):
Not an option. Sky's the limit.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
What would your dream food truck look like? What would
you create? What would you serve?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Oh man, that's a tough one, but I think that
a really fun one to do would be like Caviar
and Belliini's just on a food truck.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Just but I know that sounds.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Bougie as ship love Javier in Unexpected Places so you
can have.
Speaker 7 (34:33):
A housewife totally Beverly Hills to be a spokesperson.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
You never know strike.
Speaker 7 (34:40):
Are you going to do beluga or uh.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Is illegal? You can't object. I would illegally bring it
in for Russia.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
And speaking of yes, skate, what will be your your
new barge trust idea.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
I want something that's super quick, like quick triket times
that matters, So I think I would go. I'm super
into dips right now. I would be heavy on like
multiple types of dips with strong flavors and great, great,
great bread to.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Go with it that's on brand, on.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Brand, and some cake. What would you do?
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Noodle glory.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Kind of noodles, like like.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Little Maine and that's it's fair little main truck. Yeah,
for sure, a little Maine with different right now that
you know, my own kind of take on different meats
and the seasons and my top.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
You just put the moodles across your head. Beef put it,
we get beef. What's your dream food truck? Mine is
not that cool. I always I think a feud trex
is almost like street food mobile street food stands. So
I think it'd be sick to do like the proper
Briani that you have in the streetsmith you're Bangladesh. You
crack up in the lid, and then part of the
process is when you open it. This is a part
(35:59):
that is the most challenging to recreate. When you crack
open the lid, the smell comes in. It's you in
the face of everything that's been cooking inside of it.
And then you have to pick it up a proper way,
like grab it from the button to the top and
serve that like being able to have you know, the
audience that would show up for that's or do that
time to time, Like just take the coals off, crack
the bread off, and then stoop it into a plate
like that's that would be really cool to experience. I
(36:21):
think everybody would enjoy that experience of aroma taste and smell.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
So you need some way to like close the smell too.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
Yeah, yeah, well you it'd be like in an idea
work with all these situations, it's like, hey, we just
have a million people that are on this truck and
they're just cracking them up until order like hey you come,
you open it up, and it's like everybody gets their
own beery on you or you have the big pots
and you have like the whole community being served at once,
which I think is that's the way that I prefer.
It's like everybody gets not even bites, that body work consistency.
So it's an n to be able to serve all
(36:48):
parts of the animal inside of the pots. And you go, oh,
my bite is different than yours. Cool, that's okay.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
What about you, honey buns?
Speaker 6 (36:56):
Oh love cocktails and I love coffee, So I would
love to have a food truck coffee and cocktails and
some fun pastries.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
I frequent that.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
Right out there.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
That was super romantic. What is stopping you from having?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
I was given advice a long time ago when I
was trying to figure out restaurant or food truck or whatever,
and it was a friend of mine who's super into cars,
and he said, you should not own a food truck
unless you know how to fix the engine, because more
than anything, that's the most important thing.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
And I am not a mechanic.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
So that's what kept me from wanting to go into
the food truck world, that I would not be able
to fix my own food truck were there to be
a problem.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
To get to where you want to sell the food.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
You've worked on a food truck before, Do you have
any advice for the people on the pitfalls of food trucks?
Speaker 4 (37:50):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, I'm mean I think know what you're getting into.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
And then really, if you start it and you have
a dream and a vision, you're going to be the
only person in your roadway outside of the obvious things
like finances in the future. But if you take those
all away, you got to commit art and you got
to like, if it sucks, you can get on the
internet or a podcast and bitch about it, or you
can try to make an effort to make it better.
And you if you're going to believe in the vision
and you put a name on it, you better back
(38:15):
up that name because you have a lot of people
counting on you to do that. Like, don't just stop
because you're having a bad day. You got to just
stick with it, right.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
My biggest advice that I would give to somebody after
seeing people start and stop and the process, would would
be to actually work on somebody else's food truck before
you invest any money in buying your own one. Get
a feel for the environment because it is entirely different
than cooking in a restaurant, brick and mortar kitchen. But two,
(38:43):
if you're spending money, you can lay out your truck
or trailer in a variety of different types of way,
but you can't do it once you've as easily once
you've built it. So working a couple shifts on other
people's trucks should be a requirement before you spend money
on your own.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Hell, he does you and you're going through it right now.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
Yeah, we just we talked and we just went for it.
But we did our homework too, So and then I
would also say, you know, like you have to be able,
like you have to know where you're going to store
your items too, and you have to have a place
to store the trailer or the truck.
Speaker 7 (39:25):
So you know, you have to look around.
Speaker 6 (39:27):
And I know here in Columbus there's easydi they have
the food for it. You have the uh let's it
called fourteen hundred food labs, like where you can store
your truck. So there's a fee, there's a there's a
price for everything. So just do your homework, get the research,
partner with some other food trucks, ask questions.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
And with that, I think it's time for our favorite
segment overrated and underrated.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
I have had a lot of fun thinking up some
things for this, so on this I really just want
to hear like you're very very strongly, deeply held belief
about these things. So the first one I have is
food trucks as the food for weddings or really large parties.
Speaker 7 (40:19):
I think it's underrated.
Speaker 6 (40:21):
Yeah, yeah, I think having a food truck at a
wedding it's like less pressure and it's will be more
cost effective than if you're having a party at two
hundred and three hundred and an average plate is what
one hundred and fifty bucks.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I think as a from an operating standpoint, we're actually
doing a wedding in May that we're catering, that we
went and checked out the facility and like they claim
that they had a kitchen, they like absolutely do not.
So I'm renting my friend's food truck that I've used
for an event before, so that we actually have a
familiar home turf to cook things on. From the like
host point of view, having a food truck at your wedding,
(40:58):
I actually dig it.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I think there's underrated.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Like if you're going to go have your favorite restaurant
come to your wedding having their ability to serve their
stuff out of their thing. As long as you're cool
with the visual of like you said, like a wrapped
truck being at your event. I think that it's really
cool and I, you know, wish that we had done
it at our wedding to be honest.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
So overrated, underrated.
Speaker 5 (41:20):
Yeah it is your turn, sir. From a guest perspective, underrated.
From operator perspective, underrated like when you go to a
wedding with Bo's wedding and it was like, yeah, a
pizza truck and it's a casual wedding. You don't want
to sit down and have never fix stakes up times.
You just want to be able to get up and
get some food and eat as much as you want to.
You know what happens after there's some drinking and dancing.
(41:41):
It makes perfect sense. It's at the ideal venue. And
from an operator perspective, you just paid for another food truck,
but doing one wedding. If you got the right wedding,
they don't care the focket book comes out, it's like
why not double? I think it's yeah, criminally underrated.
Speaker 7 (41:54):
Probably for the right vibe.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I think it's a great idea, but there are definitely
the wrong VI type weddings where you just have a
hundred people in line for an hour and a half
to two hours of a wedding just waiting for food.
Speaker 5 (42:07):
That can't well executed as people that have operated TROR
know the pitfalls and what do you want with the
right fub where people.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Are comfortable kind of coming and going and it doesn't
all have to be fed at the right same time.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
I think it's perfect, I say underrated. I think people
are starting to be more comfortable with renting food trucks
for their for their weddings now. Were getting more inquiries
about cheese steaks. When we first got our food truck,
we did and U I mean it's been going on.
I had a friend that that actually ordered one hundred
(42:42):
boxes of KFC and put it on plates. It's handed
out of the wedding and they thought it was some
of the best chicken they ever had, and I didn't
realized it was KFC chicken.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
So I'm jealous of because I would have done that. Smart.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Can you tell me the in our meant for having
a regularly scheduled location where you almost semi permanently exist
versus moving around throughout the leak sh.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
It probably can actually do.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
You think there's a lot of value in moving your
truck around. And also, like Jamar and Shanika, we're talking
about earlier being able to be a part of all
the things festivals, being parked behind a bar, choosing your
own standalone appointment places that you're going to be. It
just opens up the world the possibilities and.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Just to thiggyback off what you say, and by being mobile,
you're going this side of the different communities, Yeah, where
you're getting a bigger customer base instead of just being there.
They might not know about you. Now I'm in one community,
another one this week. Are a lot of communities now
have food trucks inside, so gaining more of a audience just
(43:49):
by kind of being mobile.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
I mean, you guys have a really interesting opportunity here
because you have brick and mortars that are all over
the city and you now are going to have a
food truck that you can take to other places. You
can use it as a marketing arm of your business
for new guest acquisition, which is a really cool like
tertiary goal of what it is that you're doing.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
I dig it, I think.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
It's cool, Shinigo, what is the best food truck you've
ever eaten that?
Speaker 3 (44:12):
And why? Okay?
Speaker 7 (44:13):
So it was I have two items. One was funnel cake.
That's like my top.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Two dessert and everyone can't make funnel cake, so and
that was from Funnel Frenzy.
Speaker 7 (44:27):
So the dough it was like nice and soft.
Speaker 6 (44:31):
I don't like hard funnel cake, and it has to
be cooked light with light sugar, and I don't want
all that toppings or anything like that. And then shook
Smokehouse local. The collar greens were the bomb, and everyone
can't make Calli greens and I don't eat pork, so
they use smoke turkey, So home.
Speaker 7 (44:53):
Run for me.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
All right?
Speaker 7 (44:54):
They were I was at a at a festival, went
back to them four.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Times, so tomorrow it's your favorite food trust experience.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Probably two. First one was Orlando, Florida. We were just
driving and for some reason, they have a community right
outside of Orlando of just food trucks. It looks like
probably about a good thirty or forty and it's kind
of you walk around in a maze and you found
some amazing tacos there. And then the second one was
(45:24):
I don't remember the name of the food truck, but
it's in college and we had taken some of the
Devil's Lettuce that day, and it was just happened to
hold on a food truck that had the best tacos
I ever had.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
In my life.
Speaker 4 (45:40):
So I don't know if it was because.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Of that or you know, probably was going on, but.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
It was the great That was my best food truck experience.
Amazing tacos.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (45:54):
I think I have a couple. I've been on a
few road trips where you end up was obviously really
well established, not quite mobile like food truck park where
they're kind of small, and I think my favorite thing
is that it's what others strive to be, Like, you
can try a lot of things, there's not a long
wait time, there were very few touches, and these were
(46:16):
obviously skilled people who were making food that they cared
about and they hadn't been beaten down by a lot
of the other things in the food truck life.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
Yeah, how are you have a share? I think I
have two.
Speaker 5 (46:30):
One was in Miami, and I think there's more of
like the time and place sort of thing. But it
was my first exposure to like Peruvian food, and the
truck had two things that I had three things actually
that I had antiicucas, which I've never had before, and
I know it's hard, and you know, I was still
kind of squeamish. I didn't knowing about food, but everybody
else the way that the guy was smiling, I was like,
he's so excited. And I tried and just kind of
(46:51):
lit me up at papola one cana, which like to
this day is one of the sauces that like I
try to replicate over and over again, because it was
just like a potato with yellow sauce, and with the
food truck here, like you know, it came into paper
boat and you're not expecting that. The third was like
a menudo and it was just like again, tripe is
tough for me, but just the enthusiasm of the owner
was so like it was so contagious that like everybody
(47:12):
was feeling it, and I quite enjoyed that.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
Oh excuse me, what did you say was the last
the last food that you you said manudo? So that
was a group or something.
Speaker 5 (47:24):
It's also a tripe. So it was like, you know, uh,
when you when you're like I was not really a
foodie at that time.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
I was okay in the area and I didn't know
what I was eating.
Speaker 5 (47:32):
But when someone is like smiling so big and just
like serving you by their hand and like they're so
confident in the food they're producing and not like how
it looks as like five bucks, like that's sure recipe
for success, and you sit down and you know you
you can bring your own beer or you can crack
up and something from ever there. It doesn't really matter.
It was an orange soda and it was white like that.
Just memory was quite nice. The weather was perfect and everything.
(47:52):
The second one was actually in Columbus and it was
I know this name, but I'm just trying to intentionally
admit the names. So I think experience is more report Uh.
There was a truck that was a was like an
Indonesian truck, and I ate Indonesian food for the first
time in Columbus, and I was like, this stays like
the gully food and I was like, wow, this is
the case like home to me, and it was familiar,
(48:13):
and then I got to learn about it and through
the truck because it was a small commitment and it
was literally in the parking lot of somewhere, So it
was those are my two.
Speaker 3 (48:21):
Strongest food truck that resently.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
My favorite food truck experience is here in Columbus. Shout
out to my good friend Cassa Karmelita. They do tacos,
they make everything in house as well as pizzole, a
bunch of other stuff. They just do an amazing job
and they pop up all over town. I just have
always loved their food, so shout out to them.
Speaker 5 (48:42):
They were mahind Us for a while and they come
to joy Us quite a bit like the Katia roll.
So one day they just eat these tacos and I
was like, well, well we secretly made them Catia rolls.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
And it was a great It was a great exchange.
It was nice to show.
Speaker 5 (48:55):
You know, everyone's like, well, if you have a food
truck in a restaurant, can they work together? Of course,
like a kidding like it's such a good combination.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
So we're almost done with the restaurant round table for today,
and we're going into our last segment, the takeout, where
we all go around and we say one thing that
we learned or took away from today's episode. Kate, do
you want to go in first? On the takeout today.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I'm just really really hungry and I wish that there
was a few chuck outside. Yeah, that's where I am
right now. I'll think about it and maybe I'll jump
in at the end.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
Nice abashire, I can go.
Speaker 5 (49:31):
I took to hear actually off, I learned a lot
so uh basically coming back around tably good cool.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
Uh, just a lot of experiences that kind of forgot about,
they got rehashed. And the major thing I kind of
took away was then abag Shar was a fencer. We
need to delve in later.
Speaker 5 (49:52):
D The second part of that story is when I
picked with the saber. I never picked up a saber
in my entire life. I was like, whatever, we see
what happens? Also out a sweatboart. Yeah, it's kind of
a new ad trucks sert.
Speaker 6 (50:05):
I would say, if you have a dream, don't be
afraid to make it a reality.
Speaker 7 (50:10):
There's a lot of information out there for you.
Speaker 6 (50:14):
Just do your homework and don't let fear stop you
from chasing that drink.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
I think my biggest takeaway from today and it's something
that I already knew, but I think that putting all
the pieces together today in my brain is how complicated
food trucks are, because I think a lot of people
see them as like the easy first step into the
restaurant world. And you guys really illuminated me on like
all the steps that you go through and then the pitfalls,
like you can do all this hard work to get
(50:41):
into a festival and it might rain. Or maybe the
promoter only hires two food trucks for twelve thousand people,
like there's just a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
That can go wrong, and that that was very illuminating.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
Or they hire twelve thousand food trucks for two people, yes.
Speaker 3 (50:55):
Or the opposite.
Speaker 5 (50:56):
It seems like I guess the Maybe a takeaway is
food trucks seem like a long term relationship as supposed
to a restaurants seemed like a marriage where it's like, hey,
you can still connect test the waters. So approaching it
dustly is like, you know, what is the coquitment? How
can you go? It's good in these these in those ways,
but our relationships all relationship, so I think they deserve
equal amounts of efforts.
Speaker 7 (51:17):
Thanks for joining us today on the Restaurant round Table.
Speaker 4 (51:19):
You heard a bit about our restaurant journey but we
love to hear about yours.
Speaker 6 (51:24):
If you like what you heard today, please like and subscribe.
To connect with the chef who spoke in today's episode,
their social media accounts are linked in the show notes.
Tune in to our next episode for more insights for
restaurant owners from restaurant owners, and sign up for the
Crab Pines Away from Home newsletter linked in the show
notes for more insights
We was well shared a good bit and ugly has
anybody had a good experience with the food truck festival organizer?
Was it ever real information?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I did want to give a brief little history and
a small primer of kind of like where the food
truck phenomenon that were in kind of came from. And
you know, food trucks started as a way to feed
workers in big factories, and you know, a little truck
would pop up with commissary and.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
People would go and get food.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And then kind of like the modern food truck boom
kind of started in Austin, Texas, where they made a
law that every bar needed to serve food, but most
of them weren't equipped for it. So even to this day,
if you go to Austin, their food trucks behind bars often.
And that's kind of where chefs realized that, like they
can do really creative things. It doesn't have to be
hot dogs, tacos, the things that you normally think of
(00:54):
people would basically do like Nichelin Star level food of
these food trucks. And that's even carried on to Columbus.
I know, your next door neighbor always has a food
truck behind their restaurant because they built a bar that
purposely didn't have food, so that so they could bring
in food trucks. So you know that that lives on
to this day.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
And interestingly enough, the cheese steak started by Pat OLIVERI
was he was on a hot dog cart at construction
sites and they he was part of cheese steak in
just to try. They loved it and it boomed from there.
So the first cheese steak was right off a hot
dog cart.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So you can be creative even a hot dog.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
What was a Shakeshak's start was also a hot dog
carts Danny Meyern that up into this smash one. So
if you look for a history, they were in Madison.
That's why the original location was still in Madison Square Park, yep.
And that became what it is now from that. That's
why it's called Shakeshack and Shakeshack hot dot cart. But
if you go to the Shakeshack now too, you'll still
see that they have uh hot done with the MANI I.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Love that are Our food truck game here in Columbus
is like medium too strong and getting stronger.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
As we will talk about, you really.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Have to fight here in this episode the first time
that I ordered tripe. Actually I thought that it was
fish because I didn't know. I was very unpleasantly surprising
that dish came out. My name is b J.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Leurin.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I am the chef and proprietor of Chapman's Eat Market,
Gingerrabbit Jazz Lounge and be soon to be open Metsi's
wood fired Italian here in Columbus, Ohio. And we are
actually coming to you live from ginger Rabbit Jazz Lounge.
And welcome to the Restaurant Round Table, a podcast for
chefs by chefs presented by Kraft Tines Away from Home.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Hi, everyone, Shanika Shepherd here representing Marlow's Cheese Steaks and
I'm an aquarius.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Jamar Shepherd, co owner of Marlow's Cheese Steaks. Fact about myself.
I played basketball at Carmel Doherty, home of Katino Mobile
and Kyle Lowry.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Hello.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
My name is Abas Sharburu. I have two restaurants of Columbus,
Ogny and Joyous. An interesting fact about myself.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
You're born.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You're the original Pilics.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
That's very interesting.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
I suck at sports, but I qualified for Junior BIXT
three times.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Your pensyl Hi.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I am k Triope. I own Hey Cake.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So if you're a chef, a restaurant owner is tying
to be one, you'll want to pull up a chair.
In this episode, we're diving into the fast paced world
of food trucks. We're diving a little deeper into Marlow's.
So I kind of wanted you to share with the
audience how you all got started. I know you have
multiple locations now and kind of just like give us
(03:30):
a little bit of history about your business and how
you got started where you're going.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
So right now we have four locations. We have a
brick and mortar at in our Gahana location with a bar.
We have a we're OSU Stadium in the Shoe. We're
also at Bud Dairy, and we're at North Market Downtown.
The story north Market and we started when we came
there from Philadelphia. We started with a water ice cart,
(03:57):
which was an Italian like kind of soft serve, and
my wife kind of picked up she could pick it
up from here. She knew we needed bigger ticket items.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Yeah, so we started with the water ice, which is
like Italian ice on the cart and we would go
to festivals and you know, with the Italian ice, it's
like three, three or four bucks for small five you know,
six bouts for a large. So there's a huge appreciation
(04:28):
that I noticed out here in Columbus for food, especially
at the festivals.
Speaker 7 (04:33):
So I'm like, we need a bigger ticket.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
So water ice is big in Philly, and we're like, okay,
we're already doing water ice. Let's keep the Philly thing going,
and let's do cheese steaks. So he's had plenty of
He's had way more cheese steaks than I had in
my day.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Oh, so that's fired.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
So we're like, okay, you know, let's start doing cheese steaks.
So opportunity presented itself. We knew someone that had a
friend that was selling a trailer, so we went to
go take a look at it.
Speaker 7 (05:11):
It was vented.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
You know, we didn't know, you know, what the response
was going to be, but we're like, all right, we're
going to go for it. And it was seven by
fourteen sized trailer, small, and we just hit the road.
Our first event was almost two events in one day,
so let's and learn from that.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
What was your first event life?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
It was June Team. She double booked our lines of
the state wrapped around the corner.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
The second event, called and said, hey, we don't have
a food truck out here. You guys can't stay out there.
We need you right now. We told the people about
fifty people online we were going to another event. They
followed us, some of us, some of them beat us there,
and it was a line waiting for us. Again. It
was about seventy to one hundred people when we got
to the next event. So that was our first experience.
(06:03):
And when we went into Gahanna, we're so we're we're
not traditional chefs. We do cheese steaks, and we're entrepreneurs
at heart. So when we went into the restaurant, we
knew that that was going to be something we were going
to have to be at every day unless we expanded,
so kind of right off the bat, that wasn't our
(06:24):
intention in the beginning to have multiple locations, but we
knew I didn't want to kind of be a slave
to the restaurant. I said, we have to open up more.
So that's what led us, so we our first our
second venture was Bud Dairy, which has a hatch space
from under camera Mitchell that kind of contest you your
kitchen theories, and so we wanted to know if we
(06:45):
could run two at one time. So when we went there,
we were the highest grossing hatch space ever at that
at that moment, and that led us to two, and
other opportunities led us to North Market. Then they came
running and you know, kind of the floodgates open.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
How long did you wait between opening the gehanda one
and then checking out the second location at the hatch?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
A year? A year? Yeah, and we went through.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
So we've only may be our third year being open
and we've went through four. Wow, in three years.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
That is impressive expansion.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
What what have you felt to the biggest challenges of
expanding neck that quickly?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
I'm just going to say having just making sure that
you have staff and then right daff staff.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
And having your operations and systems together yep, so everything
is coherent and moves accordingly with theach os psychosymmetry between
all of them, between ordering staffing, moving different pieces around
like a chessboard.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Have you found there any advantages as you've expanded, as
it made it easier in any way?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Well, I would say we well, we definite one of
the things that we do is that we'll cross train
people in the kitchen. So you know, you start off
at one station and then once you've mastered it, you
moved to another station. You master that and if you
show signs that you know you're equipped and capable of
working on the grill.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Yeah, stuff is kind of teamless. So it's no like
I can't miss under order any kind of any kind
of location now because I could just draw from one's
way way easier. If somebody calls out, we can kind
of have somebody. So just being cross operational like that,
that's one of.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
The i's Like see I'm a russa Rosie or a
ton of dead and you have like more purchase power.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Now, absolutely we get yeah, shout out to that. They
give them rebates and everything. They call them craveling out
the woodworks for our business now so rob me other
like food companies and stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:43):
Yeah, So you know we started on the trailer, went
to a brick and mortar, but based on like some demand,
you know, our brand you know, becoming.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
You know bigger.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
We've you know last year alone the amount of people
that were contacting us asking do you guys have a
food truck I'm having an event, and then us going
to festivals last year with the water ice and he
would have on the Marlow shirt and they're like where
the cheese steaks at like every event that we did
and they were asking for the cheese steaks. So I
(09:19):
was like, we need I think we need to get
a food truck. And there's you know, the weather's warmer.
Speaker 7 (09:23):
More people are going to be outside.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
The amount of events that are being added to the
list are increasing year over year, so I think that
it's worth it to.
Speaker 7 (09:38):
Go back to a mobile.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Full disclosure, this is all her idea. I'm going to
help out, but I'm not going to be in there
on that food.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
I would just say, like the band, you know, more
people are going to be outside, so we just want
to be in front of those people. They might not
necessarily be coming and door. So you know, more companies
are bringing food trucks. You know ow people are returning
back to work, so catering is big. I don't have
(10:12):
the percentages on what catering is forecasted to do in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
But depends on what happened.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Question, Yeah, where did you struck your food trailer?
Speaker 7 (10:24):
So our first event was all that Mount Marten.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
She booked a food festival. It was it's for June teen, Juneteenth,
and she booked two of them, not knowing how the
turnout was going to be. So we didn't have the
food truck raptor or anything we wrote. We had a sign,
a sign that said cheese steaks.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
And okay you would give us a little bit more credit.
It was legally printed it it was.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
It was up there, it was flying in the wind,
and we had a line around the corner as soon
as we opened. And what happened was it was over
at three thirty and we told them we were going
somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
We had a prior.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Event already a commitment, and so we left at three thirty.
We were extremely tired and exhausted.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
By then.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
It was we still had a long line, maybe fifty people.
When we went to the next event. The people at
the previous event had driven to our next event and
we're waiting another line as soon as we pulled up again.
And that was our very first event.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
So how did you get to lead to the first event?
Was it like a concert? And was like that?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
It was a June June tieth many more part also,
so yeah, yeah, so that was our first experience, so.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
Did not obviously didn't expect to get that type of
response because we didn't promote, We didn't do anything, so
we just set up.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
Eat the cheese days.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Suff screams are made of right, so I would definitely.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So had social media is before you had any kind
of following? Did that like, what were your next steps
after that? Did you get social media after that?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
To like we did?
Speaker 4 (12:05):
He had a social media but it was basically the
water ice.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
So that was our follo from Columbus. So can you
explain the water ice to me?
Speaker 4 (12:13):
So it's you're familiar with kind of like an Italian
like anywhere. It is like a like sort of like Readers,
but a lot smoother. So Readers was starting a Philadelphia also.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
So it's been sale to be exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, awesome.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
So so it is it like a benchade, I said's flavor, what's.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
A kind of mixed in and it's not water is
the there's the like ninety five percent of the ingredient
to it, and then this kind of goes into a
machine and it comes out like like almost like soft serve.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Oh so it should be like kind of creamy. Yeah,
because there's a.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Creamy texture, no dairy.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
It's like a sore bay, but not for us, like
they got initiated, like it's pretty big, like Riders is
readas and the other one is like wits. I think
it's like prison customs got like big around here and
we like like go into them, but we didn't really
know that the origin story of or why they were popular.
Also just called it Italian ice or something, and.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
It's like that this is called depending on the part
of the city or.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Water ice exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So so you went from water ice, water ice to
cheese steaks and then was that like an epiphany for
you after you sold out both of those food truck events.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Yeah, to me it was yeah, because you know, people
underestimate the power of the food truck. You think you
getting you know, I mean the lack of a better words,
we call it a roach coach.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
In Philadelphia.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
You'll get to the roach coaching. So when they were
actually coming off with them saying this is one of
the best cheese steaks they ever had, or it was
the best cheese steak that they ever had in their life,
and there's multiple people, we were like, we have something here,
we might have hit the jackpot.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So so then obviously you ended up with brick and mortars.
You're very successful now with multiple locations, but now you're
going back to the food.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
The hardest was it moving from food tricks to brick
and mortar or having multiple brick and mortars.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
Or the multiple Yeah, I would ult yeah, I would
say having multiple two because you know, the time that
we're in staffing is a challenge in the restaurant industry
and it's a lot more training that you have to
(14:25):
do upfront with the staff because we're not we can't
be at all three at the same time with you know,
the food truck or food trailer. You know, you sign
up for events or you know, if you're blessed to
get you know, like a contract where you can have
a food truck like you know stationed at os U
(14:46):
or you know in a gas station or you know
office building like you know where you're going.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
And the kind of the more I thought about it,
it's kind of like the chicken in the egg, And
I'll probably ask you guys to a chicken and egg
theory as far as what would how would you rather
do it? Would you rather have a food truck and
kind of blow up and have a following and then
to follow you to your restaurant. Would you have a
restaurant and make your brand so big when you get
a food truck, they already know you when you when
(15:13):
you when you know with the food truck.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I mean, I think that either one is a viable
concept considering that they're successful either way. I think that
a good way to find out if you will be
successful what the concept is to be the food truck. First,
it's a lower barrier to entry, and also you can
be much more nimble with that. If you open a
brick and mortar, then you're building something out. You've got
(15:35):
a specific intent in mind, and if that doesn't pop,
you're in a lot more dire straits than if you
do a food trut tron sound that isn't quite good,
and depending on.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
The food that you're making, that is actually it could
be more difficult the other way. And I'm not just
trying to play devil's advocate. I swear it's hard to
get people to want to find you. So if you're
just trying to find casual people who just happen to
upon you at a festival, that's not necessarily the problem.
But if you're trying to build a following and you're
(16:07):
constantly moving, you have to figure out how you're able
to communicate so that they can constantly move to.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So what you're trying to say is the restaurant industry,
no matter what, is very difficult.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It's shocking, and I think the listeners are not going
to believe it.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
The joy.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Good question, I would say, I think I again my
perspective by being ableit different. The didn't start off in
an industry, and you know, you always hear about the
dream and you visit those few trucks, you have those moments,
but to do it itself, I worked on some trucks before,
and I've always wanted to kind of have on one
of one of my people, one of my like you know,
I would say executives, people that have been with us
(16:45):
for a long time. They're dream is to have a trip.
So I'm kind of pursuing it from a business minded sense.
But before all of those single things, I think the
one thing that you were saying is correct that the
industry is challenging. But the challenge that you face is
what makes you. So if you start, I started and
pop ups. So the challenges that I had is I
had nowhere to make foods, so I had just shoved
up in my car with oil. So I would I
(17:07):
would love to have had a food truck where I
could just as these had things that I could move
to site and then you know, I shove them onto
I didn't have any of those. So it's a different
challenge if you start with restaurants or challenges how do
you do stuff or others, and with food truck your
challenges like how do you get people?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Where do you put all your food?
Speaker 5 (17:20):
I think the challenges that you embrace early on your
career can start either angle and then once you start
overcome those and you can see the next day. So
for me, it's yeah, I don't know the logistics of
getting the permits of the gas and all of those
things for a food truck and for restaurants. But for
others who have food trucks, it's like, oh, yeah, you
want to do something on site, I got you. Like,
the skill set's different. They can all kind of bounce
off each other. I think hospitality in general it's a
kind of a factor all those But yeah, I mean
(17:41):
I would have loved to have just even had access
to somebody else's truck back then.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Because the stuff I.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Did at the beginning, you know, it was probably it
was borderline legal. I don't know, you know, it's like
you don't know if it's okare or not. Sometimes you
find out I don't recommend that, but I recommend looking
at your local laws. But at that time, I was like,
I just had a mission and I wanted to make
it done. And my mom is really pissed off that
I wade through her stoves, ruined her basement and would
just have like her dick, she couldn't put food in her.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Friend, you know.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Pivot off of what she said, though, have you heard
or have you heard about the food trucks they have
now where you could kind of run them just for
events that's already has the permits and everything. That's a
brilliant idea.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Done that I have.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
So there's been times in my life that I she
is not to remember. But thankfully, like they say, and
you say a story again, you you now relive that trauma.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
So and I have done it.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
I told her Pillow a few of these, I guess,
like I was once asked fair food for ant. It
was like one hundred and fifty people or something like that. Yes,
from someone else's food truck. Somebody else's food truck that
wasn't even a truck. It was a truck that was
designed as like, I your you organidition truck for kids.
So the first thing we learned about food trucks is
how they're built. Are interesting? This just for kids? So
it was like down, you're serving with this, like because
(18:51):
at the height of it is yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
The second thing we learned is there's no open flames
on that. There's so much stuff to learn. I think
that that experience was ultimately we execute well, we executed,
but it was challenging and the challenges that went along
with it were great learning lessons for trucks and how
they work and running a truck is would be awesome.
Like if I was okay, I got to do an
event somebody's house, it would be cool. I think that
(19:14):
challenges tooms of.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
These trucks are.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I've done events on a food truck before. When you
mentioned that you were doing a food trailer, is there
a difference between the trailer and oh.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
It's a big difference.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Well, because what the biggest one of the obvious one
is one to drive, and then one has.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
The should be the legal distinction of difference, so people
know exactly.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
And I could tell you one thing.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
If we were to get a food trailer, not I'm
not opposed to it, but I would never make the
event because I'm not good with hitching. Oh no, they
if the event was at twelve, it'd be two o'clock.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
Where are you at? I'm still stuck because yeah, it's
very challenging.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Now, I got it.
Speaker 7 (19:58):
He's a wiz, add it.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I got to assume the advantage of a trailer is
you just need to get a vehicle to toe, whereas
a food truck.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Yeah, food truck mechanics your things.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
And then the other thing is, even even though you're
in pursuit of a food truck, you kind of have
to be wary of diesel and gas because the diesel
truck is it lasts longer, but it's less mechanics to
know how to work on the diesel trucks. We come
and find out gas or gas less else that will last.
(20:28):
But we'll see any mechanic could work on the regular
guess difference.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
It's like truck is like you drive it and then
trailer is put per legal destination.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
If you were like going I get one approved or something.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
Like what's what I was going to ask? How the
regulations the same regulations?
Speaker 6 (20:44):
Yeah, they are so like so you have to go
through the same inspection like the Columbus Public.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
House, don't need the.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Correct the single hand washed st you have to get
the propane.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
Test done.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
Yeah, But then is there is there a cart then
like a hot dog because I don't see.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Yeah, so then they have it's like a grill cart,
so like the ones that are on High Street late
at night. So then that's a So that's kind of
that's considered like a knockdown.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
It's not a trailer.
Speaker 7 (21:13):
It's like it's a push cart.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, So in this process, is there something that you
think that people don't know or that we should know
about trailers?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Definitely want to check with the local laws just to
make sure that you know you have you're getting the
right inspections done. The other thing is like the right
of way, so like that's a separate fee that you.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Have to pay.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
You have to get both whether you get a food
truck or a trailer as to get inspected every single year.
So you have to, and you have to stay abreast
of you know, yeah every year.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, so, and you need to ask questions at the
events that you book. Some people just book events that
think money is gonna come rolling in, but you have
to kind of do the numbers will kind of turn
out as.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Much as if you got a replace they say, like
like a like an event for let's just say it's
like a bar, like afferend of parties, Like, hey, it'd
be really cool if your truck was here, Like do
they pay you a fee to be there? Or are
you just depending on sales for the nights for your revenue? Yeah,
nobody shows up if it's like raining outside, screwed.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
It's on you.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
You you know, may made an agreement, say like I
have a minimum, so if I don't hit this minimum,
you're responsible for covering the minimum you.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Pay gas, staff, transportation. Sure, and you have to depend
on people to show up or not show up.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
Yes, just like getting the work and mortar. Want to
show up or people won't show up?
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Wordy, you have ac though, you know it's a little
b if you're outside somebody else's like at least bricket
orders heero at home. Yeah, correct, truck here in somebody
else's home. So it's always like it's like there's.
Speaker 7 (22:50):
Homework and there's a finder street food finder too.
Speaker 6 (22:53):
So back to your call out about you know, your
comment if you know, if you're going to events and
people don't know who you are, but then you know,
once you meet people.
Speaker 7 (23:04):
And they're like, oh, they really like it.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
You just have a QR code, tell them to scan
it and it's a local app street food finder where
you can just list where you're going to be at
so as you you know, build up your following, just
tell them.
Speaker 7 (23:18):
To check that out too.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
But do you do it?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
And then like like jazz or obsessor fest, like how
does that work in the same and you just have
to defend on the ticket like how does that?
Speaker 6 (23:26):
Yeah? So like so that's that's another thing when you're
doing when you're doing a festival, the fees are not cheap.
You have to pay, but you have to pay so
like yeah, some of them are like yeah, okay, like
a weekend, so then you have to and then if
it rains, it still goes like you don't get your
money back, and then you can increase your your prices
(23:47):
at those festivals too, because there's no other place for
people to eat.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
And I think when people go into a.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Festival or like an arena, like they know that they're
going to pay somewhat of a premium, But you don't
want to outprice yourself either.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Compabi.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I'm just curious.
Speaker 7 (24:06):
I think I think so.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
But you also have to be selective with the events
that you do book and you know, when you're first
starting out, you might not know.
Speaker 7 (24:15):
I would just suggest, like, don't chase every event, like do.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
Your homework and then make sure you're going into an
event where people are going to want what you are serving.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
Sorry to sidetrack, but h one of my dreams is
always been in the past and was to like, you know,
I'm you know, maybe I say too much money. I
was born here in Columbus, so like watch your high
state football and I see like the crew and stuff.
You guys are thereright like you guys are in the
we did the whole what it like, Like you said, fund
is a profitable is it? Like I've always been curious,
(24:47):
Like we always go there and you get the fit
wonder it seems like it's very stressful.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
On the other side of yeah, it's stressful, but it's
profitable it all. It depends your price points and kind
of how you operate your business. Just because we worked
the stadium a lot ourselves. You know when they cuts
down on employee, do.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
You find enough to be like you do it because
the financial order, you like like to see all the
people that come in and that kind of introduced. So
it's like the little bit Yeah.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
And I also think it's good for just brand recognition,
Like we've got in like catering orders off of it.
We've gotten people who you know, haven't heard of us,
and you get a chance to say, well make sure
you check us out.
Speaker 7 (25:25):
You know we're here.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
It's one of the.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Times where you actually got exposure.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yeah, the football team.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
So I was like, is it almost like I would
imagine for a lot of people it might be like, oh,
you you got it there and you've made it right.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
You're in the same now, You're not to worry is
that you No?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
No, no, absolutely?
Speaker 5 (25:45):
What are the challenges that kind of come up with that?
Like when you you go into like a place like that,
what's like the new challenges you face?
Speaker 6 (25:51):
Well, the space that we're in is small, Like we're
operating off of a cart.
Speaker 7 (25:56):
Okay, So luckily for us, we have.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
You know, three other locations so where we can store
things and then we can bring them in, you know,
or they've given us some access to their.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
You know, we love to shoot, don't get me wrong.
But it's an old stadium, one hundred years, little power outages.
That's all everything set up on electric. So that's you know,
when you go in the stadium, some of them are
old dealing with just electric.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
We don't have.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Uh, I got a story for you, like the hood
fence or when I want to say.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
I just I just had to do that hockey game.
It's cold and I had to cook and then I
had to end up started making food like made to
order because it was an electrical issue. So the hot
box went so.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
We couldn't remade story.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
Yeah now on a fly.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
So yeah, questions at off topic.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
But I want no part of the If you had
a truck out as a background, but that makes it.
I mean I can have a try because we had
a generator. Yeah that that that helped. Like guys like, yeah,
that's a nightmare. That sounds like a nightmare.
Speaker 7 (27:08):
You can't pay it. You gotta pivot and you got
to make it work.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
And when you let you know, customers know up front,
like hey, is being made the order it's going to
take maybe six seven minutes. People appreciate that and it
actually bought more people over because you're chopping, you get
to see the meat on the grill, so they think
they're getting the show.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
So honestly, well, I mean it sounds like food trucks
have some challenges for sure, but we all have a
dream in our heading in the food truck is part
of it. Give any favorite things about being semi like
a modular or rebel business so to speak.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
I actually like going to the events because I actually
like talking to like the people and you always so,
so that's what I like, just you know, being outside
and like we did this year, we're doing the Ohio
Black Expo. They have common sense, they have Marcia Ambrosia.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
So you know, I get to see the concert, get
to hear the music.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
And country fast we do, so we'll see him, hopefully
we'll get to be home.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
You have any favorite things about food truck said? It
sounds like you were excited to see like the line
form and like that is that sort of a set
at the beginning, what's your favorite like food truck experience.
You were right on the experience of the truck. So
do you feel it both ways? Like if you're on
that side of cooking on the food truck, you feel like.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
You answer, well, yeah, when I'm cooking, I don't see
anybody because my back's turn and it's just like.
Speaker 7 (28:34):
I got a story too, and we don't.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
We don't have a clueless going on why I don't.
I'm just steady focused on the tickets.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
But you enjoy the focus.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Yeah, it kind of has helped me focused, But I
kind of didn't. I didn't want I wanted to give
out the food truck business. But now that our brand
is big, so big, we have to go back and
kind of, you know, kind of pick up some of
the extra.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
Like there's a lot of festival festivals and.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Every time we're out and they always say, where's the
Marlow's truck.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
So I would say, like not having a trip, they
ask us to do a lot of events, right, it's
really hard for us to be like, hey, staff, seven
of us come from different places, full of your cars
with these things. Show them find a plug out lit
by find the truck. At least you have some controller.
It's like, hey, you can show up as your brand
as Marlow's. You have our deckta truck. You can put
a disco ball or whatever you have, like the spells
(29:28):
coming out like don't want to be fun right.
Speaker 6 (29:32):
Es tomate your brand either, Like even if a lot
of people don't know, like people.
Speaker 7 (29:37):
Look at the menu like, oh that seems interesting.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
We did this one event when we had that trailer
and I thought the village people were going to come
after us with pitchforks because of the week time.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
Yeah, nail to our defense, because of the web the
way tar. Yeah, we were at like over an hour
and twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
This is when we like kind of first started.
Speaker 7 (29:59):
Yeah that I will to our defense.
Speaker 6 (30:02):
The event organizers told us that it was only going
to be about three thousand people and it was going
to be multiple.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Trucks, and it was two trucks and it was people.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, or even fit that much food on it.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
It was just new.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
We all have limited experience or massive experience. Has anybody
had a good experience with the food truck festival organizer?
You know, whatever information.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
It didn't you didn't finish the story either. They were
running they were writing the tickets. This is like Mels Diner.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, day posting it.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
They had it all on their on their shirts and
it was so many of them.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
Yeah, one of them series.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, go ahead, we.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Have real information.
Speaker 7 (30:57):
Yeah, real information and friends of people that were to organizers.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah, Tasha, she was pretty cool.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
And then we did another one last year in New
Albany and it was like the communication was perfect.
Speaker 7 (31:11):
People were out there, you know, directing where you set up.
That that was a good one.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
It's like, yeah, but you do have to before you
sign anything, you need to read.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
The fine print.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Just communicate, because there are some people who some event
organizers that are like just getting started or they just
don't that.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
What they're doing.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
A sore point might be the communication from the side
of somebody who maybe has never operated a food truck
or like just has an expectation that's unreasonable to be like, hey,
you show up, and is that like a pretty common
thing where someone's like, oh, just the truck to show up,
Like is that kind of what you get from somebody?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
And a previous experience for where I helped manage a
space that supported food trucks, the amount of calls and
emails that I would field from people who are like,
we just need food, and but we want them to
pay us two thousand dollars to park at this unknown festival.
And I was like, there's so many competing things here
that mean you're not going to have food at your festival,
(32:09):
but we need it, you know, like just an expectation
that food will be there, regardless of whether there's a
market and.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Sometimes dead festival.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Hower, or if there's an electric cookup or waste water
or any of it. That there's just an expectation that
it just happens.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
And that's any dependent on mother nature perform.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Weird on How about stapping for food trucks? How does
that work? If it's not you?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
It was just us.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
So now best version.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
We're going to give some of our people staff they
want to get out?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Do you? Hey, you've always wanted to be in a truck, right?
Speaker 4 (32:52):
What are they cook?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Are there any specific characteristics she'll be looking for in
somebody that's interested in food truck?
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, dependable.
Speaker 7 (33:03):
I want to work on the truck because working on
the truck or trailer is very different than working space. Yeah,
communicate to.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
The confined space. You got to talk.
Speaker 6 (33:17):
And be personable because the person who's at the counter,
you gotta be able to talk to customers, be comfortable
with talking to the customers, and talk them through quickly
because when you got a line of twenty, you can't
spend all day, yeah, you know, with one person.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
And then the other thing is it's not so much staff,
but when you're at a fuss, you can't have your
whole menu, so it has to be short, simple. So
you know, people outside when it's hot, you.
Speaker 7 (33:46):
Know they're not going to want examily show. You got
to scale back.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
So yeah, so you.
Speaker 6 (33:52):
Guys ready for the next segment. The text kitchen brainstorming.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
But so delicious.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
So in this segment, we're just going to figure out
a way to whip up a tasty solution. So let's
get cooking, all right, So assume price is.
Speaker 7 (34:09):
Not an option. Sky's the limit.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
What would your dream food truck look like? What would
you create? What would you serve?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Oh man, that's a tough one, but I think that
a really fun one to do would be like Caviar
and Belliini's just on a food truck.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Just but I know that sounds.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Bougie as ship love Javier in Unexpected Places so you
can have.
Speaker 7 (34:33):
A housewife totally Beverly Hills to be a spokesperson.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
You never know strike.
Speaker 7 (34:40):
Are you going to do beluga or uh.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Is illegal? You can't object. I would illegally bring it
in for Russia.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
And speaking of yes, skate, what will be your your
new barge trust idea.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
I want something that's super quick, like quick triket times
that matters, So I think I would go. I'm super
into dips right now. I would be heavy on like
multiple types of dips with strong flavors and great, great,
great bread to.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Go with it that's on brand, on.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Brand, and some cake. What would you do?
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Noodle glory.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Kind of noodles, like like.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Little Maine and that's it's fair little main truck. Yeah,
for sure, a little Maine with different right now that
you know, my own kind of take on different meats
and the seasons and my top.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
You just put the moodles across your head. Beef put it,
we get beef. What's your dream food truck? Mine is
not that cool. I always I think a feud trex
is almost like street food mobile street food stands. So
I think it'd be sick to do like the proper
Briani that you have in the streetsmith you're Bangladesh. You
crack up in the lid, and then part of the
process is when you open it. This is a part
(35:59):
that is the most challenging to recreate. When you crack
open the lid, the smell comes in. It's you in
the face of everything that's been cooking inside of it.
And then you have to pick it up a proper way,
like grab it from the button to the top and
serve that like being able to have you know, the
audience that would show up for that's or do that
time to time, Like just take the coals off, crack
the bread off, and then stoop it into a plate
like that's that would be really cool to experience. I
(36:21):
think everybody would enjoy that experience of aroma taste and smell.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
So you need some way to like close the smell too.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
Yeah, yeah, well you it'd be like in an idea
work with all these situations, it's like, hey, we just
have a million people that are on this truck and
they're just cracking them up until order like hey you come,
you open it up, and it's like everybody gets their
own beery on you or you have the big pots
and you have like the whole community being served at once,
which I think is that's the way that I prefer.
It's like everybody gets not even bites, that body work consistency.
So it's an n to be able to serve all
(36:48):
parts of the animal inside of the pots. And you go, oh,
my bite is different than yours. Cool, that's okay.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
What about you, honey buns?
Speaker 6 (36:56):
Oh love cocktails and I love coffee, So I would
love to have a food truck coffee and cocktails and
some fun pastries.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
I frequent that.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
Right out there.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
That was super romantic. What is stopping you from having?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
I was given advice a long time ago when I
was trying to figure out restaurant or food truck or whatever,
and it was a friend of mine who's super into cars,
and he said, you should not own a food truck
unless you know how to fix the engine, because more
than anything, that's the most important thing.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
And I am not a mechanic.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
So that's what kept me from wanting to go into
the food truck world, that I would not be able
to fix my own food truck were there to be
a problem.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
To get to where you want to sell the food.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
You've worked on a food truck before, Do you have
any advice for the people on the pitfalls of food trucks?
Speaker 4 (37:50):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, I'm mean I think know what you're getting into.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
And then really, if you start it and you have
a dream and a vision, you're going to be the
only person in your roadway outside of the obvious things
like finances in the future. But if you take those
all away, you got to commit art and you got
to like, if it sucks, you can get on the
internet or a podcast and bitch about it, or you
can try to make an effort to make it better.
And you if you're going to believe in the vision
and you put a name on it, you better back
(38:15):
up that name because you have a lot of people
counting on you to do that. Like, don't just stop
because you're having a bad day. You got to just
stick with it, right.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
My biggest advice that I would give to somebody after
seeing people start and stop and the process, would would
be to actually work on somebody else's food truck before
you invest any money in buying your own one. Get
a feel for the environment because it is entirely different
than cooking in a restaurant, brick and mortar kitchen. But two,
(38:43):
if you're spending money, you can lay out your truck
or trailer in a variety of different types of way,
but you can't do it once you've as easily once
you've built it. So working a couple shifts on other
people's trucks should be a requirement before you spend money
on your own.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Hell, he does you and you're going through it right now.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
Yeah, we just we talked and we just went for it.
But we did our homework too, So and then I
would also say, you know, like you have to be able,
like you have to know where you're going to store
your items too, and you have to have a place
to store the trailer or the truck.
Speaker 7 (39:25):
So you know, you have to look around.
Speaker 6 (39:27):
And I know here in Columbus there's easydi they have
the food for it. You have the uh let's it
called fourteen hundred food labs, like where you can store
your truck. So there's a fee, there's a there's a
price for everything. So just do your homework, get the research,
partner with some other food trucks, ask questions.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
And with that, I think it's time for our favorite
segment overrated and underrated.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
I have had a lot of fun thinking up some
things for this, so on this I really just want
to hear like you're very very strongly, deeply held belief
about these things. So the first one I have is
food trucks as the food for weddings or really large parties.
Speaker 7 (40:19):
I think it's underrated.
Speaker 6 (40:21):
Yeah, yeah, I think having a food truck at a
wedding it's like less pressure and it's will be more
cost effective than if you're having a party at two
hundred and three hundred and an average plate is what
one hundred and fifty bucks.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I think as a from an operating standpoint, we're actually
doing a wedding in May that we're catering, that we
went and checked out the facility and like they claim
that they had a kitchen, they like absolutely do not.
So I'm renting my friend's food truck that I've used
for an event before, so that we actually have a
familiar home turf to cook things on. From the like
host point of view, having a food truck at your wedding,
(40:58):
I actually dig it.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I think there's underrated.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Like if you're going to go have your favorite restaurant
come to your wedding having their ability to serve their
stuff out of their thing. As long as you're cool
with the visual of like you said, like a wrapped
truck being at your event. I think that it's really
cool and I, you know, wish that we had done
it at our wedding to be honest.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
So overrated, underrated.
Speaker 5 (41:20):
Yeah it is your turn, sir. From a guest perspective, underrated.
From operator perspective, underrated like when you go to a
wedding with Bo's wedding and it was like, yeah, a
pizza truck and it's a casual wedding. You don't want
to sit down and have never fix stakes up times.
You just want to be able to get up and
get some food and eat as much as you want to.
You know what happens after there's some drinking and dancing.
(41:41):
It makes perfect sense. It's at the ideal venue. And
from an operator perspective, you just paid for another food truck,
but doing one wedding. If you got the right wedding,
they don't care the focket book comes out, it's like
why not double? I think it's yeah, criminally underrated.
Speaker 7 (41:54):
Probably for the right vibe.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I think it's a great idea, but there are definitely
the wrong VI type weddings where you just have a
hundred people in line for an hour and a half
to two hours of a wedding just waiting for food.
Speaker 5 (42:07):
That can't well executed as people that have operated TROR
know the pitfalls and what do you want with the
right fub where people.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Are comfortable kind of coming and going and it doesn't
all have to be fed at the right same time.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
I think it's perfect, I say underrated. I think people
are starting to be more comfortable with renting food trucks
for their for their weddings now. Were getting more inquiries
about cheese steaks. When we first got our food truck,
we did and U I mean it's been going on.
I had a friend that that actually ordered one hundred
(42:42):
boxes of KFC and put it on plates. It's handed
out of the wedding and they thought it was some
of the best chicken they ever had, and I didn't
realized it was KFC chicken.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
So I'm jealous of because I would have done that. Smart.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Can you tell me the in our meant for having
a regularly scheduled location where you almost semi permanently exist
versus moving around throughout the leak sh.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
It probably can actually do.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
You think there's a lot of value in moving your
truck around. And also, like Jamar and Shanika, we're talking
about earlier being able to be a part of all
the things festivals, being parked behind a bar, choosing your
own standalone appointment places that you're going to be. It
just opens up the world the possibilities and.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Just to thiggyback off what you say, and by being mobile,
you're going this side of the different communities, Yeah, where
you're getting a bigger customer base instead of just being there.
They might not know about you. Now I'm in one community,
another one this week. Are a lot of communities now
have food trucks inside, so gaining more of a audience just
(43:49):
by kind of being mobile.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
I mean, you guys have a really interesting opportunity here
because you have brick and mortars that are all over
the city and you now are going to have a
food truck that you can take to other places. You
can use it as a marketing arm of your business
for new guest acquisition, which is a really cool like
tertiary goal of what it is that you're doing.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
I dig it, I think.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
It's cool, Shinigo, what is the best food truck you've
ever eaten that?
Speaker 3 (44:12):
And why? Okay?
Speaker 7 (44:13):
So it was I have two items. One was funnel cake.
That's like my top.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Two dessert and everyone can't make funnel cake, so and
that was from Funnel Frenzy.
Speaker 7 (44:27):
So the dough it was like nice and soft.
Speaker 6 (44:31):
I don't like hard funnel cake, and it has to
be cooked light with light sugar, and I don't want
all that toppings or anything like that. And then shook
Smokehouse local. The collar greens were the bomb, and everyone
can't make Calli greens and I don't eat pork, so
they use smoke turkey, So home.
Speaker 7 (44:53):
Run for me.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
All right?
Speaker 7 (44:54):
They were I was at a at a festival, went
back to them four.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Times, so tomorrow it's your favorite food trust experience.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Probably two. First one was Orlando, Florida. We were just
driving and for some reason, they have a community right
outside of Orlando of just food trucks. It looks like
probably about a good thirty or forty and it's kind
of you walk around in a maze and you found
some amazing tacos there. And then the second one was
(45:24):
I don't remember the name of the food truck, but
it's in college and we had taken some of the
Devil's Lettuce that day, and it was just happened to
hold on a food truck that had the best tacos
I ever had.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
In my life.
Speaker 4 (45:40):
So I don't know if it was because.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Of that or you know, probably was going on, but.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
It was the great That was my best food truck experience.
Amazing tacos.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (45:54):
I think I have a couple. I've been on a
few road trips where you end up was obviously really
well established, not quite mobile like food truck park where
they're kind of small, and I think my favorite thing
is that it's what others strive to be, Like, you
can try a lot of things, there's not a long
wait time, there were very few touches, and these were
(46:16):
obviously skilled people who were making food that they cared
about and they hadn't been beaten down by a lot
of the other things in the food truck life.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
Yeah, how are you have a share? I think I
have two.
Speaker 5 (46:30):
One was in Miami, and I think there's more of
like the time and place sort of thing. But it
was my first exposure to like Peruvian food, and the
truck had two things that I had three things actually
that I had antiicucas, which I've never had before, and
I know it's hard, and you know, I was still
kind of squeamish. I didn't knowing about food, but everybody
else the way that the guy was smiling, I was like,
he's so excited. And I tried and just kind of
(46:51):
lit me up at papola one cana, which like to
this day is one of the sauces that like I
try to replicate over and over again, because it was
just like a potato with yellow sauce, and with the
food truck here, like you know, it came into paper
boat and you're not expecting that. The third was like
a menudo and it was just like again, tripe is
tough for me, but just the enthusiasm of the owner
was so like it was so contagious that like everybody
(47:12):
was feeling it, and I quite enjoyed that.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
Oh excuse me, what did you say was the last
the last food that you you said manudo? So that
was a group or something.
Speaker 5 (47:24):
It's also a tripe. So it was like, you know, uh,
when you when you're like I was not really a
foodie at that time.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
I was okay in the area and I didn't know
what I was eating.
Speaker 5 (47:32):
But when someone is like smiling so big and just
like serving you by their hand and like they're so
confident in the food they're producing and not like how
it looks as like five bucks, like that's sure recipe
for success, and you sit down and you know you
you can bring your own beer or you can crack
up and something from ever there. It doesn't really matter.
It was an orange soda and it was white like that.
Just memory was quite nice. The weather was perfect and everything.
(47:52):
The second one was actually in Columbus and it was
I know this name, but I'm just trying to intentionally
admit the names. So I think experience is more report Uh.
There was a truck that was a was like an
Indonesian truck, and I ate Indonesian food for the first
time in Columbus, and I was like, this stays like
the gully food and I was like, wow, this is
the case like home to me, and it was familiar,
(48:13):
and then I got to learn about it and through
the truck because it was a small commitment and it
was literally in the parking lot of somewhere, So it
was those are my two.
Speaker 3 (48:21):
Strongest food truck that resently.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
My favorite food truck experience is here in Columbus. Shout
out to my good friend Cassa Karmelita. They do tacos,
they make everything in house as well as pizzole, a
bunch of other stuff. They just do an amazing job
and they pop up all over town. I just have
always loved their food, so shout out to them.
Speaker 5 (48:42):
They were mahind Us for a while and they come
to joy Us quite a bit like the Katia roll.
So one day they just eat these tacos and I
was like, well, well we secretly made them Catia rolls.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
And it was a great It was a great exchange.
It was nice to show.
Speaker 5 (48:55):
You know, everyone's like, well, if you have a food
truck in a restaurant, can they work together? Of course,
like a kidding like it's such a good combination.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
So we're almost done with the restaurant round table for today,
and we're going into our last segment, the takeout, where
we all go around and we say one thing that
we learned or took away from today's episode. Kate, do
you want to go in first? On the takeout today.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I'm just really really hungry and I wish that there
was a few chuck outside. Yeah, that's where I am
right now. I'll think about it and maybe I'll jump
in at the end.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
Nice abashire, I can go.
Speaker 5 (49:31):
I took to hear actually off, I learned a lot
so uh basically coming back around tably good cool.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
Uh, just a lot of experiences that kind of forgot about,
they got rehashed. And the major thing I kind of
took away was then abag Shar was a fencer. We
need to delve in later.
Speaker 5 (49:52):
D The second part of that story is when I
picked with the saber. I never picked up a saber
in my entire life. I was like, whatever, we see
what happens? Also out a sweatboart. Yeah, it's kind of
a new ad trucks sert.
Speaker 6 (50:05):
I would say, if you have a dream, don't be
afraid to make it a reality.
Speaker 7 (50:10):
There's a lot of information out there for you.
Speaker 6 (50:14):
Just do your homework and don't let fear stop you
from chasing that drink.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
I think my biggest takeaway from today and it's something
that I already knew, but I think that putting all
the pieces together today in my brain is how complicated
food trucks are, because I think a lot of people
see them as like the easy first step into the
restaurant world. And you guys really illuminated me on like
all the steps that you go through and then the pitfalls,
like you can do all this hard work to get
(50:41):
into a festival and it might rain. Or maybe the
promoter only hires two food trucks for twelve thousand people,
like there's just a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
That can go wrong, and that that was very illuminating.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
Or they hire twelve thousand food trucks for two people, yes.
Speaker 3 (50:55):
Or the opposite.
Speaker 5 (50:56):
It seems like I guess the Maybe a takeaway is
food trucks seem like a long term relationship as supposed
to a restaurants seemed like a marriage where it's like, hey,
you can still connect test the waters. So approaching it
dustly is like, you know, what is the coquitment? How
can you go? It's good in these these in those ways,
but our relationships all relationship, so I think they deserve
equal amounts of efforts.
Speaker 7 (51:17):
Thanks for joining us today on the Restaurant round Table.
Speaker 4 (51:19):
You heard a bit about our restaurant journey but we
love to hear about yours.
Speaker 6 (51:24):
If you like what you heard today, please like and subscribe.
To connect with the chef who spoke in today's episode,
their social media accounts are linked in the show notes.
Tune in to our next episode for more insights for
restaurant owners from restaurant owners, and sign up for the
Crab Pines Away from Home newsletter linked in the show
notes for more insights
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