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May 15, 2025 13 mins

Discover the delicious journey of Snow Monkey Business, Estero's homegrown food truck bringing global flavors to Southwest Florida. In this captivating conversation, military veteran Roger Munoz shares how international travels with his wife sparked an innovative culinary concept combining three distinct offerings: traditional savory foods, authentic boba tea, and spectacular snow ice – a specialized frozen dessert that transcends ordinary shaved ice with super-cooled flavors and fresh fruit toppings.

Roger pulls back the curtain on food truck entrepreneurship, revealing surprising insights about the significant overhead costs and regulatory requirements that challenge mobile food vendors. From commercial auto insurance to mandatory partnerships with commercial kitchens, the path to food truck success demands far more investment than many realize. Yet Roger's military background provided the perfect foundation for perseverance through these obstacles, allowing his family's dream to become reality.

The Southwest Florida food scene is evolving rapidly, with exciting developments like dedicated food truck parks creating vibrant community spaces where culinary exploration meets entertainment. Snow Monkey Business has carved out its niche with crowd-pleasing quesadillas and cheesesteaks while staying true to its global inspiration. As Estero locals who fell in love with the area's perfect blend of waterside living and community feel, Roger and his wife embody the entrepreneurial spirit that makes our region special – creating connections through food while remaining deeply customer-focused. Ready to experience these unique flavors? Find Snow Monkey Business on Facebook or text 239-888-9658 to bring this local favorite to your next event!

Snow Monkey Business LLC

Roger Munoz

239-888-9658

Estero, FL 33928

Snow Monkey Business-Facebook

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's time to check out your neighbors on the Good
Neighbor podcast, where we bringgood vibes, great neighbors and
local businesses in SouthwestFlorida together.
Here's your host, Cabo JimSchaller.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome Good Neighbors, episode number 253 of
the Good Neighbor podcast.
Today we have Good NeighborRoger Munoz from Snow Monkey
Business.
Welcome, thank you, sir.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, absolutely so.
Let's jump right in.
And why don't you share alittle bit?
Well, what does Snow MonkeyBusiness do?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
So we are a food truck.
We started about over a yearago.
We are local here to Estero andwe had a pretty good start and
we do all kinds of foods.
Our license is through theDepartment of Hotels and
Restaurants, so we're very, veryflexible.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Okay, very nice, very nice.
So I guess let's back up yourstory a little bit.
How do you get involved in thefood truck business?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
So this was a dream of my wife's for a very, very
long time.
So I'm a retiree, served for 21years.
When we retired in 2017, wetook some traveling time.
You know, we went through theSouth Pacific Islands and we saw
the variety of you knowdifferent things.
You know street foods.
You know.
Have you ever seen videos ofThailand and all those places?

(01:21):
You know of Thailand and allthose places you know?
And one thing that caught hereye was the boba tea.
You know, simply because it'spopular in Asian countries.
But even Starbucks now, youknow, is throwing some flavors
of boba teas in there and evenback in, you know, 2000,.
I think it was 2020, you know,when we came back and she was
like you know well, we saw sodifferent things.

(01:43):
You know different countries,but nobody has the idea of
putting everything together Food, boba tea and snow ice.
Snow ice is different than youknow.
Your regular shave ice, right,you shave the ice.
You know you put some syrups,you know, and that's it.
No, this is a machine thatsuper cools.
You know, whatever mixture youput in there and it turns it
into flavor Ah, snow, literally.

(02:05):
And then you decorate it withfresh fruits syrups.
It's delicious and people loveit, especially in summer.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Especially down here with the heat Summer coming on
us, right?
Yes, sir.
So let's talk about challengesalong your journey, whether
personally or professionally.
But obviously starting abusiness from scratch is a
challenge in itself, but isthere anything that helped kind
of define who you are today?

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yes, you know, I think you know my service in the
military 21 years.
You know, kind of like set theground for don't give up.
You know, no matter how manyobstacles you see the food truck
industry is, I'm not going tosay it's easy, you know, because
there's nothing out there thatyou know that will tell you how
to start a food truck companyfrom the ground up, especially

(02:55):
if you're trying to do itlegally Right, you know that's
the key right there.
So I think that's.
I found a lot of challenges atthe beginning, you know, because
all the red tape, inspections,you know, and all the licensing,
but that I didn't give up, youknow my wife, that was her dream
and I just pushed through it.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
And there's a lot of regulations and policies you got
to follow, especially with afood truck more so than a
restaurant, we'd say, right, yes, sir, a food truck.
More so than a restaurant?
We'd say, right, yes, sir, yes.
So let's talk about maybe themyths or misconceptions
surrounding what you do, andmaybe we could clear up some of
those for our listeners today.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
I think it's a.
I'm going to caveat for what Isaid before.
You know, with the licensing,like you were saying, you know
the policies.
I think some people you knowtend to look at pricing at a
food truck and they might thinkit's a little bit too expensive
but at the same time themisconception is it probably is
cheaper to run a food truck thanit is a restaurant and in some
cases it's actually.

(03:54):
Your overhead is very, very,very high Between your
commercial auto insurance forvehicle or vehicles depends on
your setup, and then you'restill going to have your LLC
liability insurance for thebusiness.
So you combine all those it'salso very over a gram per month.
If you have a good system thenyou're going to need some sort

(04:16):
of a storage where you canactually plug in your system
that your overhead just keepsshooting through the roof.
Also, like you said about thelicenses, licenses are not cheap
.
You know.
Just to maintain the inspectionsyou got to maintain a contract
with a commercial kitchen.
That's every six months.
So all of that requires us mywife and I we both actually

(04:38):
certified food protectionmanagers, which is a requirement
you know for to have a fullblown license with the
department hotels andrestaurants.
So that alone tells you thatyour food is being prepared, is
being handled properly.
So this is the safety for thecustomer also.
So I think the misconceptionsometimes is the food trucks

(05:00):
tend to be a little bitexpensive.
But if that food truck is fullycertified, you need to
understand that it's a lot, alot, a lot of investment that
goes into it.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, it's just not showing up with a truck and
cooking some food.
There's a lot that's preparedin advance and regulations and
guidelines you need to follow tomake sure it's safe for
everybody.
So do you notice anythingtrending in the industry lately?
I know food trucks have becomevery popular in the last, you
know, 10 years or so, but do younotice anything changing or
trending?

Speaker 3 (05:32):
One thing that is trending right now is actually
your I would say your food truckparks per se, and it had to do
with, I would say, counties andlocal leaders being more
involved, you know, in trying togive people more options.
So it's a good thing.
I know the Fort Myers hasapproved one.
Fort Myers Beach is going to bedown the road on Estero

(05:54):
Boulevard, I think.
Very nice.
You have the backyard socialright here by the airport RSW.
Also, it's a pretty goodentertainment area and you know.
So these things are poppingeverywhere where you can stop by
.
You're going to have a bar,you're going to have
entertainment, you're going tohave food trucks and you can
walk around and pick your foodtruck, whatever food you want.

(06:16):
Also, you can have drinks, theycan have live music,
entertainment and all thosethings.
So for the food truck industrythat's very exciting, right?
Because all of those things arecoming up the proper way.
So I think that's going tobring a different flavor and
it's going to bring a different,I will say, food scene, you
know, to Southwest Florida, yes,Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
You know and I love the variety of your menu, just
in general.
Any particular favorites onyour menu?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
So, you know, since our license is with the
department of hotels andrestaurants, we can.
You know, like I said, it'svery flexible, we can change it
and we tried so many things, youknow.
So we narrowed down to what wehave right now is because it's
what we saw out there.
You know what we saw travelingto different countries, even
parts of the United, and youknow just what people want.

(07:06):
You know that's a key thingright there.
So we narrowed it down to twotypes of quesadillas, you know
you can have your skirt steakand your southwestern chicken.
You know, and those two becamepopular.
As soon as we put them out, wenoticed that people were like
you know, this is good, man.
Also, the cheesesteaks you knowwe have a cheese steak and a

(07:28):
chicken filling, um, you know.
So the same thing, you know.
We, we went online, saw a lotof people how they were cooking
them.
We try around, you know, we hadpeople try them out and they're
like you know, well, this is,this is really good.
Uh, you know.
So I think that the key thingwith the menu, you know, it's
just, you have to try it out,you have to let people try it,
you have to put yourself outthere and just accept the

(07:48):
criticism.
You know, make changes.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
That's it Adjust to what the people want, what
they're demanding.
Absolutely that's.
Being flexible is important.
So you mentioned you were inthe military.
Are you from Southwest Floridaoriginally?

Speaker 3 (08:03):
So I grew up in Manhattan, new York City, okay,
71st and New York Avenue.
But you know, back in 2006, Ihad the opportunity to come down
to Jacksonville, florida, sothat's what I used to do for the
Marines.
You know there's a small outfitout there.
You know we were there for sixmonths and the wife and I we

(08:24):
traveled all around Floridaduring that time and the moment
we crossed the state, you know,we got to this side and we're
like, you know, this is the spot.
You know, hands down.
You know there's no way.
You know we tried Texas.
You know we lived in California,san Diego, for a while, you
know, and they're like no, it'sjust a combination of things.

(08:50):
You know proximity to, you know, to the waters.
I love fishing in my own time,you know I do short fishing for
sharks.
I go to Bonita, you know, and Icatch like five, six footers,
nice, and catch, you know,barracuda and a whole bunch of
other fish too.
So that was important for us.
You know itself, the areaEstero itself kind of caught our
eyes, simply because back inthe day when we were looking, it

(09:11):
was small enough that it feltlike it was comfortable for us
to call it home Later, down theroad.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
And it's growing nicely.
It's got a good mix of youngand old and new things happening
here, such as the food trucksand everything, so I love it.
So I know owning a business canbe very demanding.
You mentioned fishing, but isthere anything else you love to
do outside of when you do getthem in a free time?

Speaker 3 (09:38):
You know, just spend time with friends and family,
you know, just get back to thebasics.
You know, sometimes you get sobusy that I think you forget,
you know, about the people inyour life, and then I think
that's something you know wehave to remember.
So we make the time, you knowlike to get ahold of family and
invite them over, you know, goto their house, and we find time
to do that all the time, youknow, we have her family over,

(09:58):
or my family, which is the caseright now.
Know, um, my family's going tobe here this weekend, all the
way until, I think it'swednesday, and then her family
comes in.
Uh, she's originally, uh, herfamily is originally from taiwan
.
Okay, you know.
So, uh, yeah, you just, youknow, spend time with friends
and family, you know that's theimportant part.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
That's why we do all this right to enjoy life with
the people we love.
Yes, sir.
So is there one thing you wishour listeners knew about Snow
Monkey that maybe they wouldn'tbe too aware of?

Speaker 3 (10:31):
You know that we are actually very friendly, we are
customer-driven, we are local toEstero.
I think a lot of people don't.
Especially in Estero we find alot of businesses, a lot of
events, you know, that tend tooverlook, you know, the
businesses that actually likefrom here.
Sterile is very small, you know, yep.
So that's one thing that youknow.

(10:53):
I think that, like, your showsactually help, you know, I guess
a lot of people don't, don't,don't see that, you know, and
sometimes we see, you know, andwe're like right, yeah, we
couldn't get in there, butsomebody from like you know,
like two hours away, you know,managed to get in there, you
know.
So I don't know, uh, it's justa food truck.

(11:14):
You know, industry, the way itis marketing is very hard, you
know, to do.
Yeah, it's just it's not like arestaurant.
You know, uh, that you canactually do all these great
things.
You know, um know, but that'sone thing we like people to know
that we are here locally, youknow, and you know our calendar
is open, you know, yep.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Support your local business and your neighbors,
absolutely so.
How would our listeners goabout contacting you if they
wanted to check you out orwanted to hire you?

Speaker 3 (11:41):
for an event.
So we are on Facebook.
It's Snow Monkey Business LLC.
An event.
So we are on facebook.
Uh, it's no, it's no monkeybusiness uh, llc.
Um, we also have a phone numberat 239-888-9658.
That's a 239-888-9658, and theycan send us a text.
You know, call us and make areservation or, you know, invite
us to events, uh, but facebookhas been the uh force, uh,

(12:04):
behind all of this, even thoughthough you know Facebook is not
supposed to be a businessmarketing tool.
But you know, southwest FloridaFood Trucks is actually a page.
You know it's a group thatpeople can find and you go in
there.
You're going to find all sortsof food trucks.
You know, like who's available,who's doing what, or just type
in your event and whoever'savailable is going to start

(12:26):
sending in their menus and theirtimelines.
You know availability, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
That's it.
It's all about connecting thecommunity.
Well, roger, it's been apleasure getting to know you.
First of all, thank you foryour service as well.
Thank you, thank you for beingsuch a good neighbor as well,
too, so we hope to see you outin the community soon.
Yeah, thank you, sir.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Thank you for listening to the good neighbor
podcast, bringing together goodvibes, great neighbors, local
businesses in Southwest Florida.
To nominate your favorite localbusiness to be featured on the
show, go to Cabo Wabo Jim.
com.
That's Cabo Wabo Jim.
com.
Or call two, three, nine, four,two, seven, four, one, zero,
zero.
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