August 15, 2024 • 47 mins
Can a food truck park truly become a community hub without charging vendors for parking? Tune in to our latest episode of the Walk-In Talk Podcast as we chat with David Chan, the mastermind behind Brandon Food Truck Park. We explore his innovative approach to fostering a vibrant culinary scene and delve into his strategies for attracting foot traffic and keeping truck owners happy. Get ready to hear about the diverse range of foods available, from tantalizing tacos to succulent barbecue ribs, and the potential introduction of new offerings like dessert.
In the second half of the episode, we celebrate a monumental achievement for our co-host Jeffrey Schlissel, who has just released a groundbreaking hybrid cookbook focusing on mental health and food addiction. Jeffrey opens up about the inspiration behind his book and the unique design choices that make it stand out. He also shares heartfelt testimonia
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Thank you for listening to the Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and Company. Our show not only explores the exciting and chaotic world of the restaurant business and amazing eateries but also advocates for mental health awareness in the food industry.
Our podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the industry. Don't miss out on upcoming episodes where we'll continue to cook up thought-provoking discussions on important topics, including mental health awareness.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello Food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk Podcast,where you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We're recording on site at IvisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
If you missed it, be sure youcatch last week's episode with
(00:29):
chef educator Suzanne Greer.
She's a firecracker and she's agreat human being.
Go back and listen.
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One of my favorites is the CrabRangoon.
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Visit them atcrabislandseafooddipcom.
(00:53):
So interesting news Walk Talk isgoing to be on site at the
University of Tennessee in twoweeks to cover an episode of
Kitchen Storage Makeover.
This is an amazing contestcreated by Metro Storage and
Distribution Systems.
Walk Talk's own Pooch Riveraand Glenn Haggerty of Pius Media
will be capturing the entireadventure along the way.
(01:15):
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Learn how to become acontestant on IG at Metro Food
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Check them out.
All right.
So who's an entrepreneur?
I am Well.
Today we meet a fellow whodecided to open up a food truck
park so he and his lovely wifecould improve their culinary
(01:37):
options in their area, and thatarea needs it.
So this is a really great thing.
These are my kind of peopleright there, because one day
they will feed me.
It's true, that's going to beDavid Chan, owner of Brandon
Food Truck Park.
He's on deck.
Stand by for that.
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Listen here.
Before we get started, I wantto be the first on-air
(01:58):
personality to congratulate ourman chef podcast co-host and
author, jeffrey schlissel.
Congrats.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
thank you, jefferson it's really weird to hear that
author right, yeah, you know,but thank you very much, I
appreciate that I know that thisis a big moment for you, so my
intention is to actually justsuck up all the attention.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
why don't you go ahead and take a minute, maybe
30 seconds, for what John says?
Take a little, take a fewseconds here to explain what the
book is and where people canfind it.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
The book is a hybrid really.
It's a cookbook, self-help, andit was pretty much started.
My friend, amelia Levon, saidwhy don't you do a cookbook on
mental health?
And I didn't want to come outthe gate doing something that's
straight mental health.
I mean, obviously, being a chef, you want to do something
different, but I think one ofthe things in the restaurant
industry that we have we needmore of is people that know that
(02:55):
it's okay to not to be okay andmental health is a big thing.
With me in 2018.
I really became an advocate anddid a lot of presentations for
the American Culinary Federation, cater source and different
other entities that I've beentalking about mental health and
it's just my journey about foodaddiction and I wanted to do
something that showcase things alittle bit differently and the
(03:18):
the point of the book, or themessage of the book, is being
conveyed in the right way, and Ilove that, because that's the
thing that you want to do whenyou develop a book is you want
to have that message out there.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
If it is about a message, so I have the book, I
bought it and apparently Ibought it at a higher price,
thanks Amazon.
But that's fine for you, man, Iappreciate that For you.
I spend the extra.
I'm not making that muchscuttle from it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Trust, shuddle from it.
Trust you will, though this isgoing to be a big deal for you
and you're wait.
Where do you ranked right now?
19th in self-help, 1006 incookbooks, which is there's a
hundred thousand.
And then there's 32.4 millionbooks on amazon's pro shopping
cart or pro platform that's theword I want to look for and I'm
ranked 25 000, and we justlaunched.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Friday yeah, that's really awesome.
It's sitting on my kitchentable and I intend to dive into
this thing.
I just got it like a day and ahalf ago, so I need to carve out
the time, but I understand.
I mean, you kind of kept itquiet for a long time as this
thing was getting put together.
Apparently, john and I arescattered throughout the book.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
There's a lot of people that have touched my life
in a way that I wanted toshowcase how they helped me
through my journey or to turn meinto the person I am today.
One in particular was CleveBrown, who is the manager to
Kool and the Gang, and if youlook through the book and you
see Kool and it's spelled K O L,it's I'm showing props because
(04:46):
he had such an influence on my,my growing up in my twenties
it's almost like a celebration.
See what you did there, that wasa dad joke.
100% Cleve's going to love that.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It's for you, cleve.
But what's funny is I've gottena lot of people that reached
out to me and said listen, ofpeople that reached out to me
and said, listen, I.
What I know from his book isit's it's okay not to be okay
and it's you're never alone andyou can reach out anytime, and
it's one of those beautifulthings.
Tina Davis, I got to give her ashout out.
She inboxed me.
She's like I'm eating dinnerand I'm reading your book and I
thought I stained it with somesteak juice.
(05:17):
I did some things there when Iwanted to be different.
I wanted to showcase thingsdifferently.
I didn't want to have stagnantwhite paper, black writing on it
, especially with John'sbeautiful photography.
So we did a little bit of likewater stains or coffee stains or
juice, whatever it is, andthey're scattered throughout the
whole recipes.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, you know, I don't know if anybody would
understand what a water stain is, but that's totally, totally
fine.
People from New York.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Understand what's the name of the book.
It's called Craveable ObsessedJournals of a Food Addicted Chef
.
It's on Amazon.
It's actually doing so wellthat Amazon's algorithm, as you
mentioned, dropped it down 23%.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It's like $38 now.
Don't say that Now peoplearen't going to go out and buy
anything.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
He's doing good enough?
No, no, no.
It's not good enough.
It's about the message.
It's not about the money, it'sabout the message If it helps
one person, exactly, just onelife.
That's what it's all about forme.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
You know what?
People don't buy it.
No, I'm kidding.
Go out there, Get this book,Check it out.
It's on Amazon.
I'll put the.
You know what?
Because it's you dude, I'll putthe link in the.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I appreciate that and you know it'll be.
Are we done with?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
this?
Yeah, I think so.
Can we move on?
Yeah, I'm kidding, I love, I'mreally.
I'm actually really thrilledfor you, dude, I appreciate that
.
Yeah, when we do our cookbook,I might mention you.
All right, all right.
So, david chan, welcome to theprogram.
How are you?
You, I'm doing good, thank you.
All right, man.
All right, so check this out.
Let me just set this up.
(06:49):
For the last year or so, I drivedown Lithia Pinecrest this is
in Lithia, florida, nearRiverview, off kind of outskirts
of Tampa, and there's a certainpart of this once you get past
a certain area, there's like nomore life for a while, right,
(07:11):
and one day I'm driving and Inoticed a food truck I mean,
we're in the food industry hereand I saw a food truck like a
lonely food truck, and I said tomyself, boy, I wonder what that
guy's doing there.
He must own the property.
That food truck must just livethere, right, didn't think
anything about it.
Over the course of months,weeks and months, I started
seeing more food trucks and thenI saw string lights and then I
just said, wow, actually there'ssome action happening there.
(07:32):
And around that same time, I sawon Instagram what popped up is
is, you know, brandon, foodtrucks, all of a sudden, food
truck park, and all of a suddenI made this, this.
I had this epiphany, you know,and it exploded in my mind.
I said I bet you that's thesame, it's gotta be the same
place.
So anyway, david, I reached outto you.
(07:53):
We've been communicating and itis in fact you are he with,
with the, with the truck park,and I think that's really
awesome.
So congratulations on thatventure and this episode with
you, we are going to go fullentrepreneur status with you.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Okay, Thank you.
Thank you again for inviting me.
I'm probably one of those rarepeople you would invite that
actually doesn't even know howto cook.
I can't call myself a chef, mywife does most of the cooking at
home but what we created in ourvision, I think it would
definitely have a great impactto entrepreneurs out there, new
(08:36):
startups, food trucks becausethere's a lot of struggles that
they have when they're mobile,when they're traveling around,
when they're finding water power, and they have to stay
compliant at the same time.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Well, your value proposition when you first
started this off was veryinteresting.
We had a conversation on thephone yesterday.
You explained that you didn'tcharge.
Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Talk a little bit about why.
Talk a little bit about why.
When we first invested intothis property, we thought that
if we were able to concentratefood trucks in one location to
become a food court, not onlymyself and my family can enjoy
it, the community can enjoy itas well, and that also gives a
leg up to new trucks or anytrucks that are out there trying
(09:24):
to make a living.
So when I started this I wasthinking, all right, let's just
not charge anything to park withus and see how that works out.
And even then still, like youmentioned, when you drive down
Lithia you may have saw onetruck, two trucks, three trucks,
(09:45):
and maybe a week later they'llnever open, they usually close.
There'll be more trucks laterand then they'll go.
It's just the nature of foodtrucks, they're mobile, right.
So to kind of retain them inone location and have them build
food I mean foot traffic is.
It's a struggle, it's a balancethat has to be, you know, kind
(10:10):
of just it takes time in orderto build that food traffic.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
So what do you do to generate not just traffic but an
experience?
What do you do to bring peoplein on a regular basis in order
to have the truck owners, youknow, keep the doors open longer
.
You know, make themselves moreavailable, whatnot?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
When you have, when you're building a park like this
.
It's a very unique business.
The way to kind of capture andmotivate trucks to stay and
retain with us would take you tosell your vision to them.
You would tell them about whatthe plans are, if there's a time
(10:56):
frame, how we're going toachieve it, and with that some
trucks do understand and see thevision there and believe it and
they would actually commit toit.
So some of these trucks havebeen with us for longer than
half a year and some of thoseduring that time there wasn't
much trucks at all, so somewould stay, some would go, but
(11:19):
over time we'll collect a goodamount of them.
Tacos that's your favoritetruck, that's one of my favorite
trucks and the barbecue ribsand the barbecue ribs.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yes, okay, so they're there.
Are they kind of like staplesor anchors in that park right
now?
More or less, yes, okay, isthere, I'm going to get to
something here.
Is there a pizza truck?
There is Now.
Wait a minute.
We spoke on the phone and notvery many people that I have
conversations with canunderstand or appreciate Spumoni
(11:52):
Gardens, the LNB.
We need to find, we must.
Did you see that face?
I didn't, but we must find.
I'm looking this way.
We've got to find how to getthat kind of pie, or I should
say squares, here.
Man, what do we do?
Do you know a guy we could usethe house?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, we could use the house to do that.
I mean, there is a vacant housethere right, there is a
property on the lot there and wecan do that.
But there is one challengethough, which I I have looked
into it.
I think the water down water Iknew you.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I knew you were the water.
I knew you were gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I knew you were gonna do it.
There is gonna have to.
There's definitely a differencein the water.
I think that that may change.
Just here's why I don't thinkso you don't think so okay, I
don't there's a.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
There's a place not far from where I'm at.
I'm a little bit south, furthersouth of you, where that
property is, and of course, Ican't think of the name right
now but there's a pizzeria notfar from me the guy's from he's
actually from Brooklyn and hedoes a fantastic job.
Now, it's not like it isn't?
(13:05):
It's no L&B, but it's reallygood.
There's only one L&B.
There's only one, and I don'tthink the water has anything to
do with how they're going to putout that product.
With that said, we need to finda suitable alternative to
Spumoni Gardens.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, but the other problem too is's the thing like
for me as a chef.
I travel to New York and that'swhere I want to go to get
pizzas that place.
But if I'm here in Florida, Iwant to go to a place that's
going to have a really goodpizza.
So let it be the one.
And to your point about waterthere are some pastry chefs that
will be listening and be likewater has no effect.
(13:42):
It chefs that will be listeningand be like water has no effect
.
It's actually the, the flour,it's the the sauce, gravy cheese
, like it's all those differentaccoutrements that are going
along with it.
Water to me is not that, it'sirrelevant like.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
By the way, by the way you say it, we know you
don't care about no, it's, it's.
You bastardize it.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
But brooklyn water bagels.
They were all it's going to be,just like.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
No, it's you know what's funny about that?
Real quick side note.
You know, being families fromup there, grew up there also for
a little bit, and how oh yeah,the water's so good you drink it
.
You know how old the pipes arethere it's super old.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
They're like a hundred years old.
It's older than that, more thanthat and do you know what kind
of?
How disgusting that's got toreally be, I would agree.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Even though when you drink it it's good.
But really is it I?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
don't know.
I mean, after going throughthose pipes, most of the houses
there are older than probablyall of us combined here.
He's pretty old.
I was waiting for it.
But going back, there'sactually a machine online.
If you go on Google, there's amachine online that actually
(14:51):
says that it does the same typeof filtering New York does.
So you're actually able to buythat machine and create New York
water.
Now again, yes, it's probably,that's just Does it come with a
bridge.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Does it come with a bridge?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Does it come with?
Speaker 1 (15:05):
a bridge.
They sell you the BrooklynBridge too, right.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, no, I want to know.
Does it have the contaminantsthat are in the water too?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I would absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
We are talking about New York.
It's not the cleanest place.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
It comes with the Listen.
It's a different place todaythan it once was.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I agree, I absolutely agree.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
All right.
So let's get back to the parkand, by the way, we're not going
to forget about the empty houseand all the cool stuff that
there are many, many potentials,because I don't know if you
noticed or knew, but we're doingcooking events.
So part of our success, I feel,is our success is the fact that
we don't just get behind a micand talk and maybe say something
(15:48):
funny once in a while orwhatever it's actually we're
doing.
So we are doing dinner collabswith high-end chefs and high-end
restaurants and we'rehighlighting farms and we're
doing all these things and we'reconnecting brands and buyers.
We're doing a lot of stuff.
(16:12):
So when you're talking abouthaving a, a house to to throw a
party per se, yeah, man, there'sa ton, a ton that we can do.
But let's, let's talkchallenges for a second.
How, how rough is it to keepthe the park full?
Like, how, how were you, howwere you finding actual trucks?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, so, aside from offering zero fees to park with
us, zero commitment on top ofthat, again going back to
sharing the vision and doingmore development into the park,
what was actually a turningpoint was when we started adding
(16:48):
electricity, water, potablewater, wastewater, commercial
waste bins, restrooms, you knoweverything that they need to be
compliant.
That kind of started helpingwith them to kind of work with
us and grow with us.
So that kind of keptretainership, but again the
(17:11):
still the challenge of havingthem continue to operate at the
schedule that they originallytold me they would.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I love that one.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
That becomes difficult right After a couple
of weeks.
Again, the nature of trucksthey're mobile, they can come
and go if they wish.
So it was a challenge, but Ithink the main ingredient in
order to build a food truck parkand this is to all other food
truck parks, that has reachedout to me, that spoke to me, to
all other food truck parks thathas reached out to me, that
(17:45):
spoke to me I told them the samething, because we fought the
same struggles that it justtakes time, commitment and don't
give up and keep going.
I'm not saying that we'resuccessful in any.
I mean from the park, from whatI envision it to be, is still a
long way to go.
There's still a lot more workto do.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I mean, they have these mobile axe throwing, you
know the axe throwing stuff likebetween that or Carnival type
of things Carnival, yeah,exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, they
also have mobile bar units thatcan be there too, so there's a
bunch that you can definitely do.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I had yesterday's funny a mobile, A mobile cell
phone repair trailer, reachedout yesterday and asked the park
and I'm like I don't think thatkind of falls into food.
But you know, it's just a lotof things.
But if it brings traffic itbrings traffic.
Haircut, you know salons mobile, it's in the van, so that.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I can tell you with assurance, would be phenomenal.
No, because, like the placethat I go to, yeah, I've been in
tampa now tampa area for abouteight years, something like that
, and I usually keep my barberfor decades.
That's how that's just how I getdown yes, the place that my
barber is at the ac is alwaysout.
(19:05):
Something happens I I want atowel.
You know hot towels.
I'm at a towel Like what areyou doing?
But he's great.
I wish that cat had anotherplace to kind of just go and do
his deal.
That would be phenomenal,because I feel like that's not
just unique to my shop.
I feel like that's probablyeverywhere.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
No, no, it's actually that they actually travel in a
van and when you sit downthere's a seat with all
everything they need and itlooks like a barber.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I'm sorry I have this image of dogs the groomer, you
know, in the top and you're upon the table.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Can I get a bath too?
Can I get a bath while I'mthere?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
put me in a oh my god , I would pay good money to see
that, if that was his, butthat's not the weirdest one.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
The weirdest one was actually a mobile gym that came
to us.
Literally, they had gymequipment and it was a bus, it
was a large bus with gymequipment.
During discussion with thisvendor I was like, well know,
it's outside, it's like 110degrees right, and you have all
(20:11):
this gym equipment that you kindof just expose out, you kind of
you can actually bend outforward with all these stuff
that you can have your.
I guess your subscribers wereexercise with and I was.
I don't know if this is goingto be something and then you put
them next to food, well, itwould have to be next to, like
the.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And then you put them next to food.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Well it would have to be next to like the Vitamix.
No, you know what it's like.
That's like being at your houseand having a workout, and then
the refrigerator is right there.
So now you have the bus, that'sgot the workout, and the
refrigerator is the food truck.
How?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
do you think I, how do you think you wouldn't?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
go in there.
That's a cool bus.
Let me go get a hot dog.
Wait a minute.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Wait a minute.
Well, that's what I'm trying totell you.
I work out six, seven hours aday, seven days a week, but you
wouldn't tell because you knowwhat.
I go straight to the fridge andeat six, seven hot dogs.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
That's what it's doing.
At least you admitted it.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Oh man, eight, nine hot, I really eat them a lot.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, and I know you don't work out six to seven
hours a day.
No, I don't.
I don't do that, especiallywhen you're getting up at 3 30
in the morning the post.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Actually, since I've had children, I haven't seen a
gym.
I haven't.
I hardly can, I don't want toeven do push-ups you're not the
only one I feel the same wayside note daughter's nine, right
.
So nine years ago or eight anda half years ago, no, nine and a
half years ago, excuse me I wasdoing muay thai.
You know I was, it was active,I was doing stuff, it was fun
(21:37):
and then so you're blaming yourkid on that.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
That's really messed up, bro.
Love her so much and him.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Both of them.
I love them, but uh, yeah, no,when it comes to like, uh, you
know extracurricular stuff oryour own self, just toilet bowl
Sounds about right.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
But how did you come up with the idea?
And you said, hey, I'm going todo a food truck park, food
truck park, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Me and my wife, before we had kids, would go
above and beyond to travel todifferent places to eat the food
that we for what we werecraving for that day.
Right, and we would do that.
And we miss those days wherefood food variety was, you know,
is just abundant.
(22:19):
So I was like you know what,let's try this and see.
And, to be honest, my mothertold me I'm crazy, right, she's
like what are you?
What are you doing?
Just just build a house on itand do something else with it,
right, or lease it out tosomebody else?
And I'm like, no, I'm justgonna try to park food trucks
and see what, what happens.
(22:39):
And it was wooded there too, soI had to cut down all the trees.
There's a ton of trees, andafter you cut all the trees,
then there's all this mulch onthe floor that you have to wait
and start to rotting, andthere's just a ton of things
that have to be kind ofconsidered and worked out.
But you know, over time, one ofthe things that you know that
(23:00):
it's valuable to me is, otherthan the experience, it's
meeting these people andunderstanding their struggle,
because all of them have uniquestruggles, some more or less
similar, but all of them havedifferent struggles and when
talking to these people, youlearn a lot, and it gives me
satisfaction to be able to helpthem and provide a platform for
them to exercise their culinaryskills and whatnot.
(23:23):
So there's a lot of value to it, which I didn't expect.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
There's a lot of value to it, which I didn't
expect.
So when you're actually havingconversation and learning other
people's struggles, it'sactually it's in concert with
your own struggle with the park,right?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yes, yes, they might not know, but it gives me kind
of some.
I guess it makes me feel alittle better knowing that they
also have the same struggle.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
More or less it is.
Yeah, it's validation.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Because building the park, they understand it's
difficult.
One of the main things that Ididn't want to do was build the
park on their expense.
We'll have to do it on both ourexpense and make it fair.
And I got a number of trucksthat have came over to me from
other parks and which has toldme that you know, the way, the
(24:17):
method I'm doing it or thephilosophy I'm applying to this
they feel is, you know, a lotmore sustainable than you know
maybe elsewhere.
I can't speak for any otherplaces, but you know they think
that something like this isworth their time.
And you know, to some extent weall walk the same ground.
(24:39):
We breathe the same air, right,we're going to have the same
struggles, more or less.
If they can understand that,you know I need time to
implement certain newdevelopments at the park.
I would also understand thatthey can't operate seven days a
week because they're onlyoperating themselves, right.
(25:00):
So there has to be a middleground between us.
So it's always a constantbalance between that.
But through that we build arelationship, a trust, and I
think I learn a lot from thatand that also gives me
satisfaction because I'm outthere actually doing something
(25:22):
much more impactful than mynine-to-five job, which I still
do my IT.
My boss doesn't listen to this,but but but you know, I'm an IT
project manager.
Yeah, you know it's, it'sboring stuff and it's constant
chasing.
You know resources to do things, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I have never met an IT person that didn't have
something happening on theperiphery.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, I think that just because they're in IT, it
kind of gives them a bit morefreedom with maybe working from
home or hybrid some form of that, and they probably have a bit
more time to just figuresomething out.
But to do something like this,you kind of just got to dive in
and commit yourself.
But to do something like this,you kind of just got to dive in
(26:10):
and commit yourself.
I mean, at first I probablythought about giving up on the
park at least two to three timesand I would probably feel.
I probably think that would bethe same thing for any
entrepreneurs out there.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Trust us.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Like over time, you're just like where is that
validation?
Where is that validation?
Point where like you, youshould keep still moving and
going forward.
Like you committed all thistime money, resource, everything
, and you know when is this evergoing to work right?
So I think we constantly keepasking that question for at
(26:43):
least startups or entrepreneurs.
Oh yeah, we do that every day.
Every day we do.
I look at you and I go why?
Why, for at least startups orentrepreneurs.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Oh yeah, we do that every day.
Every day we do.
I look at you and I go why, why?
Right now, how many trucks doyou have in the lineup?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I have 11 trucks.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Okay, and if you don't know this, it's okay.
Like nobody's judging, we'reall judging, do you know?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
kind of in and about what their concepts are,
Concepts Meaning what they serveright yeah, so you got tacos.
Yeah, we got tacos, we gotbarbecue.
We got, we got, we gotPopulsaria's truck.
I actually don't know what it'scalled.
Populsa, populsa, yeah, populsa.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So that's basically like an arepa and it's stuffed,
it's a cornmeal.
Okay, yeah, it's actually anEcuadorian or Salvadorian kind
of street food, but Buddy ofMine used to do that at
Grandview Public Market.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
We have some chefs from Hard Rock that also created
some special, unique dishesthat I don't know if it's a
specific cuisine, but they havesome food that they also provide
there.
There's also a vegan option.
There's pizza, as we mentionedearlier, and a lemonade truck,
coffee truck, a Phillycheesesteak truck we just signed
(28:00):
up a hibachi truck and we alsogot soul food coming along as
well Ice cream, and there'sactually a couple of trucks that
park with us that don't operate, but they always pull in and
out for events, okay, and theywould use the service there.
Again, most important thing forthem is to be compliant.
(28:21):
So wastewater and gettingpotable water and all that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
What kind of events could be done there?
Did you have anything in mind?
Speaker 3 (28:29):
We actually have an event this Saturday where we
invited a bunch of non-food tentvendors that are setting up
tents selling little craftystuff, and then we also got a
bounce house.
I think there's also a DJ formusic and we're just running a
little event just to see how itgoes.
(28:51):
This is probably our first onethis year, but I mean kind of
limitless, if you think about it, on type of events we could do
yeah, I'm curious what theproperty?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
so I've never stopped .
I see it, you know, becauseit's usually I'm heading to a
specific destination and there'sno deviating off of that,
correct, when I'm going downthat road.
But I do want to go and checkit out just to kind of get the
the, the layout of it, because Iknow you said you've done a lot
of work there, yes, and Ifigured, as soon as I saw the
string lights I was like, oh,they're doing something fun,
(29:23):
like that's going to be a funplace, right?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
yeah yeah, we're trying.
I just recently got like fivetruckloads of dirt and crushed
asphalt just trying to pave moreof the roads Because as we're
getting more traffic the roadsare just getting worse.
So just did that.
There's a lot more developmentto do, but if you do, stop by if
(29:45):
there isn't enough parking onsite there is a lot of parking
across the street where there'sabout 30 medical offices is a
lot of parking across the streetwhere there's about 30 medical
offices, and I know the propertymanager there which we have
kind of worked out.
Most of the time if we do runevents, it's on the weekends.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
There's no one parking in there.
Did you have any challengeslast week with the weather?
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Oh yeah, so one of the things that I do pride
myself in, oh yeah, so one ofthe things that I do pride
myself in in hiring a very greatmanager who is also an
electrician his name's Rob, andhis wife, jen, who helps
maintain the park.
The power was fine.
Every truck had power.
So remember these trucks whenthey park overnight.
(30:30):
If they lose power, all theirgoods can be gone.
Okay, so that's a major thing.
So one of the things we tellall the trucks is to buy this
little monitor that they canconnect to Wi-Fi.
If power goes out, there's analert that goes out there, right
?
So that's one of the thingsthat you know.
(30:50):
But other than that, because ofsome low spots in the park, I
had to get extra dirt andcrushed asphalt just to cover so
we can get the floods.
You know, little puddles ofwater to kind of just mitigate
that.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I mean you, jeff.
You pointed at him when he wastalking about the Wi-Fi and the
thing.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Oh, I see, Of course this guy would know.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Actually't none of that dawned on me.
You can turn that whole thinginto something very uh tech
driven absolutely.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
There are so many things you can do this up here
started like he could do movienights like you know drive-in
movie, and then you have all theconcessions there.
There's different things youcan do there.
There's a.
There's my my head was it'salready going.
My question to you is there atruck?
You're missing because you saidthat you started this because
you want a different out, youwant a different food venues.
(31:47):
Is there one out there that youwere like I wish I had that
truck?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
yes, I would.
Some of of the trucks would beAsian trucks that would serve
some Asian food.
We have we covered most of theones out there, but you know
there are some trucks specific,maybe like dessert trucks, maybe
more desserts.
There has been a lot of tentvendors that has been reaching
(32:12):
out and they would bake bread.
A lot of tent vendors that hasbeen reaching out and they would
bake bread.
Some of them would do, you know, crab ragoon and and a number
of things that that that youknow they would reach out but
trying to put them out, you know, providing space for tent
vendors I the way we design thepark is more catered to food
trucks.
(32:32):
So the the rent rate right nowthat we're trying to, you know
that we have in design is kindof encapsulates all the services
there that the tent may not use, the tent vendors may not use.
So you know it was kind ofdifficult.
And plus, tent vendors alsoneed licensing.
So a lot of them do decide tojust operate during the
(32:54):
Saturdays and Sundays.
So I know there's a demand.
I think lot of them do decideto just operate during the
Saturdays and Sundays.
So I know there's a demand.
I think one day we're going tojust cut out a section just for
tents and see how that works out, but there's a number of things
that we can do on differentevents, do you?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
vet them coming on.
I try as much as I can.
If you need somebody, he's aprofessional taster.
I'm pointing that to Carl.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
I am.
In fact, what I do is that anytruck that do park with us, I do
tell them that, listen, we gotto walk the park together, let's
talk there and just make surethat you know we have what we're
able to provide, what you needto be successful here.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Are they required to be so?
Let's just say, most foodeateries or whatever.
They're gonna be busy Thursday,friday, saturday, sunday,
something like that.
Are they required to be openand there on those days?
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yes, when I do speak with them and I tell them that
if you're gonna park with us,it's mandatory that you have to
be operating at least three tofour days a week with foot
traffic and making sure thattrucks, you know, find it worth
it to stay open longer has beena big challenge, Right?
(34:20):
So you could just imagine,right, if you're fighting that,
and then I'm mandating, I'mtrying to mandate that you
operate at the certain you knowschedule.
It's a dance you know a schedule, it's a dance.
It's a dance and it has to bethat way for quite some time,
until they notice that hey, wow,there's a number of other
trucks that believe in thisplace, then they have to.
(34:41):
Then they will actually committhemselves a bit more.
But then, over time, some ofthese trucks realize that their
consistency is actually payingoff, like the taco truck, like a
couple of other trucks thatthey they noticed that
consistency was paying offbecause the customers could rely
on them being there.
That's a big thing.
So when they started seeingthat, they're like, oh, okay,
(35:03):
then they started committing toopen more hours and they won't
be leaving earlier or shuttingdown earlier or you know,
whatever the reason is.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Are you marketing at the same time, like that part of
that, that common areamaintenance, obviously the cam
you're marketing.
How is that going?
How does?
Is that a?
Is that a selling point, too,for the trucks?
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yes, I would tell them that the park itself would
would do advertisements onsocial media platforms.
I recently bought a giantinflatable gorilla that has our
logo on its chest.
It's 26 feet tall.
Bought that from I have.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Jeffrey I was waiting .
Speaker 3 (35:41):
We can inflate him at the bar.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
I was going to go after you and I was waiting.
I'm like, nah, I'm going to lethim have this one.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
I had this crazy idea of putting that inflatable on
top of that roof on the housethere and just have it stand up.
Do?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
you get challenges from people who live.
I mean, I got to believe that.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
That's an actual absolute.
Yes, he has challenges.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
He didn't even let me finish the question.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
He already answered it.
He's still laughing.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
You could say that I do have personal contacts from
the code enforcement healthdepartment.
I have their numbers, they havemine as well, not because I
know them personally, right Yet?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Oh no, no, he does know them personally, because
people probably are callingcomplaining.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
There has been a couple of complaints.
One of the things was one ofthe truck's operators his
birthday and he asked me David,can I run a little event here
just to have family friends andjust blast the music and whatnot
?
And unfortunately I wasn'tthere to monitor the whole thing
.
The event went from afternoonto late night and the music was
(36:49):
blasting at 9.30, 10 pm and theywere all drunk and obviously
says that that upset some of the, the neighbors which I, the
neighbors, called me directly tofirst.
So I was like okay, let me gothere.
And I took care of it and Ijust just told them that listen,
going forward, you can't bedoing this anymore.
(37:09):
And later on, I think the nextday, the truck left and never
came back.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Well, number one, I can appreciate that, but number
two, why wasn't I invited?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
That was not a party.
If we're not there, you knowwhat I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
I'm just sorry that it's not a party, but I can also
appreciate the whole get off ofmy lawn sort of vibe.
Do you know what I mean At this?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
point there's actually a more recent report
was like how is this possible?
What kind of business is this?
How are they able to operateand just put food trucks onto a
vacant lot and just let themoperate like that?
Why is that?
Why is that legal?
So that was one of thecomplaint from a local, I guess,
citizen there.
(37:50):
And I mean we have the zoning,it's zoned for it.
It's zoned for it.
We have the zoning and the codeenforcement agent which I know,
which took this complaint.
I know him personally and hetried to explain to the person
that the owner went through verydifficult rezoning to actually
(38:13):
be legal, be legal to do whathe's doing.
So so then he told me you know,kind of, just make sure
everything is is in complianceyou know, change does things to
people.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
People don't like change, so obviously this person
that complained probably waslike I don't want this, so let
me complain about it yeah, butisn't that, see?
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I don't know if this is a thing or not, but, like I,
I would say all right, you knowwhat person x?
Come on in, I'd work somethingout with the vendors, take care
of them, make them feel part ofthe family, or something like
that, and make friends with themdo.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
It's like when you first move into a house.
You're going to throw a houseparty.
You're going to ask and inviteall the neighbors around.
I, I'm not inviting anyneighbors.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Nobody likes you, that's not true.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah, it's true, there's going to be people that
may not feel that that's theright thing to do.
I even had someone that maybewas an animal activist who
actually reached out to me onFacebook and mentioned that you
guys are slaughtering animals.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
You know what you need to do.
What you have to do is forward,share with them, with the, the
one of the videos where they'regetting a little piglet and
they're giving it the massageand they're putting a little
like the chapstick on the noseand you know, brushing it and
then, boom, it's right from thegrill you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Send that to them.
That's what you should do, butor you can send me there, I'll
take care of that.
I'll just hold up my arms.
I'm like these are vegans.
What we need to do is get abutchering truck out there.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
That's what we need to do.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Literally killing the animal?
Yeah, like literally.
I would butcher but I would notput down.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yeah, not put down, but to break down, that's what
we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
You want a veal chop?
No problem, I got one.
Come here, come on.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Come here, come here, come here, come here, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
How many pounds of beef do you want Exactly?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
But now we're talking .
Yeah, you know, and if wereally want to shake up the
neighborhood, that's what we do.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
I just want to point something out to and the media
so that you can eat.
He bought property so he caneat.
We're very much the same Goodobservation yeah, I was just
making them like.
You thought of this and hethought of that.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
You know, your intelligence goes beyond where I
think that you really canexpand to.
I'm just trying.
He's pointing to the bookYou're an author.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Anybody can write a book.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
No, no, I mean mean your name is arthur.
All right, david.
Last thing advice food people,non-food people, it people,
entrepreneurial kind of aguidance or advice, what say?
Speaker 3 (40:52):
There is a saying that I've heard and more or less
over time I've I've reallyunderstood it very well and it
goes this way Today is difficult, tomorrow will be worse, the
day after the sun will come out,but most people die tomorrow
(41:14):
evening.
And if you know, you kind ofjust you know, just dwell on
that a little bit.
It kind of.
It kind of sums up you knowentrepreneurship when you don't
give up and you commit yourselfand you keep going and you just
don't stop and and yeah, theremay be people that may tell you
(41:37):
otherwise, listen it might notjust work.
If you could just ignore all thenoise and stay committed and
you're able to prevail in duetime, things will work out most
of the time.
Most of the time, I believethat's just my philosophy and
again, it took a year and a halfand you know and and a lot of
(42:02):
mistakes, you know a lot offeedbacks from everybody and a
lot of learning and experience.
If I gave up, that would havebeen it.
All these trucks would haveactually no place really to kind
of go and say all right, youknow what I want to start this
journey and you know, but doingthis it's going to take, you
(42:24):
know it's going to be verydifficult with trying to go out
there and going to differentevents and have no place to
really, you know, go back to andhave all these services already
provided.
So you know, one of the thingsis in life is just if you don't
give up, I think you know notonly that it will make a huge
impact to yourself but toeverybody else around you.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
So I agree with that 100%, because we're living the
same.
We're living in that samefabric.
I will tell you this the same,we're living in that same fabric
.
I will tell you this there's ameme or a video on social media
where it has this isentrepreneurship.
And it's this little kid with aNerf gun and he shoots himself
in the groin and he startscrying.
That is entrepreneurship.
It's self-inflicted pain, andyet you continue to do it.
(43:10):
Ana, we're wrapping up.
How do people find you?
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Oh, find us on facebook brandon food truck park
.
Instagram, brandon food truckpark.
On our website,brandonfoodtruckparkcom, you can
also find us there and it'sactually I believe there's a
number there which you can callor send an email to excellent
david.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Your lovely wife christina kristin.
Kristin jeffersoncongratulations.
Thank you for coming.
Your book, man.
I can't wait to put it in thegarbage.
John, your lovely wifeChristina Kristen Kristen
Jefferson congratulations, thankyou for coming.
Your book, man.
I can't wait to put it in thegarbage.
John, I love you baby.
Everybody did a great job.
I can't wait to read it.
Dude, congratulations again.
Thank you All.
Right, we are out.
We'll see you next time.
Hello Food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk Podcast,where you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We're recording on site at IvisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
If you missed it, be sure youcatch last week's episode with
(00:29):
chef educator Suzanne Greer.
She's a firecracker and she's agreat human being.
Go back and listen.
All right, I'm intoquality-made smoked fish dips
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It's delicious.
Visit them atcrabislandseafooddipcom.
(00:53):
So interesting news Walk Talk isgoing to be on site at the
University of Tennessee in twoweeks to cover an episode of
Kitchen Storage Makeover.
This is an amazing contestcreated by Metro Storage and
Distribution Systems.
Walk Talk's own Pooch Riveraand Glenn Haggerty of Pius Media
will be capturing the entireadventure along the way.
(01:15):
It's a road trip baby, so it'sgoing to be fun.
Learn how to become acontestant on IG at Metro Food
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Check them out.
All right.
So who's an entrepreneur?
I am Well.
Today we meet a fellow whodecided to open up a food truck
park so he and his lovely wifecould improve their culinary
(01:37):
options in their area, and thatarea needs it.
So this is a really great thing.
These are my kind of peopleright there, because one day
they will feed me.
It's true, that's going to beDavid Chan, owner of Brandon
Food Truck Park.
He's on deck.
Stand by for that.
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Listen here.
Before we get started, I wantto be the first on-air
(01:58):
personality to congratulate ourman chef podcast co-host and
author, jeffrey schlissel.
Congrats.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
thank you, jefferson it's really weird to hear that
author right, yeah, you know,but thank you very much, I
appreciate that I know that thisis a big moment for you, so my
intention is to actually justsuck up all the attention.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
why don't you go ahead and take a minute, maybe
30 seconds, for what John says?
Take a little, take a fewseconds here to explain what the
book is and where people canfind it.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
The book is a hybrid really.
It's a cookbook, self-help, andit was pretty much started.
My friend, amelia Levon, saidwhy don't you do a cookbook on
mental health?
And I didn't want to come outthe gate doing something that's
straight mental health.
I mean, obviously, being a chef, you want to do something
different, but I think one ofthe things in the restaurant
industry that we have we needmore of is people that know that
(02:55):
it's okay to not to be okay andmental health is a big thing.
With me in 2018.
I really became an advocate anddid a lot of presentations for
the American Culinary Federation, cater source and different
other entities that I've beentalking about mental health and
it's just my journey about foodaddiction and I wanted to do
something that showcase things alittle bit differently and the
(03:18):
the point of the book, or themessage of the book, is being
conveyed in the right way, and Ilove that, because that's the
thing that you want to do whenyou develop a book is you want
to have that message out there.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
If it is about a message, so I have the book, I
bought it and apparently Ibought it at a higher price,
thanks Amazon.
But that's fine for you, man, Iappreciate that For you.
I spend the extra.
I'm not making that muchscuttle from it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Trust, shuddle from it.
Trust you will, though this isgoing to be a big deal for you
and you're wait.
Where do you ranked right now?
19th in self-help, 1006 incookbooks, which is there's a
hundred thousand.
And then there's 32.4 millionbooks on amazon's pro shopping
cart or pro platform that's theword I want to look for and I'm
ranked 25 000, and we justlaunched.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Friday yeah, that's really awesome.
It's sitting on my kitchentable and I intend to dive into
this thing.
I just got it like a day and ahalf ago, so I need to carve out
the time, but I understand.
I mean, you kind of kept itquiet for a long time as this
thing was getting put together.
Apparently, john and I arescattered throughout the book.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
There's a lot of people that have touched my life
in a way that I wanted toshowcase how they helped me
through my journey or to turn meinto the person I am today.
One in particular was CleveBrown, who is the manager to
Kool and the Gang, and if youlook through the book and you
see Kool and it's spelled K O L,it's I'm showing props because
(04:46):
he had such an influence on my,my growing up in my twenties
it's almost like a celebration.
See what you did there, that wasa dad joke.
100% Cleve's going to love that.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It's for you, cleve.
But what's funny is I've gottena lot of people that reached
out to me and said listen, ofpeople that reached out to me
and said, listen, I.
What I know from his book isit's it's okay not to be okay
and it's you're never alone andyou can reach out anytime, and
it's one of those beautifulthings.
Tina Davis, I got to give her ashout out.
She inboxed me.
She's like I'm eating dinnerand I'm reading your book and I
thought I stained it with somesteak juice.
(05:17):
I did some things there when Iwanted to be different.
I wanted to showcase thingsdifferently.
I didn't want to have stagnantwhite paper, black writing on it
, especially with John'sbeautiful photography.
So we did a little bit of likewater stains or coffee stains or
juice, whatever it is, andthey're scattered throughout the
whole recipes.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, you know, I don't know if anybody would
understand what a water stain is, but that's totally, totally
fine.
People from New York.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Understand what's the name of the book.
It's called Craveable ObsessedJournals of a Food Addicted Chef
.
It's on Amazon.
It's actually doing so wellthat Amazon's algorithm, as you
mentioned, dropped it down 23%.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It's like $38 now.
Don't say that Now peoplearen't going to go out and buy
anything.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
He's doing good enough?
No, no, no.
It's not good enough.
It's about the message.
It's not about the money, it'sabout the message If it helps
one person, exactly, just onelife.
That's what it's all about forme.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
You know what?
People don't buy it.
No, I'm kidding.
Go out there, Get this book,Check it out.
It's on Amazon.
I'll put the.
You know what?
Because it's you dude, I'll putthe link in the.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I appreciate that and you know it'll be.
Are we done with?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
this?
Yeah, I think so.
Can we move on?
Yeah, I'm kidding, I love, I'mreally.
I'm actually really thrilledfor you, dude, I appreciate that
.
Yeah, when we do our cookbook,I might mention you.
All right, all right.
So, david chan, welcome to theprogram.
How are you?
You, I'm doing good, thank you.
All right, man.
All right, so check this out.
Let me just set this up.
(06:49):
For the last year or so, I drivedown Lithia Pinecrest this is
in Lithia, florida, nearRiverview, off kind of outskirts
of Tampa, and there's a certainpart of this once you get past
a certain area, there's like nomore life for a while, right,
(07:11):
and one day I'm driving and Inoticed a food truck I mean,
we're in the food industry hereand I saw a food truck like a
lonely food truck, and I said tomyself, boy, I wonder what that
guy's doing there.
He must own the property.
That food truck must just livethere, right, didn't think
anything about it.
Over the course of months,weeks and months, I started
seeing more food trucks and thenI saw string lights and then I
just said, wow, actually there'ssome action happening there.
(07:32):
And around that same time, I sawon Instagram what popped up is
is, you know, brandon, foodtrucks, all of a sudden, food
truck park, and all of a suddenI made this, this.
I had this epiphany, you know,and it exploded in my mind.
I said I bet you that's thesame, it's gotta be the same
place.
So anyway, david, I reached outto you.
(07:53):
We've been communicating and itis in fact you are he with,
with the, with the truck park,and I think that's really
awesome.
So congratulations on thatventure and this episode with
you, we are going to go fullentrepreneur status with you.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Okay, Thank you.
Thank you again for inviting me.
I'm probably one of those rarepeople you would invite that
actually doesn't even know howto cook.
I can't call myself a chef, mywife does most of the cooking at
home but what we created in ourvision, I think it would
definitely have a great impactto entrepreneurs out there, new
(08:36):
startups, food trucks becausethere's a lot of struggles that
they have when they're mobile,when they're traveling around,
when they're finding water power, and they have to stay
compliant at the same time.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Well, your value proposition when you first
started this off was veryinteresting.
We had a conversation on thephone yesterday.
You explained that you didn'tcharge.
Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Talk a little bit about why.
Talk a little bit about why.
When we first invested intothis property, we thought that
if we were able to concentratefood trucks in one location to
become a food court, not onlymyself and my family can enjoy
it, the community can enjoy itas well, and that also gives a
leg up to new trucks or anytrucks that are out there trying
(09:24):
to make a living.
So when I started this I wasthinking, all right, let's just
not charge anything to park withus and see how that works out.
And even then still, like youmentioned, when you drive down
Lithia you may have saw onetruck, two trucks, three trucks,
(09:45):
and maybe a week later they'llnever open, they usually close.
There'll be more trucks laterand then they'll go.
It's just the nature of foodtrucks, they're mobile, right.
So to kind of retain them inone location and have them build
food I mean foot traffic is.
It's a struggle, it's a balancethat has to be, you know, kind
(10:10):
of just it takes time in orderto build that food traffic.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
So what do you do to generate not just traffic but an
experience?
What do you do to bring peoplein on a regular basis in order
to have the truck owners, youknow, keep the doors open longer
.
You know, make themselves moreavailable, whatnot?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
When you have, when you're building a park like this
.
It's a very unique business.
The way to kind of capture andmotivate trucks to stay and
retain with us would take you tosell your vision to them.
You would tell them about whatthe plans are, if there's a time
(10:56):
frame, how we're going toachieve it, and with that some
trucks do understand and see thevision there and believe it and
they would actually commit toit.
So some of these trucks havebeen with us for longer than
half a year and some of thoseduring that time there wasn't
much trucks at all, so somewould stay, some would go, but
(11:19):
over time we'll collect a goodamount of them.
Tacos that's your favoritetruck, that's one of my favorite
trucks and the barbecue ribsand the barbecue ribs.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yes, okay, so they're there.
Are they kind of like staplesor anchors in that park right
now?
More or less, yes, okay, isthere, I'm going to get to
something here.
Is there a pizza truck?
There is Now.
Wait a minute.
We spoke on the phone and notvery many people that I have
conversations with canunderstand or appreciate Spumoni
(11:52):
Gardens, the LNB.
We need to find, we must.
Did you see that face?
I didn't, but we must find.
I'm looking this way.
We've got to find how to getthat kind of pie, or I should
say squares, here.
Man, what do we do?
Do you know a guy we could usethe house?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Yeah, we could use the house to do that.
I mean, there is a vacant housethere right, there is a
property on the lot there and wecan do that.
But there is one challengethough, which I I have looked
into it.
I think the water down water Iknew you.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I knew you were the water.
I knew you were gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I knew you were gonna do it.
There is gonna have to.
There's definitely a differencein the water.
I think that that may change.
Just here's why I don't thinkso you don't think so okay, I
don't there's a.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
There's a place not far from where I'm at.
I'm a little bit south, furthersouth of you, where that
property is, and of course, Ican't think of the name right
now but there's a pizzeria notfar from me the guy's from he's
actually from Brooklyn and hedoes a fantastic job.
Now, it's not like it isn't?
(13:05):
It's no L&B, but it's reallygood.
There's only one L&B.
There's only one, and I don'tthink the water has anything to
do with how they're going to putout that product.
With that said, we need to finda suitable alternative to
Spumoni Gardens.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, but the other problem too is's the thing like
for me as a chef.
I travel to New York and that'swhere I want to go to get
pizzas that place.
But if I'm here in Florida, Iwant to go to a place that's
going to have a really goodpizza.
So let it be the one.
And to your point about waterthere are some pastry chefs that
will be listening and be likewater has no effect.
(13:42):
It chefs that will be listeningand be like water has no effect
.
It's actually the, the flour,it's the the sauce, gravy cheese
, like it's all those differentaccoutrements that are going
along with it.
Water to me is not that, it'sirrelevant like.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
By the way, by the way you say it, we know you
don't care about no, it's, it's.
You bastardize it.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
But brooklyn water bagels.
They were all it's going to be,just like.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
No, it's you know what's funny about that?
Real quick side note.
You know, being families fromup there, grew up there also for
a little bit, and how oh yeah,the water's so good you drink it
.
You know how old the pipes arethere it's super old.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
They're like a hundred years old.
It's older than that, more thanthat and do you know what kind
of?
How disgusting that's got toreally be, I would agree.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Even though when you drink it it's good.
But really is it I?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
don't know.
I mean, after going throughthose pipes, most of the houses
there are older than probablyall of us combined here.
He's pretty old.
I was waiting for it.
But going back, there'sactually a machine online.
If you go on Google, there's amachine online that actually
(14:51):
says that it does the same typeof filtering New York does.
So you're actually able to buythat machine and create New York
water.
Now again, yes, it's probably,that's just Does it come with a
bridge.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Does it come with a bridge?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Does it come with?
Speaker 1 (15:05):
a bridge.
They sell you the BrooklynBridge too, right.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, no, I want to know.
Does it have the contaminantsthat are in the water too?
Speaker 3 (15:13):
I would absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
We are talking about New York.
It's not the cleanest place.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
It comes with the Listen.
It's a different place todaythan it once was.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I agree, I absolutely agree.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
All right.
So let's get back to the parkand, by the way, we're not going
to forget about the empty houseand all the cool stuff that
there are many, many potentials,because I don't know if you
noticed or knew, but we're doingcooking events.
So part of our success, I feel,is our success is the fact that
we don't just get behind a micand talk and maybe say something
(15:48):
funny once in a while orwhatever it's actually we're
doing.
So we are doing dinner collabswith high-end chefs and high-end
restaurants and we'rehighlighting farms and we're
doing all these things and we'reconnecting brands and buyers.
We're doing a lot of stuff.
(16:12):
So when you're talking abouthaving a, a house to to throw a
party per se, yeah, man, there'sa ton, a ton that we can do.
But let's, let's talkchallenges for a second.
How, how rough is it to keepthe the park full?
Like, how, how were you, howwere you finding actual trucks?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, so, aside from offering zero fees to park with
us, zero commitment on top ofthat, again going back to
sharing the vision and doingmore development into the park,
what was actually a turningpoint was when we started adding
(16:48):
electricity, water, potablewater, wastewater, commercial
waste bins, restrooms, you knoweverything that they need to be
compliant.
That kind of started helpingwith them to kind of work with
us and grow with us.
So that kind of keptretainership, but again the
(17:11):
still the challenge of havingthem continue to operate at the
schedule that they originallytold me they would.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I love that one.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
That becomes difficult right After a couple
of weeks.
Again, the nature of trucksthey're mobile, they can come
and go if they wish.
So it was a challenge, but Ithink the main ingredient in
order to build a food truck parkand this is to all other food
truck parks, that has reachedout to me, that spoke to me, to
all other food truck parks thathas reached out to me, that
(17:45):
spoke to me I told them the samething, because we fought the
same struggles that it justtakes time, commitment and don't
give up and keep going.
I'm not saying that we'resuccessful in any.
I mean from the park, from whatI envision it to be, is still a
long way to go.
There's still a lot more workto do.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I mean, they have these mobile axe throwing, you
know the axe throwing stuff likebetween that or Carnival type
of things Carnival, yeah,exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, they
also have mobile bar units thatcan be there too, so there's a
bunch that you can definitely do.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I had yesterday's funny a mobile, A mobile cell
phone repair trailer, reachedout yesterday and asked the park
and I'm like I don't think thatkind of falls into food.
But you know, it's just a lotof things.
But if it brings traffic itbrings traffic.
Haircut, you know salons mobile, it's in the van, so that.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I can tell you with assurance, would be phenomenal.
No, because, like the placethat I go to, yeah, I've been in
tampa now tampa area for abouteight years, something like that
, and I usually keep my barberfor decades.
That's how that's just how I getdown yes, the place that my
barber is at the ac is alwaysout.
(19:05):
Something happens I I want atowel.
You know hot towels.
I'm at a towel Like what areyou doing?
But he's great.
I wish that cat had anotherplace to kind of just go and do
his deal.
That would be phenomenal,because I feel like that's not
just unique to my shop.
I feel like that's probablyeverywhere.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
No, no, it's actually that they actually travel in a
van and when you sit downthere's a seat with all
everything they need and itlooks like a barber.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
I'm sorry I have this image of dogs the groomer, you
know, in the top and you're upon the table.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Can I get a bath too?
Can I get a bath while I'mthere?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
put me in a oh my god , I would pay good money to see
that, if that was his, butthat's not the weirdest one.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
The weirdest one was actually a mobile gym that came
to us.
Literally, they had gymequipment and it was a bus, it
was a large bus with gymequipment.
During discussion with thisvendor I was like, well know,
it's outside, it's like 110degrees right, and you have all
(20:11):
this gym equipment that you kindof just expose out, you kind of
you can actually bend outforward with all these stuff
that you can have your.
I guess your subscribers wereexercise with and I was.
I don't know if this is goingto be something and then you put
them next to food, well, itwould have to be next to, like
the.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
And then you put them next to food.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Well it would have to be next to like the Vitamix.
No, you know what it's like.
That's like being at your houseand having a workout, and then
the refrigerator is right there.
So now you have the bus, that'sgot the workout, and the
refrigerator is the food truck.
How?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
do you think I, how do you think you wouldn't?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
go in there.
That's a cool bus.
Let me go get a hot dog.
Wait a minute.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Wait a minute.
Well, that's what I'm trying totell you.
I work out six, seven hours aday, seven days a week, but you
wouldn't tell because you knowwhat.
I go straight to the fridge andeat six, seven hot dogs.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
That's what it's doing.
At least you admitted it.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Oh man, eight, nine hot, I really eat them a lot.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, and I know you don't work out six to seven
hours a day.
No, I don't.
I don't do that, especiallywhen you're getting up at 3 30
in the morning the post.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Actually, since I've had children, I haven't seen a
gym.
I haven't.
I hardly can, I don't want toeven do push-ups you're not the
only one I feel the same wayside note daughter's nine, right
.
So nine years ago or eight anda half years ago, no, nine and a
half years ago, excuse me I wasdoing muay thai.
You know I was, it was active,I was doing stuff, it was fun
(21:37):
and then so you're blaming yourkid on that.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
That's really messed up, bro.
Love her so much and him.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Both of them.
I love them, but uh, yeah, no,when it comes to like, uh, you
know extracurricular stuff oryour own self, just toilet bowl
Sounds about right.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
But how did you come up with the idea?
And you said, hey, I'm going todo a food truck park, food
truck park, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Me and my wife, before we had kids, would go
above and beyond to travel todifferent places to eat the food
that we for what we werecraving for that day.
Right, and we would do that.
And we miss those days wherefood food variety was, you know,
is just abundant.
(22:19):
So I was like you know what,let's try this and see.
And, to be honest, my mothertold me I'm crazy, right, she's
like what are you?
What are you doing?
Just just build a house on itand do something else with it,
right, or lease it out tosomebody else?
And I'm like, no, I'm justgonna try to park food trucks
and see what, what happens.
(22:39):
And it was wooded there too, soI had to cut down all the trees.
There's a ton of trees, andafter you cut all the trees,
then there's all this mulch onthe floor that you have to wait
and start to rotting, andthere's just a ton of things
that have to be kind ofconsidered and worked out.
But you know, over time, one ofthe things that you know that
(23:00):
it's valuable to me is, otherthan the experience, it's
meeting these people andunderstanding their struggle,
because all of them have uniquestruggles, some more or less
similar, but all of them havedifferent struggles and when
talking to these people, youlearn a lot, and it gives me
satisfaction to be able to helpthem and provide a platform for
them to exercise their culinaryskills and whatnot.
(23:23):
So there's a lot of value to it, which I didn't expect.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
There's a lot of value to it, which I didn't
expect.
So when you're actually havingconversation and learning other
people's struggles, it'sactually it's in concert with
your own struggle with the park,right?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yes, yes, they might not know, but it gives me kind
of some.
I guess it makes me feel alittle better knowing that they
also have the same struggle.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
More or less it is.
Yeah, it's validation.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Because building the park, they understand it's
difficult.
One of the main things that Ididn't want to do was build the
park on their expense.
We'll have to do it on both ourexpense and make it fair.
And I got a number of trucksthat have came over to me from
other parks and which has toldme that you know, the way, the
(24:17):
method I'm doing it or thephilosophy I'm applying to this
they feel is, you know, a lotmore sustainable than you know
maybe elsewhere.
I can't speak for any otherplaces, but you know they think
that something like this isworth their time.
And you know, to some extent weall walk the same ground.
(24:39):
We breathe the same air, right,we're going to have the same
struggles, more or less.
If they can understand that,you know I need time to
implement certain newdevelopments at the park.
I would also understand thatthey can't operate seven days a
week because they're onlyoperating themselves, right.
(25:00):
So there has to be a middleground between us.
So it's always a constantbalance between that.
But through that we build arelationship, a trust, and I
think I learn a lot from thatand that also gives me
satisfaction because I'm outthere actually doing something
(25:22):
much more impactful than mynine-to-five job, which I still
do my IT.
My boss doesn't listen to this,but but but you know, I'm an IT
project manager.
Yeah, you know it's, it'sboring stuff and it's constant
chasing.
You know resources to do things, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I have never met an IT person that didn't have
something happening on theperiphery.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, I think that just because they're in IT, it
kind of gives them a bit morefreedom with maybe working from
home or hybrid some form of that, and they probably have a bit
more time to just figuresomething out.
But to do something like this,you kind of just got to dive in
and commit yourself.
But to do something like this,you kind of just got to dive in
(26:10):
and commit yourself.
I mean, at first I probablythought about giving up on the
park at least two to three timesand I would probably feel.
I probably think that would bethe same thing for any
entrepreneurs out there.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Trust us.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Like over time, you're just like where is that
validation?
Where is that validation?
Point where like you, youshould keep still moving and
going forward.
Like you committed all thistime money, resource, everything
, and you know when is this evergoing to work right?
So I think we constantly keepasking that question for at
(26:43):
least startups or entrepreneurs.
Oh yeah, we do that every day.
Every day we do.
I look at you and I go why?
Why, for at least startups orentrepreneurs.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Oh yeah, we do that every day.
Every day we do.
I look at you and I go why, why?
Right now, how many trucks doyou have in the lineup?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
I have 11 trucks.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Okay, and if you don't know this, it's okay.
Like nobody's judging, we'reall judging, do you know?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
kind of in and about what their concepts are,
Concepts Meaning what they serveright yeah, so you got tacos.
Yeah, we got tacos, we gotbarbecue.
We got, we got, we gotPopulsaria's truck.
I actually don't know what it'scalled.
Populsa, populsa, yeah, populsa.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So that's basically like an arepa and it's stuffed,
it's a cornmeal.
Okay, yeah, it's actually anEcuadorian or Salvadorian kind
of street food, but Buddy ofMine used to do that at
Grandview Public Market.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
We have some chefs from Hard Rock that also created
some special, unique dishesthat I don't know if it's a
specific cuisine, but they havesome food that they also provide
there.
There's also a vegan option.
There's pizza, as we mentionedearlier, and a lemonade truck,
coffee truck, a Phillycheesesteak truck we just signed
(28:00):
up a hibachi truck and we alsogot soul food coming along as
well Ice cream, and there'sactually a couple of trucks that
park with us that don't operate, but they always pull in and
out for events, okay, and theywould use the service there.
Again, most important thing forthem is to be compliant.
(28:21):
So wastewater and gettingpotable water and all that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
What kind of events could be done there?
Did you have anything in mind?
Speaker 3 (28:29):
We actually have an event this Saturday where we
invited a bunch of non-food tentvendors that are setting up
tents selling little craftystuff, and then we also got a
bounce house.
I think there's also a DJ formusic and we're just running a
little event just to see how itgoes.
(28:51):
This is probably our first onethis year, but I mean kind of
limitless, if you think about it, on type of events we could do
yeah, I'm curious what theproperty?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
so I've never stopped .
I see it, you know, becauseit's usually I'm heading to a
specific destination and there'sno deviating off of that,
correct, when I'm going downthat road.
But I do want to go and checkit out just to kind of get the
the, the layout of it, because Iknow you said you've done a lot
of work there, yes, and Ifigured, as soon as I saw the
string lights I was like, oh,they're doing something fun,
(29:23):
like that's going to be a funplace, right?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
yeah yeah, we're trying.
I just recently got like fivetruckloads of dirt and crushed
asphalt just trying to pave moreof the roads Because as we're
getting more traffic the roadsare just getting worse.
So just did that.
There's a lot more developmentto do, but if you do, stop by if
(29:45):
there isn't enough parking onsite there is a lot of parking
across the street where there'sabout 30 medical offices is a
lot of parking across the streetwhere there's about 30 medical
offices, and I know the propertymanager there which we have
kind of worked out.
Most of the time if we do runevents, it's on the weekends.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
There's no one parking in there.
Did you have any challengeslast week with the weather?
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Oh yeah, so one of the things that I do pride
myself in, oh yeah, so one ofthe things that I do pride
myself in in hiring a very greatmanager who is also an
electrician his name's Rob, andhis wife, jen, who helps
maintain the park.
The power was fine.
Every truck had power.
So remember these trucks whenthey park overnight.
(30:30):
If they lose power, all theirgoods can be gone.
Okay, so that's a major thing.
So one of the things we tellall the trucks is to buy this
little monitor that they canconnect to Wi-Fi.
If power goes out, there's analert that goes out there, right
?
So that's one of the thingsthat you know.
(30:50):
But other than that, because ofsome low spots in the park, I
had to get extra dirt andcrushed asphalt just to cover so
we can get the floods.
You know, little puddles ofwater to kind of just mitigate
that.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I mean you, jeff.
You pointed at him when he wastalking about the Wi-Fi and the
thing.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Oh, I see, Of course this guy would know.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Actually't none of that dawned on me.
You can turn that whole thinginto something very uh tech
driven absolutely.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
There are so many things you can do this up here
started like he could do movienights like you know drive-in
movie, and then you have all theconcessions there.
There's different things youcan do there.
There's a.
There's my my head was it'salready going.
My question to you is there atruck?
You're missing because you saidthat you started this because
you want a different out, youwant a different food venues.
(31:47):
Is there one out there that youwere like I wish I had that
truck?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
yes, I would.
Some of of the trucks would beAsian trucks that would serve
some Asian food.
We have we covered most of theones out there, but you know
there are some trucks specific,maybe like dessert trucks, maybe
more desserts.
There has been a lot of tentvendors that has been reaching
(32:12):
out and they would bake bread.
A lot of tent vendors that hasbeen reaching out and they would
bake bread.
Some of them would do, you know, crab ragoon and and a number
of things that that that youknow they would reach out but
trying to put them out, you know, providing space for tent
vendors I the way we design thepark is more catered to food
trucks.
(32:32):
So the the rent rate right nowthat we're trying to, you know
that we have in design is kindof encapsulates all the services
there that the tent may not use, the tent vendors may not use.
So you know it was kind ofdifficult.
And plus, tent vendors alsoneed licensing.
So a lot of them do decide tojust operate during the
(32:54):
Saturdays and Sundays.
So I know there's a demand.
I think lot of them do decideto just operate during the
Saturdays and Sundays.
So I know there's a demand.
I think one day we're going tojust cut out a section just for
tents and see how that works out, but there's a number of things
that we can do on differentevents, do you?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
vet them coming on.
I try as much as I can.
If you need somebody, he's aprofessional taster.
I'm pointing that to Carl.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
I am.
In fact, what I do is that anytruck that do park with us, I do
tell them that, listen, we gotto walk the park together, let's
talk there and just make surethat you know we have what we're
able to provide, what you needto be successful here.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Are they required to be so?
Let's just say, most foodeateries or whatever.
They're gonna be busy Thursday,friday, saturday, sunday,
something like that.
Are they required to be openand there on those days?
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Yes, when I do speak with them and I tell them that
if you're gonna park with us,it's mandatory that you have to
be operating at least three tofour days a week with foot
traffic and making sure thattrucks, you know, find it worth
it to stay open longer has beena big challenge, Right?
(34:20):
So you could just imagine,right, if you're fighting that,
and then I'm mandating, I'mtrying to mandate that you
operate at the certain you knowschedule.
It's a dance you know a schedule, it's a dance.
It's a dance and it has to bethat way for quite some time,
until they notice that hey, wow,there's a number of other
trucks that believe in thisplace, then they have to.
(34:41):
Then they will actually committhemselves a bit more.
But then, over time, some ofthese trucks realize that their
consistency is actually payingoff, like the taco truck, like a
couple of other trucks thatthey they noticed that
consistency was paying offbecause the customers could rely
on them being there.
That's a big thing.
So when they started seeingthat, they're like, oh, okay,
(35:03):
then they started committing toopen more hours and they won't
be leaving earlier or shuttingdown earlier or you know,
whatever the reason is.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Are you marketing at the same time, like that part of
that, that common areamaintenance, obviously the cam
you're marketing.
How is that going?
How does?
Is that a?
Is that a selling point, too,for the trucks?
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yes, I would tell them that the park itself would
would do advertisements onsocial media platforms.
I recently bought a giantinflatable gorilla that has our
logo on its chest.
It's 26 feet tall.
Bought that from I have.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Jeffrey I was waiting .
Speaker 3 (35:41):
We can inflate him at the bar.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
I was going to go after you and I was waiting.
I'm like, nah, I'm going to lethim have this one.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
I had this crazy idea of putting that inflatable on
top of that roof on the housethere and just have it stand up.
Do?
Speaker 1 (35:55):
you get challenges from people who live.
I mean, I got to believe that.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
That's an actual absolute.
Yes, he has challenges.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
He didn't even let me finish the question.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
He already answered it.
He's still laughing.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
You could say that I do have personal contacts from
the code enforcement healthdepartment.
I have their numbers, they havemine as well, not because I
know them personally, right Yet?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Oh no, no, he does know them personally, because
people probably are callingcomplaining.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
There has been a couple of complaints.
One of the things was one ofthe truck's operators his
birthday and he asked me David,can I run a little event here
just to have family friends andjust blast the music and whatnot
?
And unfortunately I wasn'tthere to monitor the whole thing
.
The event went from afternoonto late night and the music was
(36:49):
blasting at 9.30, 10 pm and theywere all drunk and obviously
says that that upset some of the, the neighbors which I, the
neighbors, called me directly tofirst.
So I was like okay, let me gothere.
And I took care of it and Ijust just told them that listen,
going forward, you can't bedoing this anymore.
(37:09):
And later on, I think the nextday, the truck left and never
came back.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Well, number one, I can appreciate that, but number
two, why wasn't I invited?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
That was not a party.
If we're not there, you knowwhat I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
I'm just sorry that it's not a party, but I can also
appreciate the whole get off ofmy lawn sort of vibe.
Do you know what I mean At this?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
point there's actually a more recent report
was like how is this possible?
What kind of business is this?
How are they able to operateand just put food trucks onto a
vacant lot and just let themoperate like that?
Why is that?
Why is that legal?
So that was one of thecomplaint from a local, I guess,
citizen there.
(37:50):
And I mean we have the zoning,it's zoned for it.
It's zoned for it.
We have the zoning and the codeenforcement agent which I know,
which took this complaint.
I know him personally and hetried to explain to the person
that the owner went through verydifficult rezoning to actually
(38:13):
be legal, be legal to do whathe's doing.
So so then he told me you know,kind of, just make sure
everything is is in complianceyou know, change does things to
people.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
People don't like change, so obviously this person
that complained probably waslike I don't want this, so let
me complain about it yeah, butisn't that, see?
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I don't know if this is a thing or not, but, like I,
I would say all right, you knowwhat person x?
Come on in, I'd work somethingout with the vendors, take care
of them, make them feel part ofthe family, or something like
that, and make friends with themdo.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
It's like when you first move into a house.
You're going to throw a houseparty.
You're going to ask and inviteall the neighbors around.
I, I'm not inviting anyneighbors.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Nobody likes you, that's not true.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah, it's true, there's going to be people that
may not feel that that's theright thing to do.
I even had someone that maybewas an animal activist who
actually reached out to me onFacebook and mentioned that you
guys are slaughtering animals.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
You know what you need to do.
What you have to do is forward,share with them, with the, the
one of the videos where they'regetting a little piglet and
they're giving it the massageand they're putting a little
like the chapstick on the noseand you know, brushing it and
then, boom, it's right from thegrill you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Send that to them.
That's what you should do, butor you can send me there, I'll
take care of that.
I'll just hold up my arms.
I'm like these are vegans.
What we need to do is get abutchering truck out there.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
That's what we need to do.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Literally killing the animal?
Yeah, like literally.
I would butcher but I would notput down.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yeah, not put down, but to break down, that's what
we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
You want a veal chop?
No problem, I got one.
Come here, come on.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Come here, come here, come here, come here, you know.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
How many pounds of beef do you want Exactly?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
But now we're talking .
Yeah, you know, and if wereally want to shake up the
neighborhood, that's what we do.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
I just want to point something out to and the media
so that you can eat.
He bought property so he caneat.
We're very much the same Goodobservation yeah, I was just
making them like.
You thought of this and hethought of that.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
You know, your intelligence goes beyond where I
think that you really canexpand to.
I'm just trying.
He's pointing to the bookYou're an author.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Anybody can write a book.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
No, no, I mean mean your name is arthur.
All right, david.
Last thing advice food people,non-food people, it people,
entrepreneurial kind of aguidance or advice, what say?
Speaker 3 (40:52):
There is a saying that I've heard and more or less
over time I've I've reallyunderstood it very well and it
goes this way Today is difficult, tomorrow will be worse, the
day after the sun will come out,but most people die tomorrow
(41:14):
evening.
And if you know, you kind ofjust you know, just dwell on
that a little bit.
It kind of.
It kind of sums up you knowentrepreneurship when you don't
give up and you commit yourselfand you keep going and you just
don't stop and and yeah, theremay be people that may tell you
(41:37):
otherwise, listen it might notjust work.
If you could just ignore all thenoise and stay committed and
you're able to prevail in duetime, things will work out most
of the time.
Most of the time, I believethat's just my philosophy and
again, it took a year and a halfand you know and and a lot of
(42:02):
mistakes, you know a lot offeedbacks from everybody and a
lot of learning and experience.
If I gave up, that would havebeen it.
All these trucks would haveactually no place really to kind
of go and say all right, youknow what I want to start this
journey and you know, but doingthis it's going to take, you
(42:24):
know it's going to be verydifficult with trying to go out
there and going to differentevents and have no place to
really, you know, go back to andhave all these services already
provided.
So you know, one of the thingsis in life is just if you don't
give up, I think you know notonly that it will make a huge
impact to yourself but toeverybody else around you.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
So I agree with that 100%, because we're living the
same.
We're living in that samefabric.
I will tell you this the same,we're living in that same fabric
.
I will tell you this there's ameme or a video on social media
where it has this isentrepreneurship.
And it's this little kid with aNerf gun and he shoots himself
in the groin and he startscrying.
That is entrepreneurship.
It's self-inflicted pain, andyet you continue to do it.
(43:10):
Ana, we're wrapping up.
How do people find you?
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Oh, find us on facebook brandon food truck park
.
Instagram, brandon food truckpark.
On our website,brandonfoodtruckparkcom, you can
also find us there and it'sactually I believe there's a
number there which you can callor send an email to excellent
david.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Your lovely wife christina kristin.
Kristin jeffersoncongratulations.
Thank you for coming.
Your book, man.
I can't wait to put it in thegarbage.
John, your lovely wifeChristina Kristen Kristen
Jefferson congratulations, thankyou for coming.
Your book, man.
I can't wait to put it in thegarbage.
John, I love you baby.
Everybody did a great job.
I can't wait to read it.
Dude, congratulations again.
Thank you All.
Right, we are out.
We'll see you next time.
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