May 19, 2025 • 44 mins
Big events, big numbers, big sales. Are the boys up for the year? Did Skippy get back ahead of Josh in sales? What does the rest of May have in store?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, getting those in there and figured those out to
the recipes and do the right amounts. So but yeah,
it's working great. I'm a big fan so far after
we got past the initial setup and how to actually
count our stuff and put stuff in so but yeah,
it's going good. It works good for the online ordering.
(00:20):
Smart stuff sold out there pretty effectively, So we really
want to get to the point where we're doing the delivery.
Now that we kind of have like a week or
two where it's not super crazy, I'm hoping I can
get back into my office a little bit more and
get working on some more of that stuff. But yeah,
(00:41):
it was pretty much NonStop for the last week and
a half where all of us were pretty much working.
I did so between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I had
fifty six active work hours and ten hours of time
and bed.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So I was home at like ten, got up at four,
about at eleven, So you have five ten, all right,
I had fifteen or so.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Didn't Friday or Saturday. I did take a two hour
and a half on my truck because my girls here
we're trying.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
To kick me out.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, excellent, But then I overcooked the chicken and had
the substitute.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Brisk it for it. That's what you get for trying
to take a nap. Yeah, I know, but yeah, it's uh.
Things are things are are going well. Yeah, New Smoker
is doing well. I'm still trying. I still got to
get a gauge on that to figure out how much
we're actually using in propane. Yeah, I need to get
(01:49):
some wood ordered. The Cowboys, so those has Cowboy logs.
So Cowboy those ones actually are pretty good. They will
last a while and they're they're full splits.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah loads has that home Depot's got the Kingsford brand.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Okay, you should go.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
To that same place that because I think they do
smoking wood, not just pellets, but a place where we
get our pellets in Holland. Yeah ring who called smoke
ring barbecue pellets? But I think they have I don't
they are smoking with too. I have to order palettes.
(02:34):
I have to come up there. I'm saying about coming
up there and grabbing it.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Boyne City is what comes up for barbecue pellets? No,
it's in got a little pig with a curry meat
on the bag. And I guess they maybe they have
a store in Holland.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
But smoke Ring Barbecue Pellets dot com.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, that's the same one I'm looking at. When I
did a Google search, it popped up with the Boyne
City was the first address.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
The website has Kyle right on the front, has doing
him doing a video.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Oh yeah, well there he is.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, it's eleven twenty five Industrial ab and Home. M
interesting but I think they I would call him. I'll
give you the number. But I think they have smoking
wood too. It's word that they don't have like a
product listing.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, I mean they have, they're about but it's all
the pellets anyways, So yeah, that works, that would works better.
So obviously, the more would we use, the less propane
we're going to use because we're getting the heat from
the wood. But yeah, we had a couple of days
(04:00):
where we were using both cookers just because of the
amount of food. I mean, Saturday alone, we did two
cases of brisket. Wow. Well we did brisket sliders for
the barley barbecue and beats and it's brisket sliders for
six hundred people. Yeah, because you're supposed to have six
(04:22):
hundred samples. Really, Yeah, I mean that's a big one.
That one last year we probably did four hundred and
fifty samples. Easy. Did you do sliders and mac and cheese? Yep, yep,
because it was something The mac and cheese was something
(04:44):
we could make ahead and just reheat that day. Just
with all the other events we had going on, there
was just so much. Yeah, wouldn't have been able to
do it without both smokers for sure. So yeah, I
mean we Yeah, you.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Guys had some pretty intense storms too, huh.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, I mean not bad. A lot of the there
was a bunch of schools over in the side of
the state closed on Friday because of no power or
too many roads were closed enough buses couldn't get through
the kids for trees down stuff. Nine total tornadoes in
Michigan on Thursday night. Yeah. Yeah, we went into tornado
(05:29):
warning more for the winds than actual something on the ground.
Trying to reconnect. Make sure your internet connection is stable.
It is. Yeah, So yeah, pretty bad Wednesday or Thursday night.
And then we got another round Friday night that was
(05:51):
not as intense, but still pretty significant. Luckily, no damage
here really. One of our hanging baskets fell over. Oh yeah,
I actually had some time.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I went and I dropped my mower off for service,
just so I get a tune up and some change
some stuff, get the blade sharpen and all that wonderful stuff,
and now it excellent backyard. And yah, I don't have
to pay somebody to do my lawn anymore because that.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Was expensive doing it all yourself. Now I'm gonna try,
I think.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So I think we're gonna open Sundays. I've gotten a
lot of people asking, but I can't do it until
like the middle of June. My daughter has her has
her baby shower. She's she's popping right out there, uh,
at the beginning of June. So I don't want to
open and then close and then open again. So I
(06:50):
think we're gonna open Father's Day.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, that's uh, that's one day that we're normally closed
that we're gonna be open this year. I checked with
the boys and they were good working it, and we
have I think someone's doing an open house that day
that we're catering. So well. Yeah, so we used to
be open for Mothers Day. We took a couple of
(07:15):
years off for whatever reason, they decided to do it
again this year because it was always a pretty decent day.
We usually got lots of requests or people wondering why
we weren't open that day. Yeah, and then it was
a it was our worst day at that location. There
was a it was our normal Sunday location and it
was probably three hundred dollars less than Sunday was. But
(07:37):
the first like twenty minutes was hot and heavy. Everybody
was there, and then that was it. How do you feel?
How do you feel about holidays? I mean, should it
be should it be off? I mean, like July fourth on.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
A Friday this year, we're working and we are too.
I'm gonna stay over. It might be a smaller, shorter day,
but we're gonna stay open. I don't know. I thought
about holidays.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Like, I mean Memorial Day Labor Day were usually closed
anyways because it's a Monday, but typically we would take
the day after off. We got requests from Midwest and
Cassopolis to show up the day after Memorial Day. I'm
assuming because that's a board meeting day for them, that
they are going to ask for some sort of catering
for that since it was a request to come in.
(08:29):
And then there was an elementary school that's doing a
family fun night that night, so it kind of worked
out that I felt pretty good about doing those two days.
But yeah, normally the day after that holiday weekend is
pretty slow for us, whether that's people just I have
tons of leftovers from whatever gatherings they were at or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I'm hoping the fact that we're by, you know, a
ton of lakes that we're going to get I mean,
I've already got Memorial Day caterings. People can come pick
up stuff, So I'm hoping I'll probably make a post
about it soon.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I just found out.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I didn't just find out, but one of our the
guy that I hired, my morning guy. Uh, he's been
kicking ass and he's been doing a really good job.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
He's a.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Was a print shop owner, so he has the ability
to do printing and stuff like that shirt. So when
I walked in the other day, I noticed that he
had a shirt on, and I gave him one of
ours already, but this one looked a little bit more breathable,
like a different fabric. And I looked on the back
and he had made his own shirt with our logo
(09:41):
on him and on the back he put a big
ass trophy it's an employee at the month. Yeah, and
I had to say, that's absolutely great. I appreciate that.
My daughter once one for her little belly that says
future employee of the month. Over anyway, he said he'd
(10:08):
be willing to if we talk about sales and stuff
like that, he'd be willing to do, like he'd prints
us shirts that we could sell or at least you know,
people want to buy him or whatever. So I offered
it to him. I said, hey, if you want to
print him, you know, we'll discuss a business option. We'll
just we'll do a separate check for whatever sells in
a month, and you know, give you a percentage or
(10:30):
whatever your whatever your cost is, plus a little bit extra.
So we're going to talk about that hopefully. But he's done.
I mean, he made me a coffee mug that has
our logo like inside the like inside the coffee mug.
I don't know, Like it's not you can't scratch it
off or anything. It's called like sublimination or sublimation.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yes, sublimation, the sublimination.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I just made that word up.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
You got to have the right emphosis on the salable.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Absolutely. Make sure you can check your blanker fluid too.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That's right. Cool, Yeah, so we we do Fourth of
July we did Typically we just go to Towago because
it's a big holiday, that's a big weekend up there
lots of people in town for all the lakes and stuff,
so it's usually a good We get a lot of
bulk meat type of orders those days. Last year we
(11:25):
did East Girn Rapids has their Fourth of July festival,
big parade and stuff. We went there last year and
just did the first half of the day, which was
an option, like you don't have to stay all night
for fireworks, but we did like twenty nine during the
lunch timeframe after the fred and stuff. So this year
(11:46):
we're going to stay. Caleb and Chris said they were
good staying through fireworks. I will probably be there for
part of it at least, if not all of it.
And then the fifth we're actually this is where it's
different this year for us, as we're actually gonna be
open on the fifth for the morning at the farmers
Market in Caledonia, and we're hoping that we get that
(12:08):
large bulk meat order for people doing parties on the
weekend stuff and an area that is heavy with our
regular customers. So we'll see how that goes, and then yeah,
we'll we shut down for the next four days, three
days or something like that. I don't think we're opening
back up until Wednesday, just to kind of give everybody
a mid mid year little break. But I have I
(12:33):
don't have problems working holidays. Father's Day, Mother's Day tend
to be a little bit slower. Father's Day definitely is slower.
So I don't think we didn't do Father's Day last
year or the year before. I don't think just because
those are horrendously dreadful days for us.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, I mean yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
But then we I mean someone asked for an open
house that day. It's like, okay, well there's some guaranteed money,
so if we can just you a little bit at
our regular location that day, then it's it's an okay day.
It's worthwhile for the day. Yeah. But the other than that,
I mean, that's pretty much your summer holidays, you know,
Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Fourth of July. Yeah, the
(13:17):
big weekends. Yeah. So yeah, I'm not opposed to to
being open for him. As long as we feel like
there's money there, Yeah, we'll stay open. So Pam said
her cousin from Saint Louis Loomis. Saint Louis said her
food was delicious, perfect amount of smoke flavoring the meat.
(13:37):
The whole family was happy with all the food. So
there is a a very significant noticeable difference in food
cooked on the ultickree versus the Deep South. I bet
it is not even close. So because the wood is
(13:59):
actually doing its job. It's flavoring, it's not right, it's
not just a heat source and the charcoal does the
flavoring part two. But it's just so different. It's Yeah,
I can't wait to get that on the trailer for
us to be able to use every day.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Do you think it's a difference because you're really not
using wood in the Deep South, Like you're not putting
wood chunks in there's a little smolder.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
We've done woodchucks in there, wood chunks in there before,
and it doesn't make a difference. Really. Yeah, I don't
think there's enough to get past the over all chruckoldness
of it. Yeah, like you would have to do a
lot of wood chunks in there two get past the
charcoal smoke part of it. So yeah, it's just a
(14:46):
it's a cleaner, cleaner tasting smoke I guess it's a
warmer flavor, if that makes any sense. No, yeah, so are.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You monitoring.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Tempts at all, like to figure out how often that
kicks on? No heat kicks No, nope, I'm noting. Sure
how I would do that without watching it and sitting
there for whatever timeframe.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Well if you're yeah, I mean you have to sit
there for a couple hours and see how many times
it turns on. Yeah, but you said the wings are turning.
It turned out really really good, and.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, that's that. So chicken on that top shelf is
top notch. But yeah, I mean so if we if
we don't put stuff on that top shelf, everything else
cooks to a normal timeline. Some point we can't put
stuff on the top shelf. That's a no go zone
for a long cook.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Speaking of no go zones, right, so, one of our
local barbecue restaurants here posted a picture of their old
hickory pit, you know, open rotisserie, everything going, and they've
got a whole bunch of chicken wings and they got bacon,
they got they got half chickens and ribs and whatever.
So as it's going around, it shows half chickens raw
(16:08):
on the rack above bacon in pans.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I messaged Bubba right our friends, our friend Steve Collington,
and I asked him, I said, is there a food
safety issue with that? He said no, because it's all
getting cooked to a higher temperature. Anyway, I'm like, I
personally would never put chicken above anything that has a pan,
(16:38):
Like I've done chicken and ribs together or chicken like
wings and ribs together, because yes, they're on the same time,
they're both getting off at the same time. Like, I'm
okay with that, but like having a pan of bacon
catch literally catch that chicken juice.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, yeah, and is that bacon being done, Like if
if the bacon's going to be on for as long
as the chicken is, then yes, in theory that juice
will all cook too up to temperature without being a problem. Right,
But if you're pulling that bacon, if you're pulling that
bacon off twenty minutes after you put that chicken on,
then yes, it is a huge concern and an issue.
(17:19):
If anything, he should be flipping those around and the
chicken should be cooked in pans. I mean put them on, great,
so they're still sitting at a level high enough, but yeah,
to catch those juices, just to make sure. I mean,
that's a risk I wouldn't want to take.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
But because he had I mean, it's a big old hickory.
But he had like four shelves of wings, and then
he had some baby bags with some half chickens next
to it, and then he's stacking sheet pans of bacon,
like stacking them like there's two here, and then there's
one on top. And I'm like, it's just like and
it's doesn't look like it's candy bacon. It looks like
(17:54):
it's bacon. H I'm like, is it a rotisserie?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
It is? It is, So it doesn't really it doesn't
really matter what's on top of on the bottom, because
it's going to be on the top or bottom on
the other side of it anyways of the carousel.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, so in this case it would be but you
could put half chickens on the bottom rack and put
bacon on top of it, and the half chickens aren't
going to seep.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Into the baby because it'll be the bacon will be
far enough on the bottom that when it hits the
I got you. Yeah, it was just cook the chicken
over a pan catch those strippings. That's all you got
to do. I mean, it'd be interested to what the
health department would say. So there's still there's still marketing.
There's sixth place wings in the state from like ten
(18:37):
years ago. That what it was for. There's three hundred flavors.
We did get. We did get. The Grand Rapids Fire
chief was going around on Sunday since there was such
a large grouping of food trucks, stop by to say
(19:00):
Hill and said, everything look good. He said, with one exception. Oh,
so we have plastic gas cans. We are not allowed
to have plastic gas cans. We have to have metal
gas cans. Really yep, he said, you're good. Just make
sure you get some because whether it's not in your vehicle,
(19:22):
they weren't. They were sitting next to the trailer in
the shade, because in the sunlight they will if you're
not venting them. Yeah, which was why I hate these
safety cans because they are anything but safe because they
don't have an automatic event on them. Just popped the
edge of them. I really considered just drilling a hole
in the backside of them just to allow the fumes
(19:43):
to get out. The old ones did the old ones
had released lack yep. I don't know why they went
away with them anyways. Yeah, but that's why I don't allow.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
For I saw an eight year old on top of
a generator with a gas can feeding it as his
dad's cooking shed in the black Stone.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah exactly, but a sorry, So yeah, that's why that's
that's apparently that's why. It's because they get hot and
people aren't paying attention, and you know, you have gas
cans exploding or popping next to generators, could be a problem,
could be Yeah, I mean I get it. So, yeah,
we have to we have to go and get some metal.
(20:20):
I can't even imagine how much these things are gonna cost.
I guess somewhere in the somewhere in the fifty to
sixty dollars range. Yeah, a few bucks. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So we were told that we had to have no
smoking signs on all four sides of our trailer. Wow,
all four sets, not just like near our near. We
have to have one on the inside too.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, we were told we had to have one on
the inside. My one on the outside keeps falling off,
so we didn't say anything about that. I didn't even
have one up there.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
So I got like signs that I put on the
back that I just put up just I just gotta
remember to take them off afterwards. Speaking of that, I
did finally get graphics on my truck, Nicel. Finally it's
not just a black incognito barbecue trailer.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
You definitely need to get that out there then.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I absolutely, I mean we did for one thing. So
we have our I know, one of the topics we
wanted to cover, and now we got like twenty minutes
to try to get everything in here.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, I got I got something else too, good. Uh,
food truck associations, that's all. Yeah, we want to get
to that. Is that what you want to talk to
next about next? I guess something too, But Steve said,
what about chicken on the left and everything else on
the right? Exactly? Yeah, absolutely for sure. That way, nothing's
dripping anything except for its own animal. So we have
(21:49):
so the city Grand Rapids hosts lunches during the week
at Rosa Park Circle. So they have live they bring
in live music, they bring in food trucks. It's like
a from May through August, I think every Thursday from
eleven or eleven to one. So we we got finally
(22:09):
got in this year. We have a handful of dates.
We have our first one this week. I got an
email from them saying we have an exciting new partnership
oh for this week only. Oh. I was like, sweet,
we really hit the jackpot here. Let's see. Comcast is
(22:29):
partnering with us next week very unique and exciting way,
in order to promote the Rise Small Business Grant, which
is available to businesses in like five different area codes.
Grand Rapids is one of them. So they're promoting this
whole thing until the end of May. Comcasts will be
covering one thousand dollars worth of customer purchases from each truck. Jesus,
(22:53):
I know on a first come, first served basis, you
keep track of the dollar amount product that you sell
a customers will not have to pay for it themselves
until the thousand dollars limit is reached. So essentially, we're
giving away a thousand dollars of free food to our
customers for lunch on Thursday, and we're getting reimbursed from Comcasts.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Awesome that day, A great day, great day.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Thousand dollars lunch on Thursday. Chris is like, couldn't someone
just come up and like buy a thousand dollars worth
of food. Like that's a good point. So I got
another email to day with some further details, like we're
gonna try to set some limits on everything. And you
know what, if you just run attacked, that's what we're doing.
If we promote it that we have free lunch up
(23:41):
to a certain amount, then yes, someone could come down
and say yes, like ten pounds of brisket, Yeah, three
recks of ribs.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
We're promoting we're gonna be there, but we're not promoting
that we're giving away free lunches.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
We're going to so oh heck, yeah, we're not going
to say that there's a dollar amount, so it's going
to be we're giving away free lunches. So meals per
person is kind of how we're got to promote.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
To promote it, like to promote free lunch.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, because they are also doing it. They're also promoting
it that there's available food because they want to make
sure that every truck has the opportunity to have that
benefit of the day. Yeah, I get that, but I
get them promoting it because it's there special. But you
get it. You get a local.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Business coming down, Hey, I need a thousand dollars worth
of food right now.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And we're going to say, no, that's not how it works.
So they're saying, we think we may have to limit
the total per person in order to avoid one person
order hundreds of dollars of food. Yeah. Yeah, So they're saying,
we would like to say the first fifty customers get
their lunch paid for by Comcast. Is how they want
to promote it type of thing. So they're trying to
figure out, like what an average lunch for us would cost,
(24:59):
but it's not. We're probably closer to like seventeen, but.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Josh, twenty dollars. Figure out how to do a twenty
dollars lunch.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
No, No, they can order off their regular minty and
we can just serve more than fifty customers for free food.
We're going to run a tab on our normal menu
two one thousand dollars. I'm not doing special menu items
for whatever reason. No, no, bring back your meal. You
can bring back your meals for twenty dollars. I'm not
doing a special menu for the day. Yes it is.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
You have everything on the truck, it's just a package different, Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But then someone comes up another day and says, yeah,
can I get that Lord's swine meal that I had
down at Rex and Rosa? Because it happens to us
all the time.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
What's your what's your goal per customer?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Like?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
How much do you want to get out of a
customer as far as money goes.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
I never think of any customer that way a sale.
That's all I care about, not looking for them to
spend an average amount of anything. I know on average
what our customers do spend. But I'm not trying to
bump up or yeah, so you don't.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I mean, realistically, you don't care about average ticket stocks,
not really, you just want a ticket.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Noh.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So somebody who orders one hundred dollars worth of food
and somebody orders it cit a macum cheese.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
That's that's I treat those two customers exactly the same.
It is someone choosing to spend their money with us.
I get that. Why would I treat them differently? M
I didn't say treat them differently.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I'm saying that.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I liked. I want to see who I had to
wheeze a lot of this one.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
No, I'm saying it for somebody that operates all day
lunches and dinners mm hm, you have to do a
meal or some sort of pitch price versus everything.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
All the part.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Is interesting to me because I figured you would want
a way to get a higher ticket price. Period, Like
I understand some it comes up and gets a twelve
dollars sandwich, but don't.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Alls it's gonna equate to is we sell more drinks.
We have so many people that order sandwiches and sides
already on their own. So really, all I'm gonna do
is push out more drinks that are realistically that's the
part that's discounted. You know, because you're doing a discount
(27:45):
of me, You're gonna take the discount on the pop
because that's your highest profit margin of the three things
you're gonna sell. So you know how much value are
you really getting out of it at that point?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
That's if you include a drink. I don't include a drink.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, so yeah, I don't think people are deterred. A
lot of people ask if it comes with a side,
and the majority of them when we say no, everything's
on the cart, they still are aside. So all right,
so there, Yeah, I mean to each their own. Everybody
(28:27):
can do it.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
But yeah, I mean we offer that are you part
of this this association that is doing the Friday or
through truck Thursdays.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
That is not a no, that's just the City of
Grand Rapids like the downtown.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Whatever development authority kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Or something like that. Yeah, so yeah, there's no affiliation needed. Now.
It does help us being parts and active parts of
these other groups because businesses and these like downtown authorities
and stuff, when they are looking for a list of
food trucks, that's who they reach out to. Yeah, especially
(29:11):
the Grandarfti's Food Truck Association. That list gets published to
a lot of people that are looking for food trucks
getting what you I don't know, Like that's the thing is,
like what should you expect of any association? And I
know that you being a member of the Great Lakes
(29:33):
Barbecue Association and on the board from time to time.
I am on the board from now. Yeah, that is
often a question there what am I getting for my membership?
So let me ask you this.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
When you signed up for this association, what they do
is promote basically food truck rallies, right, and say, is
that kind of why you got part of this is
to be on that list?
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I mean it is a nice list to be on, but.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It's so do you have to pay any other fees
to get into these rallies other than that three hundred
dollars a year?
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yes, so we paid another one hundred and fifty just
to be in the It costs us to be at
the Rolling Out Festival on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Okay, are you guaranteed a number of a certain number
of events that they do?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
That's the only event they do, that's their only event. Yeah,
they don't put on events. Oh, but it's just they
coordinate other events, not as far as I know.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So you paid four hundred and fifty bucks to be
at this event and be on a lift an important
list though, So what are you hoping to get out
of this?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
My question is, shouldn't it be a reasonable expectation that
with their I don't know, I'm going to guess sixty members,
So that's eighteen thousand dollars a year. If my math
is right that for their premiere food truck festival that
(31:18):
they put on themselves, that they would be able to
figure out a way to advertise outside of Facebook. You'd
think so. You'd think so, especially if they saved eight
thousand dollars on the venue. M I mean they do that.
(31:39):
I mean, so they're getting sales back on the beer
ten everything, so it's not like they only have the
eighteen and they do other things. So they do. They're
doing a lot of They do a lot of town
hall meetings once a month. They bring in special guests
and speakers and business people too. It's a good What
they do outside of that is is pretty good. There's
(32:03):
going to be a revolt after this last Sunday in
this event, there was a lot of very unhappy food
trucks because they I mean they were saying half half
as many people as there was last year. Now can
that be? Is that only?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Is everybody going to equate that strictly to advertising?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
I think it's going to be a big part because
that's from what we heard from the association members that
put it on, was what they were complaining about not
being able to get media coverage here.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
So our city three years ago, yeah, three years ago,
started a food truck rally at.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Our local fair grounds.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
It was put on by two interns with our County
Parks Department. Those interns, whatever they did, now, granted, the
first year is always the best. Typically but whatever they did,
we were turning cars away because there was no parking available.
(33:07):
M everybody was packed. I mean, the way they set
it up, it just it was. It was an unbelievable event.
It was supposed to go four hours. We sold out
in two because we didn't know what to expect. This
is when I saw the eight year old generator. Then
on top of it, the next year, it was we
did half as much because there was no advertising. There
(33:30):
was no nothing. We didn't know what advertising they did,
but whatever it was, they didn't do the same amount
from what we were told last year. It was the
same as the year prior. Again advertise, so and they're
getting one hundred and fifty bucks a truck to be
there and they're limiting it to like fourteen or something.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
So yeah, that's what this event's been going on for
like fifteen years. Yeah. But then they head of the
neighborhood association of the neighborhood that's right next to there. Yeah,
they had no idea what was going on there? Yeah,
what could they have done to get on the news?
Doing morning show? Could do, radio do whatever? I mean,
(34:15):
they paid for Facebook ads because it said sponsored. I
remember seeing the ad come across. Yeah, oh, it reached
they reached fifty thousand dollars both time, or fifty thousand
people at both times we boosted it. Yeah, and I'm
getting twenty thousand on my boose.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I'm getting five. I'm getting five, just normal.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
So yeah, I'm putting one hundred bucks a weekend and
getting twenty Can you tell me you only put two
hundred bucks behind this thing?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah? Get fifty? Yeah and yeah, yeah, I mean what
what's in it? I mean, what do you get for
your could they you know, could they put on a
second one? Do you think they have the money to
put on a second one at the end of the.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah, they didn't. They're not going to lose money on
this thing, so put it to them. Get I'm not
I don't have any availability to do another one. I'm
book slid. You can find it. Find what availability.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
You told me at the beginning, like a couple of
weeks ago that you were still trying to fill in spots.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, weekday lunches in October November. I have a couple.
But yeah, yeah, and this is the first one I've done.
They've been doing this event for a long time, so
I'm gonna guess this has been a pretty dramatic drop
this year versus previous years for everybody to be so
(35:38):
I rate, do you think down upon what they did?
Like are you? Are you mad? Not mad?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
But are you You're probably disappointed in sales, But if
you get picked, you're gonna do it again next year.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
We're in. So anybody that's a member, an association member
gets invited. There's not a selection process, there's not application process.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
They got sixty members and then the chance.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And theory, yes there could be sixty. They might cap
it at like forty five, but first come, first serve
probably then so.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, I own your fair ground or I own your
free fair frame grounds whatever. That's the world's largest, you know,
the last couple of years of the world's largest food
truck rally, I said, forty trucks. I don't know how
that's not Michigan's largest it is. I mean, we do
want in Marshall that's coming up next to in two
weeks next week.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
That's a lot. I mean, it's.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Thirty I think, yeah, they're fair grounds, but yeah, forty five,
I mean, forty five trucks a lot to begin with.
But Great Rapids is a highly populated area. And for
you to be in the downtown campus.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I mean, when you're talking twenty thousand people attending is
what they have had for attendance, you know, fifteen to twenty.
It's a lot of people for forty trucks. And these
people are coming to eat. That's not they're come into
a fair and oh there's food here. Yeah, they're coming
to eat, and a lot of them are coming to
eat at multiple trucks. So there's the.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Syracuse or New York Food Truck Association based out of Syracuse.
They have two hundred and southern members, each paying two
hundred dollars to be a member. They organize their own
food truck rallies every month. They take over like a
mall parking lot or a movie theater parking lot, or
(37:35):
a Low's parking lot or something like that. They partner
with all these businesses to put on a food truck
takeover and there's thousands of people that go into this.
I would love to get the the organizer as a guest,
but I mean it's I don't know if it's it's based.
It's either based out of Syracuse or Buffalo, but it's huge.
(37:58):
So we're trying to do the same thing with our
Jackson Food Truck Association. There's no membership, but our local
DDA told us that they didn't want to do food
Truck Tuesdays anymore, which is a rally every every other
Tuesday starting June to August. And they were charging us,
you know, truck seventy five bucks, but they said they
(38:20):
were running a deficit every year.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Well, we're we're going to take it over.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
We were going to move it to the Fairgrounds, which
is a mile away, and then we were told that
nobody would ride the shuttle that we were going to get,
so we just took it over downtown. It's costing us
seventy five dollars to apply for six dates, so instead
of seventy five for each day's seventy five dollars. And
(38:46):
then if we want power, it's an extra twenty five
bucks per truck. And we were paying seventy five bucks
total like every month or every event that we were there,
a thing to each each other. How the hell are
they losing money?
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Right?
Speaker 2 (39:04):
So we are now myself and two other trucks are
going to be the head of it, and we're going
to collect fifty bucks from each truck. If they want power,
they have to pay the extra twenty five tory that
if you don't have an inverter type generator that you
need to buy power. We have bathrooms because it's a
food truck park, but it's like they just didn't want
(39:25):
a food truck event at a food truck park and
it made no sense. So once it started getting out
that there was going away, business owners were just getting
pissed because the consumers energy, their headquarters is right downtown
and they would walk round half a block to get food.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
So we're putting out a mass.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
All the food trucks are involved, are putting on a
mass text or not text but Facebook and Instagram post
with just a black background.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
It's set.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Food truck Tuesdays are back and we're all doing it
at nine o'clock tomorrow morning to try to get it out.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
To move followers and we can, right, And.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
We found out that they were paying five hundred dollars
for entertainment, and I'm like, we can get entertainment for
one hundred and fifty bucks for three hours, Like why
do you need five hundred? Like why do politics? Why
do politicians spend so much for everything.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
It's no sense to me. So what's the difference in
the entertainment you're getting versus what they were getting. We
hired ourselves. They went through like our local Michigan theater,
and they curated the entertainment for them, So it was
all people.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
They knew that they probably got a cut of that
five hundred dollars and only paid the people.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Probably what we are not. Everything's a shady backdoor deal.
But why couldn't they just do it? I guess I
don't know. To me, it was just weird because you
outsourced things that you don't want to do yourself for
you don't have the knowledge to do.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And that was the original thing with the DDA is
she wanted to send out an invoice to one truck
for seven hundred and fifty bucks and for one truck
to collect it from the rest of them. Well, system
and nobody want to do that because we're like, we
don't know where our money's going whatever. So we just
took it out and hopefully it works out. I mean,
we want to start we start an Instagram page, we
(41:15):
want to start a Facebook page, and we do want
this to be a board at some point or another
where if anybody needs a Jackson food truck and Jackson
County food truck, they can just come to us, to
our members and say, hey, we have a catering deal.
Here's what they want.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Reach out to them. You know, ye.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
See what happens because you've got to get people that
are involved because you'll always have But I don't understand.
I know we got a minute left. But what I
don't understand is the trucks even that aren't new, so
people that have been in the business three, four or
five years that are still taking Like you see on
the Michigan Food Truck and Catering Group that they the
people don't give They say, well, we need to we
(41:56):
need five food trucks for one hundred people, and there's
seventeen responses that, oh, we're available, we're available.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
How the hell do you think you're going to make
money man, because they can't book anywhere else, so they're
taking whatever they can to try to stay alive.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
And it's sad like it's just like, because it's trucks
like that, they give us the other trucks that are
trying to do it right a bad name.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Now that's not on the trucks that's on the events. True,
the trucks aren't giving anybody a bad name as long
as they're putting out good food. They're showing up wh
they're supposed to. Yeah, I mean organizers need to understand
that the quality of truck they're going to get at
set events is not going to be the upper tier
(42:45):
of trucks. And I know that's a that's a lot
of what gets pushed on this side of the state.
You know, if you want to book a truck last minute,
you need to understand that you're not going to get
you know, us or Patty Matters or a dune buggy
last minute. You know, you're going to get somebody that's
(43:07):
only been open for six months or to a year
and a half, you know, have a fun. Yeah, that's
that's what you can expect. Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yep, all right, we'll save the other topic for next week.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
What was the other one?
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Unruly business or tip for tat petty business owners. It's
a great story, great work, half a drama, great story.
All right, we had a we had a friends tip
over in our trailer. Thank you, thank you for tuning
in all our tons of tons of listeners. Glad you
didn't forget about us.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
We will.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I will try to be more don't you forget that? Sorry,
I'll try to be more active on post. Anybody have
an attack?
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Yeah I did not pick up the slack. Sorry. Anyways,
everybody have a great week. I will talk to you
hopefully next week. Monday deuces takes sense.
Yeah, getting those in there and figured those out to
the recipes and do the right amounts. So but yeah,
it's working great. I'm a big fan so far after
we got past the initial setup and how to actually
count our stuff and put stuff in so but yeah,
it's going good. It works good for the online ordering.
(00:20):
Smart stuff sold out there pretty effectively, So we really
want to get to the point where we're doing the delivery.
Now that we kind of have like a week or
two where it's not super crazy, I'm hoping I can
get back into my office a little bit more and
get working on some more of that stuff. But yeah,
(00:41):
it was pretty much NonStop for the last week and
a half where all of us were pretty much working.
I did so between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I had
fifty six active work hours and ten hours of time
and bed.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So I was home at like ten, got up at four,
about at eleven, So you have five ten, all right,
I had fifteen or so.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Didn't Friday or Saturday. I did take a two hour
and a half on my truck because my girls here
we're trying.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
To kick me out.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, excellent, But then I overcooked the chicken and had
the substitute.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Brisk it for it. That's what you get for trying
to take a nap. Yeah, I know, but yeah, it's uh.
Things are things are are going well. Yeah, New Smoker
is doing well. I'm still trying. I still got to
get a gauge on that to figure out how much
we're actually using in propane. Yeah, I need to get
(01:49):
some wood ordered. The Cowboys, so those has Cowboy logs.
So Cowboy those ones actually are pretty good. They will
last a while and they're they're full splits.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah loads has that home Depot's got the Kingsford brand.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Okay, you should go.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
To that same place that because I think they do
smoking wood, not just pellets, but a place where we
get our pellets in Holland. Yeah ring who called smoke
ring barbecue pellets? But I think they have I don't
they are smoking with too. I have to order palettes.
(02:34):
I have to come up there. I'm saying about coming
up there and grabbing it.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Boyne City is what comes up for barbecue pellets? No,
it's in got a little pig with a curry meat
on the bag. And I guess they maybe they have
a store in Holland.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
But smoke Ring Barbecue Pellets dot com.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, that's the same one I'm looking at. When I
did a Google search, it popped up with the Boyne
City was the first address.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
The website has Kyle right on the front, has doing
him doing a video.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Oh yeah, well there he is.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, it's eleven twenty five Industrial ab and Home. M
interesting but I think they I would call him. I'll
give you the number. But I think they have smoking
wood too. It's word that they don't have like a
product listing.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, I mean they have, they're about but it's all
the pellets anyways, So yeah, that works, that would works better.
So obviously, the more would we use, the less propane
we're going to use because we're getting the heat from
the wood. But yeah, we had a couple of days
(04:00):
where we were using both cookers just because of the
amount of food. I mean, Saturday alone, we did two
cases of brisket. Wow. Well we did brisket sliders for
the barley barbecue and beats and it's brisket sliders for
six hundred people. Yeah, because you're supposed to have six
(04:22):
hundred samples. Really, Yeah, I mean that's a big one.
That one last year we probably did four hundred and
fifty samples. Easy. Did you do sliders and mac and cheese? Yep, yep,
because it was something The mac and cheese was something
(04:44):
we could make ahead and just reheat that day. Just
with all the other events we had going on, there
was just so much. Yeah, wouldn't have been able to
do it without both smokers for sure. So yeah, I
mean we Yeah, you.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Guys had some pretty intense storms too, huh.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, I mean not bad. A lot of the there
was a bunch of schools over in the side of
the state closed on Friday because of no power or
too many roads were closed enough buses couldn't get through
the kids for trees down stuff. Nine total tornadoes in
Michigan on Thursday night. Yeah. Yeah, we went into tornado
(05:29):
warning more for the winds than actual something on the ground.
Trying to reconnect. Make sure your internet connection is stable.
It is. Yeah, So yeah, pretty bad Wednesday or Thursday night.
And then we got another round Friday night that was
(05:51):
not as intense, but still pretty significant. Luckily, no damage
here really. One of our hanging baskets fell over. Oh yeah,
I actually had some time.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I went and I dropped my mower off for service,
just so I get a tune up and some change
some stuff, get the blade sharpen and all that wonderful stuff,
and now it excellent backyard. And yah, I don't have
to pay somebody to do my lawn anymore because that.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Was expensive doing it all yourself. Now I'm gonna try,
I think.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So I think we're gonna open Sundays. I've gotten a
lot of people asking, but I can't do it until
like the middle of June. My daughter has her has
her baby shower. She's she's popping right out there, uh,
at the beginning of June. So I don't want to
open and then close and then open again. So I
(06:50):
think we're gonna open Father's Day.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, that's uh, that's one day that we're normally closed
that we're gonna be open this year. I checked with
the boys and they were good working it, and we
have I think someone's doing an open house that day
that we're catering. So well. Yeah, so we used to
be open for Mothers Day. We took a couple of
(07:15):
years off for whatever reason, they decided to do it
again this year because it was always a pretty decent day.
We usually got lots of requests or people wondering why
we weren't open that day. Yeah, and then it was
a it was our worst day at that location. There
was a it was our normal Sunday location and it
was probably three hundred dollars less than Sunday was. But
(07:37):
the first like twenty minutes was hot and heavy. Everybody
was there, and then that was it. How do you feel?
How do you feel about holidays? I mean, should it
be should it be off? I mean, like July fourth on.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
A Friday this year, we're working and we are too.
I'm gonna stay over. It might be a smaller, shorter day,
but we're gonna stay open. I don't know. I thought
about holidays.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Like, I mean Memorial Day Labor Day were usually closed
anyways because it's a Monday, but typically we would take
the day after off. We got requests from Midwest and
Cassopolis to show up the day after Memorial Day. I'm
assuming because that's a board meeting day for them, that
they are going to ask for some sort of catering
for that since it was a request to come in.
(08:29):
And then there was an elementary school that's doing a
family fun night that night, so it kind of worked
out that I felt pretty good about doing those two days.
But yeah, normally the day after that holiday weekend is
pretty slow for us, whether that's people just I have
tons of leftovers from whatever gatherings they were at or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I'm hoping the fact that we're by, you know, a
ton of lakes that we're going to get I mean,
I've already got Memorial Day caterings. People can come pick
up stuff, So I'm hoping I'll probably make a post
about it soon.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I just found out.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I didn't just find out, but one of our the
guy that I hired, my morning guy. Uh, he's been
kicking ass and he's been doing a really good job.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
He's a.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Was a print shop owner, so he has the ability
to do printing and stuff like that shirt. So when
I walked in the other day, I noticed that he
had a shirt on, and I gave him one of
ours already, but this one looked a little bit more breathable,
like a different fabric. And I looked on the back
and he had made his own shirt with our logo
(09:41):
on him and on the back he put a big
ass trophy it's an employee at the month. Yeah, and
I had to say, that's absolutely great. I appreciate that.
My daughter once one for her little belly that says
future employee of the month. Over anyway, he said he'd
(10:08):
be willing to if we talk about sales and stuff
like that, he'd be willing to do, like he'd prints
us shirts that we could sell or at least you know,
people want to buy him or whatever. So I offered
it to him. I said, hey, if you want to
print him, you know, we'll discuss a business option. We'll
just we'll do a separate check for whatever sells in
a month, and you know, give you a percentage or
(10:30):
whatever your whatever your cost is, plus a little bit extra.
So we're going to talk about that hopefully. But he's done.
I mean, he made me a coffee mug that has
our logo like inside the like inside the coffee mug.
I don't know, Like it's not you can't scratch it
off or anything. It's called like sublimination or sublimation.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yes, sublimation, the sublimination.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I just made that word up.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
You got to have the right emphosis on the salable.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Absolutely. Make sure you can check your blanker fluid too.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That's right. Cool, Yeah, so we we do Fourth of
July we did Typically we just go to Towago because
it's a big holiday, that's a big weekend up there
lots of people in town for all the lakes and stuff,
so it's usually a good We get a lot of
bulk meat type of orders those days. Last year we
(11:25):
did East Girn Rapids has their Fourth of July festival,
big parade and stuff. We went there last year and
just did the first half of the day, which was
an option, like you don't have to stay all night
for fireworks, but we did like twenty nine during the
lunch timeframe after the fred and stuff. So this year
(11:46):
we're going to stay. Caleb and Chris said they were
good staying through fireworks. I will probably be there for
part of it at least, if not all of it.
And then the fifth we're actually this is where it's
different this year for us, as we're actually gonna be
open on the fifth for the morning at the farmers
Market in Caledonia, and we're hoping that we get that
(12:08):
large bulk meat order for people doing parties on the
weekend stuff and an area that is heavy with our
regular customers. So we'll see how that goes, and then yeah,
we'll we shut down for the next four days, three
days or something like that. I don't think we're opening
back up until Wednesday, just to kind of give everybody
a mid mid year little break. But I have I
(12:33):
don't have problems working holidays. Father's Day, Mother's Day tend
to be a little bit slower. Father's Day definitely is slower.
So I don't think we didn't do Father's Day last
year or the year before. I don't think just because
those are horrendously dreadful days for us.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, I mean yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
But then we I mean someone asked for an open
house that day. It's like, okay, well there's some guaranteed money,
so if we can just you a little bit at
our regular location that day, then it's it's an okay day.
It's worthwhile for the day. Yeah. But the other than that,
I mean, that's pretty much your summer holidays, you know,
Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Fourth of July. Yeah, the
(13:17):
big weekends. Yeah. So yeah, I'm not opposed to to
being open for him. As long as we feel like
there's money there, Yeah, we'll stay open. So Pam said
her cousin from Saint Louis Loomis. Saint Louis said her
food was delicious, perfect amount of smoke flavoring the meat.
(13:37):
The whole family was happy with all the food. So
there is a a very significant noticeable difference in food
cooked on the ultickree versus the Deep South. I bet
it is not even close. So because the wood is
(13:59):
actually doing its job. It's flavoring, it's not right, it's
not just a heat source and the charcoal does the
flavoring part two. But it's just so different. It's Yeah,
I can't wait to get that on the trailer for
us to be able to use every day.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Do you think it's a difference because you're really not
using wood in the Deep South, Like you're not putting
wood chunks in there's a little smolder.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
We've done woodchucks in there, wood chunks in there before,
and it doesn't make a difference. Really. Yeah, I don't
think there's enough to get past the over all chruckoldness
of it. Yeah, like you would have to do a
lot of wood chunks in there two get past the
charcoal smoke part of it. So yeah, it's just a
(14:46):
it's a cleaner, cleaner tasting smoke I guess it's a
warmer flavor, if that makes any sense. No, yeah, so are.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You monitoring.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Tempts at all, like to figure out how often that
kicks on? No heat kicks No, nope, I'm noting. Sure
how I would do that without watching it and sitting
there for whatever timeframe.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Well if you're yeah, I mean you have to sit
there for a couple hours and see how many times
it turns on. Yeah, but you said the wings are turning.
It turned out really really good, and.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, that's that. So chicken on that top shelf is
top notch. But yeah, I mean so if we if
we don't put stuff on that top shelf, everything else
cooks to a normal timeline. Some point we can't put
stuff on the top shelf. That's a no go zone
for a long cook.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Speaking of no go zones, right, so, one of our
local barbecue restaurants here posted a picture of their old
hickory pit, you know, open rotisserie, everything going, and they've
got a whole bunch of chicken wings and they got bacon,
they got they got half chickens and ribs and whatever.
So as it's going around, it shows half chickens raw
(16:08):
on the rack above bacon in pans.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I messaged Bubba right our friends, our friend Steve Collington,
and I asked him, I said, is there a food
safety issue with that? He said no, because it's all
getting cooked to a higher temperature. Anyway, I'm like, I
personally would never put chicken above anything that has a pan,
(16:38):
Like I've done chicken and ribs together or chicken like
wings and ribs together, because yes, they're on the same time,
they're both getting off at the same time. Like, I'm
okay with that, but like having a pan of bacon
catch literally catch that chicken juice.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, yeah, and is that bacon being done, Like if
if the bacon's going to be on for as long
as the chicken is, then yes, in theory that juice
will all cook too up to temperature without being a problem. Right,
But if you're pulling that bacon, if you're pulling that
bacon off twenty minutes after you put that chicken on,
then yes, it is a huge concern and an issue.
(17:19):
If anything, he should be flipping those around and the
chicken should be cooked in pans. I mean put them on, great,
so they're still sitting at a level high enough, but yeah,
to catch those juices, just to make sure. I mean,
that's a risk I wouldn't want to take.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
But because he had I mean, it's a big old hickory.
But he had like four shelves of wings, and then
he had some baby bags with some half chickens next
to it, and then he's stacking sheet pans of bacon,
like stacking them like there's two here, and then there's
one on top. And I'm like, it's just like and
it's doesn't look like it's candy bacon. It looks like
(17:54):
it's bacon. H I'm like, is it a rotisserie?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
It is? It is, So it doesn't really it doesn't
really matter what's on top of on the bottom, because
it's going to be on the top or bottom on
the other side of it anyways of the carousel.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, so in this case it would be but you
could put half chickens on the bottom rack and put
bacon on top of it, and the half chickens aren't
going to seep.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Into the baby because it'll be the bacon will be
far enough on the bottom that when it hits the
I got you. Yeah, it was just cook the chicken
over a pan catch those strippings. That's all you got
to do. I mean, it'd be interested to what the
health department would say. So there's still there's still marketing.
There's sixth place wings in the state from like ten
(18:37):
years ago. That what it was for. There's three hundred flavors.
We did get. We did get. The Grand Rapids Fire
chief was going around on Sunday since there was such
a large grouping of food trucks, stop by to say
(19:00):
Hill and said, everything look good. He said, with one exception. Oh,
so we have plastic gas cans. We are not allowed
to have plastic gas cans. We have to have metal
gas cans. Really yep, he said, you're good. Just make
sure you get some because whether it's not in your vehicle,
(19:22):
they weren't. They were sitting next to the trailer in
the shade, because in the sunlight they will if you're
not venting them. Yeah, which was why I hate these
safety cans because they are anything but safe because they
don't have an automatic event on them. Just popped the
edge of them. I really considered just drilling a hole
in the backside of them just to allow the fumes
(19:43):
to get out. The old ones did the old ones
had released lack yep. I don't know why they went
away with them anyways. Yeah, but that's why I don't allow.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
For I saw an eight year old on top of
a generator with a gas can feeding it as his
dad's cooking shed in the black Stone.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah exactly, but a sorry, So yeah, that's why that's
that's apparently that's why. It's because they get hot and
people aren't paying attention, and you know, you have gas
cans exploding or popping next to generators, could be a problem,
could be Yeah, I mean I get it. So, yeah,
we have to we have to go and get some metal.
(20:20):
I can't even imagine how much these things are gonna cost.
I guess somewhere in the somewhere in the fifty to
sixty dollars range. Yeah, a few bucks. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So we were told that we had to have no
smoking signs on all four sides of our trailer. Wow,
all four sets, not just like near our near. We
have to have one on the inside too.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, we were told we had to have one on
the inside. My one on the outside keeps falling off,
so we didn't say anything about that. I didn't even
have one up there.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
So I got like signs that I put on the
back that I just put up just I just gotta
remember to take them off afterwards. Speaking of that, I
did finally get graphics on my truck, Nicel. Finally it's
not just a black incognito barbecue trailer.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
You definitely need to get that out there then.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I absolutely, I mean we did for one thing. So
we have our I know, one of the topics we
wanted to cover, and now we got like twenty minutes
to try to get everything in here.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, I got I got something else too, good. Uh,
food truck associations, that's all. Yeah, we want to get
to that. Is that what you want to talk to
next about next? I guess something too, But Steve said,
what about chicken on the left and everything else on
the right? Exactly? Yeah, absolutely for sure. That way, nothing's
dripping anything except for its own animal. So we have
(21:49):
so the city Grand Rapids hosts lunches during the week
at Rosa Park Circle. So they have live they bring
in live music, they bring in food trucks. It's like
a from May through August, I think every Thursday from
eleven or eleven to one. So we we got finally
(22:09):
got in this year. We have a handful of dates.
We have our first one this week. I got an
email from them saying we have an exciting new partnership
oh for this week only. Oh. I was like, sweet,
we really hit the jackpot here. Let's see. Comcast is
(22:29):
partnering with us next week very unique and exciting way,
in order to promote the Rise Small Business Grant, which
is available to businesses in like five different area codes.
Grand Rapids is one of them. So they're promoting this
whole thing until the end of May. Comcasts will be
covering one thousand dollars worth of customer purchases from each truck. Jesus,
(22:53):
I know on a first come, first served basis, you
keep track of the dollar amount product that you sell
a customers will not have to pay for it themselves
until the thousand dollars limit is reached. So essentially, we're
giving away a thousand dollars of free food to our
customers for lunch on Thursday, and we're getting reimbursed from Comcasts.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Awesome that day, A great day, great day.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Thousand dollars lunch on Thursday. Chris is like, couldn't someone
just come up and like buy a thousand dollars worth
of food. Like that's a good point. So I got
another email to day with some further details, like we're
gonna try to set some limits on everything. And you
know what, if you just run attacked, that's what we're doing.
If we promote it that we have free lunch up
(23:41):
to a certain amount, then yes, someone could come down
and say yes, like ten pounds of brisket, Yeah, three
recks of ribs.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
We're promoting we're gonna be there, but we're not promoting
that we're giving away free lunches.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
We're going to so oh heck, yeah, we're not going
to say that there's a dollar amount, so it's going
to be we're giving away free lunches. So meals per
person is kind of how we're got to promote.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
To promote it, like to promote free lunch.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, because they are also doing it. They're also promoting
it that there's available food because they want to make
sure that every truck has the opportunity to have that
benefit of the day. Yeah, I get that, but I
get them promoting it because it's there special. But you
get it. You get a local.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Business coming down, Hey, I need a thousand dollars worth
of food right now.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And we're going to say, no, that's not how it works.
So they're saying, we think we may have to limit
the total per person in order to avoid one person
order hundreds of dollars of food. Yeah. Yeah, So they're saying,
we would like to say the first fifty customers get
their lunch paid for by Comcast. Is how they want
to promote it type of thing. So they're trying to
figure out, like what an average lunch for us would cost,
(24:59):
but it's not. We're probably closer to like seventeen, but.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Josh, twenty dollars. Figure out how to do a twenty
dollars lunch.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
No, No, they can order off their regular minty and
we can just serve more than fifty customers for free food.
We're going to run a tab on our normal menu
two one thousand dollars. I'm not doing special menu items
for whatever reason. No, no, bring back your meal. You
can bring back your meals for twenty dollars. I'm not
doing a special menu for the day. Yes it is.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
You have everything on the truck, it's just a package different, Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But then someone comes up another day and says, yeah,
can I get that Lord's swine meal that I had
down at Rex and Rosa? Because it happens to us
all the time.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
What's your what's your goal per customer?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Like?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
How much do you want to get out of a
customer as far as money goes.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
I never think of any customer that way a sale.
That's all I care about, not looking for them to
spend an average amount of anything. I know on average
what our customers do spend. But I'm not trying to
bump up or yeah, so you don't.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I mean, realistically, you don't care about average ticket stocks,
not really, you just want a ticket.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Noh.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
So somebody who orders one hundred dollars worth of food
and somebody orders it cit a macum cheese.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
That's that's I treat those two customers exactly the same.
It is someone choosing to spend their money with us.
I get that. Why would I treat them differently? M
I didn't say treat them differently.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I'm saying that.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I liked. I want to see who I had to
wheeze a lot of this one.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
No, I'm saying it for somebody that operates all day
lunches and dinners mm hm, you have to do a
meal or some sort of pitch price versus everything.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
All the part.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Is interesting to me because I figured you would want
a way to get a higher ticket price. Period, Like
I understand some it comes up and gets a twelve
dollars sandwich, but don't.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Alls it's gonna equate to is we sell more drinks.
We have so many people that order sandwiches and sides
already on their own. So really, all I'm gonna do
is push out more drinks that are realistically that's the
part that's discounted. You know, because you're doing a discount
(27:45):
of me, You're gonna take the discount on the pop
because that's your highest profit margin of the three things
you're gonna sell. So you know how much value are
you really getting out of it at that point?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
That's if you include a drink. I don't include a drink.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah, so yeah, I don't think people are deterred. A
lot of people ask if it comes with a side,
and the majority of them when we say no, everything's
on the cart, they still are aside. So all right,
so there, Yeah, I mean to each their own. Everybody
(28:27):
can do it.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
But yeah, I mean we offer that are you part
of this this association that is doing the Friday or
through truck Thursdays.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
That is not a no, that's just the City of
Grand Rapids like the downtown.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Whatever development authority kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Or something like that. Yeah, so yeah, there's no affiliation needed. Now.
It does help us being parts and active parts of
these other groups because businesses and these like downtown authorities
and stuff, when they are looking for a list of
food trucks, that's who they reach out to. Yeah, especially
(29:11):
the Grandarfti's Food Truck Association. That list gets published to
a lot of people that are looking for food trucks
getting what you I don't know, Like that's the thing is,
like what should you expect of any association? And I
know that you being a member of the Great Lakes
(29:33):
Barbecue Association and on the board from time to time.
I am on the board from now. Yeah, that is
often a question there what am I getting for my membership?
So let me ask you this.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
When you signed up for this association, what they do
is promote basically food truck rallies, right, and say, is
that kind of why you got part of this is
to be on that list?
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I mean it is a nice list to be on, but.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It's so do you have to pay any other fees
to get into these rallies other than that three hundred
dollars a year?
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yes, so we paid another one hundred and fifty just
to be in the It costs us to be at
the Rolling Out Festival on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Okay, are you guaranteed a number of a certain number
of events that they do?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
That's the only event they do, that's their only event. Yeah,
they don't put on events. Oh, but it's just they
coordinate other events, not as far as I know.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So you paid four hundred and fifty bucks to be
at this event and be on a lift an important
list though, So what are you hoping to get out
of this?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
My question is, shouldn't it be a reasonable expectation that
with their I don't know, I'm going to guess sixty members,
So that's eighteen thousand dollars a year. If my math
is right that for their premiere food truck festival that
(31:18):
they put on themselves, that they would be able to
figure out a way to advertise outside of Facebook. You'd
think so. You'd think so, especially if they saved eight
thousand dollars on the venue. M I mean they do that.
(31:39):
I mean, so they're getting sales back on the beer
ten everything, so it's not like they only have the
eighteen and they do other things. So they do. They're
doing a lot of They do a lot of town
hall meetings once a month. They bring in special guests
and speakers and business people too. It's a good What
they do outside of that is is pretty good. There's
(32:03):
going to be a revolt after this last Sunday in
this event, there was a lot of very unhappy food
trucks because they I mean they were saying half half
as many people as there was last year. Now can
that be? Is that only?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Is everybody going to equate that strictly to advertising?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
I think it's going to be a big part because
that's from what we heard from the association members that
put it on, was what they were complaining about not
being able to get media coverage here.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
So our city three years ago, yeah, three years ago,
started a food truck rally at.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Our local fair grounds.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
It was put on by two interns with our County
Parks Department. Those interns, whatever they did, now, granted, the
first year is always the best. Typically but whatever they did,
we were turning cars away because there was no parking available.
(33:07):
M everybody was packed. I mean, the way they set
it up, it just it was. It was an unbelievable event.
It was supposed to go four hours. We sold out
in two because we didn't know what to expect. This
is when I saw the eight year old generator. Then
on top of it, the next year, it was we
did half as much because there was no advertising. There
(33:30):
was no nothing. We didn't know what advertising they did,
but whatever it was, they didn't do the same amount
from what we were told last year. It was the
same as the year prior. Again advertise, so and they're
getting one hundred and fifty bucks a truck to be
there and they're limiting it to like fourteen or something.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
So yeah, that's what this event's been going on for
like fifteen years. Yeah. But then they head of the
neighborhood association of the neighborhood that's right next to there. Yeah,
they had no idea what was going on there? Yeah,
what could they have done to get on the news?
Doing morning show? Could do, radio do whatever? I mean,
(34:15):
they paid for Facebook ads because it said sponsored. I
remember seeing the ad come across. Yeah, oh, it reached
they reached fifty thousand dollars both time, or fifty thousand
people at both times we boosted it. Yeah, and I'm
getting twenty thousand on my boose.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I'm getting five. I'm getting five, just normal.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
So yeah, I'm putting one hundred bucks a weekend and
getting twenty Can you tell me you only put two
hundred bucks behind this thing?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah? Get fifty? Yeah and yeah, yeah, I mean what
what's in it? I mean, what do you get for
your could they you know, could they put on a
second one? Do you think they have the money to
put on a second one at the end of the.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah, they didn't. They're not going to lose money on
this thing, so put it to them. Get I'm not
I don't have any availability to do another one. I'm
book slid. You can find it. Find what availability.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
You told me at the beginning, like a couple of
weeks ago that you were still trying to fill in spots.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, weekday lunches in October November. I have a couple.
But yeah, yeah, and this is the first one I've done.
They've been doing this event for a long time, so
I'm gonna guess this has been a pretty dramatic drop
this year versus previous years for everybody to be so
(35:38):
I rate, do you think down upon what they did?
Like are you? Are you mad? Not mad?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
But are you You're probably disappointed in sales, But if
you get picked, you're gonna do it again next year.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
We're in. So anybody that's a member, an association member
gets invited. There's not a selection process, there's not application process.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
They got sixty members and then the chance.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And theory, yes there could be sixty. They might cap
it at like forty five, but first come, first serve
probably then so.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, I own your fair ground or I own your
free fair frame grounds whatever. That's the world's largest, you know,
the last couple of years of the world's largest food
truck rally, I said, forty trucks. I don't know how
that's not Michigan's largest it is. I mean, we do
want in Marshall that's coming up next to in two
weeks next week.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
That's a lot. I mean, it's.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Thirty I think, yeah, they're fair grounds, but yeah, forty five,
I mean, forty five trucks a lot to begin with.
But Great Rapids is a highly populated area. And for
you to be in the downtown campus.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I mean, when you're talking twenty thousand people attending is
what they have had for attendance, you know, fifteen to twenty.
It's a lot of people for forty trucks. And these
people are coming to eat. That's not they're come into
a fair and oh there's food here. Yeah, they're coming
to eat, and a lot of them are coming to
eat at multiple trucks. So there's the.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Syracuse or New York Food Truck Association based out of Syracuse.
They have two hundred and southern members, each paying two
hundred dollars to be a member. They organize their own
food truck rallies every month. They take over like a
mall parking lot or a movie theater parking lot, or
(37:35):
a Low's parking lot or something like that. They partner
with all these businesses to put on a food truck
takeover and there's thousands of people that go into this.
I would love to get the the organizer as a guest,
but I mean it's I don't know if it's it's based.
It's either based out of Syracuse or Buffalo, but it's huge.
(37:58):
So we're trying to do the same thing with our
Jackson Food Truck Association. There's no membership, but our local
DDA told us that they didn't want to do food
Truck Tuesdays anymore, which is a rally every every other
Tuesday starting June to August. And they were charging us,
you know, truck seventy five bucks, but they said they
(38:20):
were running a deficit every year.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Well, we're we're going to take it over.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
We were going to move it to the Fairgrounds, which
is a mile away, and then we were told that
nobody would ride the shuttle that we were going to get,
so we just took it over downtown. It's costing us
seventy five dollars to apply for six dates, so instead
of seventy five for each day's seventy five dollars. And
(38:46):
then if we want power, it's an extra twenty five
bucks per truck. And we were paying seventy five bucks
total like every month or every event that we were there,
a thing to each each other. How the hell are
they losing money?
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Right?
Speaker 2 (39:04):
So we are now myself and two other trucks are
going to be the head of it, and we're going
to collect fifty bucks from each truck. If they want power,
they have to pay the extra twenty five tory that
if you don't have an inverter type generator that you
need to buy power. We have bathrooms because it's a
food truck park, but it's like they just didn't want
(39:25):
a food truck event at a food truck park and
it made no sense. So once it started getting out
that there was going away, business owners were just getting
pissed because the consumers energy, their headquarters is right downtown
and they would walk round half a block to get food.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
So we're putting out a mass.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
All the food trucks are involved, are putting on a
mass text or not text but Facebook and Instagram post
with just a black background.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
It's set.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Food truck Tuesdays are back and we're all doing it
at nine o'clock tomorrow morning to try to get it out.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
To move followers and we can, right, And.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
We found out that they were paying five hundred dollars
for entertainment, and I'm like, we can get entertainment for
one hundred and fifty bucks for three hours, Like why
do you need five hundred? Like why do politics? Why
do politicians spend so much for everything.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
It's no sense to me. So what's the difference in
the entertainment you're getting versus what they were getting. We
hired ourselves. They went through like our local Michigan theater,
and they curated the entertainment for them, So it was
all people.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
They knew that they probably got a cut of that
five hundred dollars and only paid the people.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Probably what we are not. Everything's a shady backdoor deal.
But why couldn't they just do it? I guess I
don't know. To me, it was just weird because you
outsourced things that you don't want to do yourself for
you don't have the knowledge to do.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And that was the original thing with the DDA is
she wanted to send out an invoice to one truck
for seven hundred and fifty bucks and for one truck
to collect it from the rest of them. Well, system
and nobody want to do that because we're like, we
don't know where our money's going whatever. So we just
took it out and hopefully it works out. I mean,
we want to start we start an Instagram page, we
(41:15):
want to start a Facebook page, and we do want
this to be a board at some point or another
where if anybody needs a Jackson food truck and Jackson
County food truck, they can just come to us, to
our members and say, hey, we have a catering deal.
Here's what they want.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Reach out to them. You know, ye.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
See what happens because you've got to get people that
are involved because you'll always have But I don't understand.
I know we got a minute left. But what I
don't understand is the trucks even that aren't new, so
people that have been in the business three, four or
five years that are still taking Like you see on
the Michigan Food Truck and Catering Group that they the
people don't give They say, well, we need to we
(41:56):
need five food trucks for one hundred people, and there's
seventeen responses that, oh, we're available, we're available.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
How the hell do you think you're going to make
money man, because they can't book anywhere else, so they're
taking whatever they can to try to stay alive.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
And it's sad like it's just like, because it's trucks
like that, they give us the other trucks that are
trying to do it right a bad name.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Now that's not on the trucks that's on the events. True,
the trucks aren't giving anybody a bad name as long
as they're putting out good food. They're showing up wh
they're supposed to. Yeah, I mean organizers need to understand
that the quality of truck they're going to get at
set events is not going to be the upper tier
(42:45):
of trucks. And I know that's a that's a lot
of what gets pushed on this side of the state.
You know, if you want to book a truck last minute,
you need to understand that you're not going to get
you know, us or Patty Matters or a dune buggy
last minute. You know, you're going to get somebody that's
(43:07):
only been open for six months or to a year
and a half, you know, have a fun. Yeah, that's
that's what you can expect. Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yep, all right, we'll save the other topic for next week.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
What was the other one?
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Unruly business or tip for tat petty business owners. It's
a great story, great work, half a drama, great story.
All right, we had a we had a friends tip
over in our trailer. Thank you, thank you for tuning
in all our tons of tons of listeners. Glad you
didn't forget about us.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
We will.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I will try to be more don't you forget that? Sorry,
I'll try to be more active on post. Anybody have
an attack?
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Yeah I did not pick up the slack. Sorry. Anyways,
everybody have a great week. I will talk to you
hopefully next week. Monday deuces takes sense.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!