Over the last few years, it seems the entire country has fallen in love with food trucks. Although generations of busy commuters have snagged hot dogs and coffees from street side vendors, these new, trendy trucks carrying fusion cuisine is a truly modern phenomenon. They’re enjoying a rush of popularity that can compete with even the most established brick and mortar restaurants, but with tight spaces and strict standards, food truck entrepreneurs face their own set of challenges.
The food truck boom, like so many American fads, in Los Angeles at the end of the last decade. Chef Roy Choi’s Korean fusion truck, Kogi, hit the streets of LA in the summer of 2008. Backed by word of mouth and a savvy twitter marketing campaign that allowed hungry regulars to easily locate the moving truck, Kogi kicked off a trend that’s still going strong eight years later. At a time when the sagging economy put buildings and furnishings out of reach of many aspiring chefs, a food truck or a street side cart became a perfect startup. Food trucks are perfect for the age of social media, depending on easy word of mouth marketing to spread the word of both their food and their location day to day.
Utilities and Equipment
While the investment is much smaller than getting a brick and mortar restaurant off the ground, food trucks and sidewalk carts still take some serious investment. Food trucks face tightly controlled regulations which vary from state to state, and even city to city. In small spaces cross contamination also becomes a bigger problem, and proper food hygiene is a necessity. Whether a new entrepreneur has their heart set on a fusion food truck or a portable coffee cart, a portable sink is one of the first necessities.
Fortunately, the popularity of food trucks means there are plenty of vendors providing portable sinks, fitting, generators and gas grills. Some new vendors opt for a simpler and more adaptive setup, like Monsam’s easily portable, indoor/outdoor food and coffee cart: less elaborate, but easily transported and very self contained. Just like food trucks have created their own brand of funky fusion cuisine, they’ve given rise to a new form of construction and engineering…in miniature!
Considering investing in a food truck or roadside cart of your own? Visit foodtrucklaws.com for a comprehensive list of regulations and permits required, organized by state. Then visit Monsam Enterprise’s comprehensive catalogues of portable utility sinks to fit any mobile restaurant and get a quote for your enterprise.