What the hell? Did you not think this? You must have been thinking that food business is all about renting a space, contacting your real estate agents and what not apart from what you will be putting on the daily menu. Exactly is my point. I have been watching a lot of videos lately on food vans and how they are actually bringing the street food culture to the mainstream. They are mobile, healthy and on top delicious, making you drool. From CEOs till housewives, everyone can come to these mobile eateries and enjoy the bliss called food. Having gourmet meals is no longer limited to posh restaurants or expensive hives. Now you can have them all like a glutton while on the drive or while strolling downtown!
Staying ahead of the curve is what startups look out for irrespective of the domain. When it comes to food especially one has to offer something that carves a niche. Now for someone who wants to startup cannot obviously fund a big space unless they have dollars bucked up somewhere! Food trucks or vans have been in vogue and still are and caters to the hungry eaters on the street. It is also true that many food trucks are making a big fortune out of the business. It is all on how you execute it and how much passionate you are about serving good food.
Street food started getting into the blood of cities like New York and many others since the year 2008 when there were some well known food vans like The Dessert Truck on Manhattan or even the Rickshaw Dumpling Bar-all excelling in gourmet food. Today the state of the cart is being built to cater to healthy and fresh food, ranging from meaty delicacies, kebabs or even a freshly baked cake or hot dogs. Mobilized chefs are todays top food entrepreneur calling all food lovers and offering innovative dishes at exciting prices. These food vans are not just on the streets but are also social media friendly. Thinking about branding is what they are doing apart from cooking day and night.
Starting a food business is no more a dream. Now you can serve your favorite hand tossed pizzas or design your fancy cupcakes just like the way you had imagined it. There are innumerable food van startup stories to gorge on. These vans are the means of livelihood of many food enthusiasts and even well to do chefs like Nida. Nida Rodriguez owns a food van in Chicago which is known as The Slide Ride. She is the executive chef with a variety of rotating delicacies like caprese in juicy contact with tomato and mozzarella or rib-eye along with provolone and other such drooling menus on the list. The stories of big trucks serving mouth-watering delicacies are in rampant across many cities on the planet. Street food is now mobile and goes big. There is this big and grand oldish trailer in Seattle nestled in the Union District with an opening at the back called HappyGrillMore. This also travels to the Microsoft territory at frequent intervals. The gastronomical delight includes crazy two-hand burgers with favorite condiments like black bean chipotle or even some delightful salmon. For non-burger foodies, one can gorge into their Hawaiian pork along with hot and steamy rice topped with cabbage and fresh mac salad.
In cities like New York and Los Angeles, food vans are getting more and more popular. But on the other hand managing and building the custom food van is quite a task. Fitting a truck to your needs can cost you as high as $100,000 as New York Magazine had reported some time back on their food truck analysis. It is also important that food trucks maintain a safety and hygiene requirements as they are subjected to frequent inspections. But the best part is that a mobile food van will never have the same permitting procedures as that of a brick and mortar one. Starting up is never easy and so is same for food trucks. But they are the new age food startups. Startups.fm will bring to you some exciting food trucks. So the next time you are here, make sure to check out our latest food trucks. If you are in the same business and want us to tell your story, simply mail us back.
Image Courtesy: Flickr
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Written by Debleena, Editor at Startups.fm
