101 Food Service Kiosk Name Ideas, and How to Find Yours
For many aspiring food kiosk owners, dreaming up the perfect name for your new business was probably one of the first things you did. After all, once you've established a concept for your new restaurant idea, picking out a name should come easy. Right? RIGHT? But what if you've headed down the path toward opening day, secured some investment capital, roughed out a viable business plan that seems to hold together, and maybe even secured licensing, insurance, and a few vendors to get your started, and you STILL don't have a name for your restaurant? What if you're marching toward [...]
Top Four Most Profitable Food and Beverage Kiosks in Shopping Malls
Signing a long-term lease in a high-traffic shopping mall can be extremely expensive and risky if your food concept isn't proven. According to this article on MarketWatch.com, you should expect to pay between $50 - $100 per square foot monthly for the most desirable retail spaces in America. In smaller shopping malls in mid-size metro you can expect to pay more $15 - $25 per square foot. Either way, the monthly dues are significant. That means if you decide to lease a modest sized location, you can expect to pay $1,500 - $5,000 in rent minimum each month. This obligation [...]
What is a Loncheras Food Truck?
A loncheras truck is a food truck serving Mexican faire like tacos and burritos. The rough translation of lonchera from Spanish into English is “lunch box.” These roaming vessels are often referred to as taco trucks as well. If you live in Los Angeles or the surrounding area the sight of a loncheras truck is nothing new. They’ve been serving affordable meals decades before the gourmet food truck movement took ever hold in the United States. Loncheras are small businesses owned by a Mexican or Mexican-American family and employing only members of the family. You can often spot these trucks [...]
Four of the Best Tasting Pho Food Trucks on the Planet
Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup. With the popularity of foreign food increasing each year, it is not surprising that Pho is gaining a lot of attention. There are even Pho food trucks now that serve this savory dish. Here are the four best Pho food trucks that you can find anywhere. What Is That Pho? Before we visit the top Pho food trucks out there, we need to talk a little about the food they serve. As mentioned earlier, Pho came from Vietnam. While Vietnamese cuisine may not be as popular as Chinese or Japanese, it is gaining many [...]
The Best Food Truck Refrigerators: Installation Tips & Buyers Guide
Rotolo's Food Truck. No matter what your food concept is going to be, you'll probably need at least one refrigerator installed on your food truck or concession trailer. Whether you're making sandwiches and need to keep meats and cheeses cool or plan to serve summer-time beverages you'll need a cooling system that's both reliable and large enough to store everything necessary to execute your menu. Finding the right refrigerator for a food truck is different than if you're starting a restaurant. If you're looking for commercial-grade restaurant refrigerators you'll have an abundance of quality options. Refrigerators designed to [...]
Food Truck Concession Doors: What You Need To Know
In our on-going series about food truck equipment, we’ve come to one of the more basic build-out topics: concession doors. As you might imagine this is a more straight-forward consideration compared to other areas like plumbing, electrical, or the kitchen layout. Still there are some common-sense guidelines we can offer on the topic if you plan to install a door in the future to ensure the project is done right the first time. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts in this series, we’ve been manufacturing food trucks and concession trailers for over 15 years. In our decade and a half [...]
Where Should Propane Tanks Be Installed on a Food Truck?
There's an age old debate that continues with food truck build outs: Where's the best place to install propane tanks? Some builders advocate for propane tanks to be installed horizontally in a protected compartment underneath your food truck. Others recommend that propane tanks should be installed vertically at the rear of the vehicle. As you may already be aware there are food trucks that actively operate with tanks in both locations. But what's the optimal way to install these units during the build-out process? In this article, we share our insights learned over 15+ years in the concession industry. Over [...]
The Typical Day in the Life of a Crepe Truck
Part of the appeal of food trucks is that they bring a wider variety of specialty foods to people. While restaurants do offer exotic and foreign foods, food trucks make them more accessible. Crepes would be a good example of this. Crepes are thin pastries that are kind of like really thin pancakes. While most people in the United States have heard of crepes, establishments that offer them are not that common. At least not as common as hamburger stands and that is why mobile trucks that serve crepes are very interesting. From a business standpoint, crepes are highly profitable [...]
What's Financial Expert Dave Ramsey's Opinion on the Food Truck Industry?
In a recent episode of The Dave Ramsey Show, the financial expert of the same name took a call from a prospective food truck business owner. True to form, Ramsey offered candid advice on the next steps the caller Isabelle in Houston should take to improve her personal finances and operate the food truck business profitably. Click the play button below to listen to the full 8-minute segment of the show. If you're unfamiliar with Dave Ramsey's program, listeners call-in seeking advice on a variety of personal finance topics. Many of the callers to Dave's program are looking for ways [...]
Everything You Need to Know About Food Truck Water Tanks
One of the items that can be overlooked by first-time food truck vendors is figuring out the size and type of water tanks needed to install in a concession trailer. Not only will you need fresh and gray water tanks to operate efficiently, but you'll need these to meet the specific permitting requirements of the city and state you plan to operate. In this post, we outline all the things you need to take into consideration before installing water tanks inside your food truck. Take notes on this one because this post can take you a lot of time, money, [...]