Three Proven High-Margin Food Truck Concepts
In the food truck business, it's not how much money you make, but how much income you get to keep after expenses that really matters. In today's post, we take a look at three different food truck concepts that are designed for profitability due to the high-margins of their product and strong demand no matter where you live in the country. There are a number of expenses that you can't get around when operating a food truck. You need a truck and cooking equipment obviously. But there's also expenses like health permits, insurance, gas, and monthly cell phone payments that [...]
How Oktoberfest and Other Food Holidays Can Be a Windfall for Food Truck Owners
Oktoberfest. The yearly holiday that attracts not only people German heritage, but also general lovers of beer served in large steins, sausages, and sauerkraut. As a food truck owner, it’s a smart idea to constantly be looking for ways to associate your business with local events and holidays like this as well. Each city has annual events for Oktoberfest, Cinco De Mayo, and others that attract hundreds or thousands of people into a day or multi-day event can result in a huge windfall for concession businesses that can put a concession business into the black for a month. Depending on [...]
Five Classic Airstream Trailers Converted into Concession Units
Did you know that just about any trailer can be converted into a food serving machine? This includes those classic Airstream trailers made popular in the 1970s and 1980s that are immediately recognizable due to their streamlined design. The design of these trailers have reached icon status that harken back to simpler times and cross country road trips. Although the Airstream was originally intended as a mobile home used during a long camping trip, an increasing number of mobile food entrepreneurs are leveraging head-turning ability of these trailers to attract attention for their concession businesses. This is a smart idea [...]
Macarollin Food Truck Sells 600 cases of Mac and Cheese on QVC
When most folks think about starting a food truck, the goal is to build a successful small business. By most people's definition the goal of a small food business or restaurant is to serve food within your own community and create an enterprise that will support their family. Building a small business, being your own boss, and living life on your own terms is an awesome goal and the American dream of many. But the Macarollin food truck based out of Webster, NY, had more ambitious goals in mind when they started their food venture. Since the owners of Macarollin Peter [...]
BBQ Concession Trailers with Bathrooms Installed Onboard
At M&R Specialty Trailers and Trucks, one shift we've recognized over the past 15 years manufacturing concession trailers is more vendors are requesting a bathroom to be installed within their BBQ concession trailers. Sure, determining what kind of smoker and other cooking equipment should be equipped on the vehicle still takes the priority one among pit masters, but the toilet usually isn't far behind! And there are a lot of advantages to doing so that both from a personal comfort level operating the trailer and from a customer service perspective as well. In this post, we will outline some of [...]
Seven Shipping Containers Brilliantly Transformed into Mobile Kitchens
First time entrepreneurs and long-time business owners alike are waking up to the opportunity of transforming shipping containers into full blown commercial kitchens. As you'll soon see in the examples below any food business you could want to operate including traditional diners, coffee shops, and fast food establishments are all possible with these structures. In fact, some adventurous individuals have even gone as far a to convert these containers into a permanent home. Your imagination really is the limit when it comes to repurposing containers and we're confident your view of these seemly boring metal cubes will change by the [...]
18 Images of Jaw Dropping BBQ Food Truck Builds
Whether you prefer to eat Memphis or Kansas City style barbecue, you'll love the photos of these BBQ food truck builds in this post. This post includes food trucks from across the United States, including some of our past builds that we're proud to have custom manufactured on behalf of our customers. We hope you enjoy this list as much as we enjoyed curating it! Another satisfied customer of the Smokin' Bull Shack. Built by M&R Specialty Trailers and Trucks. Photo Credit: Smokin' Bull Shack. No better sight as a mobile food vendor than seeing a nice long line [...]
Top 5 Vegetarian Food Trucks in America And Beyond
Hola Arepa: In Minneapolis, the best vegetarian food truck isn’t exactly vegetarian, but this food truck made the list because of its arepas. An arepa, for the uninitiated, is a Venezuelan sandwich made of cornmeal griddlecakes. The black bean and sweet potato arepa comes with tomato, citrus onions, queso fresco, green onion aioli … and can be made vegan, if that’s your thing. The Vegan Nom: Speaking of vegan, Austin has its fair share of vegan food trucks, so it’s darn near impossible to pick just one as “the best.” But there’s a gun to my head, so I’ll go [...]
Chief's Chill Out: Ford Transit Custard Van Conversion Video
In today's video, Bob Pierson guides you on a tour of a recent custom build we are very proud of for Chief's Chill Out. Chief's Chill Out wanted an efficient and agile way to bring their cold treats to the street and chose a new Ford Transit van to serve as the foundation of their business. In this video, Pierson takes you on a 360 degree tour of the outside and inside of this build out and explains the details that went into converting this ordinary van into a snow cone and custard distribution machine. External Tour The tour begins [...]
Pay Attention to What Resonates with Customers: Steve Starr Interview
Steve Starr is an award-winning designer, speaker, and owner of StarrDesign based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. StarrDesign delivers architectural, lighting, interior design services and more for retail shops and restaurants. We had the opportunity to chat with Steve virtually via email and ask him a few questions about how design elements can be applied to mobile food and how important they are to building a long-lasting, thriving brand. Steve's insightful responses to our questions are below. Enjoy! Steve Starr Q/A Question: Tell us a little about yourself, your background and starrdesign. Answer: I grew up in the hospitality world, working in [...]