Five Breakfast Food Truck Ideas Worth Waking Up For

Offering breakfast service on a food truck can be a major revenue source even though if regularly overlooked in the industry. In today’s post, we evaluate some of the most popular breakfast menu ideas we’ve seen work in the A.M. so you can add them to your menu.
One thing we want to point out is even if you don’t plan to operate a breakfast truck exclusively, many trucks are able to adapt their menus to serve the most important meal of the day. Being able to change the menu for breakfast will open up all sorts of opportunities from catering to events frequently held in the morning like marathons, church services, farmer’s markets, or catering.
If you like to wake up early anyway this could be an efficient approach to running a successful food truck. Here are a few of the most popular breakfast menus we’ve seen in our 15+ years of manufacturing mobile food units.

Coffee Trucks

Coffee trucks and trailers are some of the most popular breakfast food trucks out there. One of the organizations we built two trucks for is Refuge Coffee Co. Refuge Coffee Co. started their non-profit by serving coffees from a truck, but expanded quickly into multiple trucks and they now have a retail coffee shop location too. Their goal is to offer job training in the hospitality industry to refugees. Refuge Coffee Co. grew in part by offering catering services to the production companies on the set of different shows in the greater Atlanta area.
As you know, coffee is usually consumed in the morning with breakfast. Some simple menu items you can include on a coffee truck include pastries, donuts, muffins, and various breakfast sandwiches. The other advantage of operating a coffee truck is that you have a high-margin product. While you can sell a cup of drip coffee between $2.50 – $4.00 in most areas the product cost may only be .50 cents. That’s a pretty attractive margin compared to other food businesses!

Waffle Truck

Waffle trucks are another popular breakfast item that works in just about any tier 1 or tier 2 city in the United States. Waffles provide flexibility from a menu perspective too. You can have a sugary taste with syrups, powdered sugar and fruits of all kinds. On the contrary, you can make it a meal by adding fried chicken. There’s lots of options and is a recognizable food enjoyed by young and old.

Crepes Truck

Crepes is another food truck concept that does well at breakfast and lunch service. In the a.m., the menu item has a lot of flexibility. The crepe can be paired with strawberries and whipped cream for something sweet. On the flip side it works just as well with ham for a hearty breakfast.
Crepes got their start in France where they are a popular breakfast item. For the past few decades the food item has become more popular state side as well.

Taco Trucks

Believe it or not the taco truck can do really well in the morning by adding a dozen different spins on breakfast. There are breakfast burritos that come with eggs and your choice of meat. In fact, you could do extremely well by only doing breakfast on a Mexican food truck.
Mexican food has an incredible amount of flexibility. Here are a few breakfast menu ideas that sell well even if you aren’t South of the border: Steak and Egg Burritos (featuring steak, eggs, potatoes, and cheese), Sausage and Egg Burritos (with sausage, eggs, potatoes, and cheese), Breakfast Bowls (featuring potatoes, eggs, and choice of protein), Huevos Rancheros (Tortilla, Eggs, Salsa, Beans, Sour Cream). There’s no limit to the options available with this food concept.

Smoothie Trucks

Another great breakfast option is the smoothie truck. This item has a distinct advantage especially for the health conscious consumer that attend events like 5Ks, weight lifting competitions, or mud runs. But these nutritious beverages also taste great attracting observes at these events just the same.
Different variations of fruit smoothies can work well as a healthy breakfast meal, but continue to sell well throughout the day. The menu item sells well as a mid-afternoon pick me up as well so you can continue to sell the same menu throughout the day.
Keep in mind that the food truck ideas listed above do not need to vend during the morning exclusively. Coffee trucks can add nitro or iced options to attract the afternoon crowd. Taco trucks can essentially remove eggs from a product and the burrito can become a lunch or dinner option.
When most folks think about operating a food truck, they usually think about the lunch or dinner options first. While both of these are important, breakfast can be equally profitable if you have the right menu.