Anyone doing breakfast out of their trailer?

Anyone doing breakfast, like egg a muffins or breakfast burritos along with coffee and donuts?

My new location is right off of I-94, just west of Ann Arbor MI at exit 153. I-94 is under construction, tearing up around 20 miles of the east bound and swinging them to my side of the road, my exit is at the beginning or end of construction depending on your direction of travel. The road crew and truckers are going to a 24/7 operation in a week or two. Well, the gravel train operators have discovered me along with many of the construction crew and locals, car pool lot at my location too, and they are asking for breakfast.

Right now I am working 9am to 4pm and heading home. I have my setup, breakdown and clean up down to around 2.5 hours total as of now. So, as of now I am putting in around 10 hours a day total. Business dies right around 3pm, with a few stragglers until 4pm while I am slowly breaking things down, mainly guys getting off of work.

I'm just thinking out loud right now, as I honestly do not know if there is enough "REAL" interest in me getting there at 6am to do breakfast and say knock off at 2pm and call it a day. That is eight hours and then figure one hour in the am for setup and another hour, or more at night to break it all down and be ready for the am.

I figure I can do eggs, bacon and sausage on the griddle, mix it all up and make some burritos up and throw them in the steam table. That way it is wam bam thank you mam and the guys are in and out in no time flat. And hopefully pour allot of coffee. But, the truckers usually carry their own thermoses...

Like I said, just thinking out loud, any thoughts?

Mike

Sounds like what you may need to do if there enough interest. Breakfast and you can get go ahead from hd to serve such stuff. Most breakie people just want a stomach fill keep simple. Don't forget the i notice you have a nice thermos does it need a warmer upper. If big interest in breakie do one item each morning a slight variation of your burrito . Keep simple but keep um wanting the way you fill there stomach and warm there thermos.

All is cool with the HD, license covers it.

Mike

We pre make Breakfast burritos and sell between 40 and 50 a day at $1.50 .....I use a 6" flour tort, all left over Sausage, eggs, Hashbrowns, omelets, sauteed onions and peppers, with a handfull of shredded cheese, wrapped in alum sheets. They hold real well and and the cheese melts in the steamtable. I hold mine in a serve yourself glider warmer. I also serve a breakfast croissant w/egg/ham bacon or sausage and cheese for $2.50 and a breakfast english muffin the same way for $2.00 we sell out everyday a long with a food breakfast menu.......................... BillyB

Breakfast Burritos are huge around here, they fast and easy to eat in a hurry. I think thats what you'll run into with that type of customer they are in a big hurry, so do the best you can to be fast. Once the word gets out that you can get a great hot breakfast fast from you, they'll line up.

We've got an event tip toeing around us.  They are asking if we can do a breakfast.  I once made up a recipe (Southern Style Breakfast enchiladas) that I could adapt.  I wasn't sure how they would hold up on a steam table.  The ones I made for our family never lasted long enough to cool off. And I used 10" flour tortillas (my kids were/are skinny bottomless pits).  I'm a little leary of using whole eggs... had anyone used the egg beaters much?  Do they taste okay and hold on a steam table?  Don't tell me about some Sysco type supplier's products.  They won't talk to us.. we're too small and too mobile and we don't want credit, just cash!

I need to talk with some of my customers from the road crew and gravel pits. They are going to go 24/7 next week from what I heard from one of the office workers at one of the pits. I am the only game in town as I am sitting in a good sized parking lot. There is another gas station around two miles away off of the interstate with a subway, but there is no room for a big truck, mush less a car in their parking lot.

I didn't get out of my spot until 6pm last night as they just kept coming and coming. The truckers are really spreading the word for me and I can see this going into an early morning gig, or an easy 12 hour day. I'm pooped.

Mike

lornaschinske


We've got an event tip toeing around us.  They are asking if we can do a breakfast.  I once made up a recipe (Southern Style Breakfast enchiladas) that I could adapt.  I wasn't sure how they would hold up on a steam table.  The ones I made for our family never lasted long enough to cool off. And I used 10" flour tortillas (my kids were/are skinny bottomless pits).  I'm a little leary of using whole eggs... had anyone used the egg beaters much?  Do they taste okay and hold on a steam table?  Don't tell me about some Sysco type supplier's products.  They won't talk to us.. we're too small and too mobile and we don't want credit, just cash!

Hey Lorna, if your using whole eggs, and worried about the eggs turning green, put a small amount of sour cream into the eggs after scrambling. You could also use a small amount of lemon juice, but this maybe detected. We use a Citric acid added liquid eggs, they hold up very good for us, holding on a steamtable for hours. we also make omelets that hold well with not reaction or turning green.....................Bill

lornaschinske


We've got an event tip toeing around us.  They are asking if we can do a breakfast.  I once made up a recipe (Southern Style Breakfast enchiladas) that I could adapt.  I wasn't sure how they would hold up on a steam table.  The ones I made for our family never lasted long enough to cool off. And I used 10" flour tortillas (my kids were/are skinny bottomless pits).  I'm a little leary of using whole eggs... had anyone used the egg beaters much?  Do they taste okay and hold on a steam table?  Don't tell me about some Sysco type supplier's products.  They won't talk to us.. we're too small and too mobile and we don't want credit, just cash!

 
Have done breakfast at two events every year. Used egg beaters products at these. Can say we did as they ordered. All the ingredients where cooked a head of time. Potato's ,sausage, bacon and such.  Breakfast on the griddle is easy. Can say if doing everyday would look to a cheaper product than egg Beaters. throw the egg product on and what they want, wrap in a 10" warm burrito . walla.
Also Bisquits and gravy is easy and highly asked for. Gravy in steam pans, frozen bisquits is the way to go. Storage space becomes an issue.
But we did not do this everyday.  Coffee is big, juice is there and we under est. the milk. Would not believe how many adults order Milk.

I am not worried about green eggs. I am more concerned with Salmonella (and the stray egg shell fragment). Back when we raised our own chickens for eggs, I always dipped my eggs (after cleaning them) in a light solution of cool bleach water.  I guess I could do that now. We just had to deal with e.Coli in the public water system (we boiled all the water on the cart... that's alot of water.. HD guy stopped by to tell us the ban was lifted and told us we didn't have to do that!  I want to replace old filter with a ceramic filter!)  I don't want to do breakfast every day. As for biscuits & Gravy... I'm from the South (FL, NC, SC, TN, GA)... everything goes on or with a biscuit... my kids used to make mashed potatoes & biscuit sandwiches. Not sure if biscuits are that big here in NM. I do know they can't make a decent iced tea out here... sweet or unsweet.  Cracker Barrel needs to send their staff to TN to learn some tea and biscuit making skills!!!! At least they still have grits!

We are trying to work out our cooking situation.  We only have sterno powered steam tables.  David is building another bun warmer. That will free up the old steampan to use for "hot condiments". 

We have one full waterpan that will hold 4" deep  pans:
1/3 pan =hot dogs, sausages
1/3 pan = BBQ
1/3 pan = meatballs in beef broth (new item) 

The old bun warmer pan(full size) is shallow and can only hold 2.5" deep pans.  The old bun warmer will hold a 1/3 pan of hot German potato salad (new), and 1/6 pans of kraut, chili, German style beef gravy (new for meatballs) and a Sauerbraten gravy (new for meatballs).  We will test the new stuff on the street... limited testing... hard to do too much with a population that we spent last summer telling them what sauerkraut was... and they have an Oktoberfest here every year. 

We can use the"hot condiment" pan for the foil wrapped breakfast wraps (we will be able to use the 2.5" deep full size insert pan we currently use for the buns). And then "flip" that section over to the lunch stuff once the meats are almost ready.

I'm thinking we need to get the pan liners and run the food (gravies and potato salad) in small batches.  I can keep extra premade in the pan liners (held in ice) and should be able to set them in a pot of boiling water to bring up to serving temps.  We have a 2 burner LP campstove we have used before for a long event to reheat subsequent batches of chili. We have room to place the campstove on the counter in the cart if we put a cover over the triple bowl sink for it to sit on.

But the eggs bother me.  The only time I have dealt with large amounts of eggs was when I worked at a conference center in SC (many years ago).  We did eggs two ways on the breakfast buffet (all chaffing dishes). Straight scrambled (using Sysco's eggs-in-a-bag) that was cooked either in a steam oven or on the griddle, or we mixed the scrambled eggs with boursin cheese (and I have a great "faux" boursin cheese recipe... tastes just like the real deal) and placed it in a sliced croissant roll, added a slice or two of bacon and placed those in the chaffing dish. And, the way I see it, I have to drag a griddle with me to cook the eggs on the cart... Maybe I can cook the eggs in a cooking bag in hot water?  I know they do that with ziplock type bags at many RV get-togethers (there is some question on the safety of using those types of bags for cooking in as they are not designed to hold up to boiling water).  I guess I need to do some "testing"...

Just finished a "taste test" using my favourite guinea pigs (David & Stacey).  My eggs weeped but found the answer to that on www.aeb.org (American Egg Board) under the foodservice section. I cooked 1 dozen eggs (plus 2 cups diced up leftover sausage) in a cooking bag in simmering water. Took 13 minutes.  Used 8" flour tortillas and 1 tbsp cheddar cheese.  Right now... needs more salt (I doubt if that will increase), needs more cheese (2 tbsp). Guess what's for supper again tomorrow night!  I think this will work! Next I gotta run my numbers thru the spreadsheet to find the selling price.

Lorna... you need to bulk that burrito up with some spuds.....and some sort of salsa.
 
I do sausage, egg, cheese, potato & salsa when I do breakfast burritos... But I use a 12 or 14 " tortilla... get $5.50 for it...(2 sausage, 2 egg, cheese, spuds, salsa) Make sure you well season for your customers....nothing worse than bland eggs.
 
On my spuds I use s&p, garlic, paprika, rosemary...... Happy experimenting!

ChefBuba I agree bulk with potato. Salsa your area. It is what they want .Never seen a breakfast burrito without Potato.
A good Chorizo link split with fried egg and cheese with a slice of Tomato  on a English muffin.
Now I need Breakfast. To me sliced tomato and eggs go together. Southern thing.

I think my BB's are 1/3 maybe 1/2 potato filler, the other stuff cost money. I like the money in my pocket. I like Chefbuba's BB's size, and price......................I sell mine at $1.50 but its a employee work situation , they buy two at a time, and my cost is good.....We serve Jalapenos and salsa on the side................Bill

Curbside Grill


ChefBuba I agree bulk with potato. Salsa your area. It is what they want .Never seen a breakfast burrito without Potato.
A good Chorizo link split with fried egg and cheese with a slice of Tomato  on a English muffin.
Now I need Breakfast. To me sliced tomato and eggs go together. Southern thing.

Curbie.. the chorizo is GOOD too....Sometimes I'll cook some into the potatoes....

I gotta get those eggs right first. Then I will start adding stuff.  We will be selling these at an auction (morning) then swap to our lunch stuff when we shift locations around noon. And don't think folks here are Salsa mad just because we are in NM... they aren't.  Every place slaps salsa or chili on everything (they don't even ask).  Most of our customers complain about the "abundance" of salsa and chili (both red and green). They are so happy that our chili is not the "red or green" variety.  Given my allergies, we will not be offering anything with peppers in it.

We do breakfast at a few of our shows. Keep it very simple. The more you have for breakfast the bigger the pain in the butt it is. We make breakfast sandwiches and thats it.
Sausage Egg and Cheese
Sausage and Egg
Sausage and cheese.

Ham (canadian bacon) Egg and Cheese
Ham and egg
Ham and cheese

If you keep your grill hot you can cook an egg in about 30 seconds. We are usually busy so we always have a few eggs cooked ahead. they never sit more than a min or two on the grill.
Depending on the crowd, we always have sausage and ham cooked ahead as well.
Toast has always been a bit of a problem with us. We are always kicking breakers.
Most people just want their sandwich on a plain ol' hamburger bun.
Cooking eggs while very busy is demanding, but it's worth it in the end.

Jeffro

just curious....how did serving breakfast end up going for you> and are you still serving it ?

Do you folks like english muffins or bulky rolls for egg sandwiches
 
Al

we use english muffins and sometimes if i feel the urge we use croissants>>>

I fry my bread on the griddle instead of toasting it, taste better to me that way.  My favorite breakfast sandwich is homefries, bacon and chedder cheese between two slices of french toast, all made on the griddle.

This is my planned breakfast menu. I know it's long but I will narrow it down with input from my customers.
 
1)      BREAKFAST
a)      Eggs
i)        Fried
ii)      Poached
(1)   Eggs Benedict
(2)   Seafood Benedict
iii)    Scrambled
(1)   Seafood Scramble
(2)   Sausage Scramble
iv)    Omelets
(1)   Crab
(2)   Lobster
(3)   Seafood Salad
(4)   Vegetarian
(5)   Land Shark-meat lover’s omelet
b)      Pancakes
i)        Pancake sizes
(1)   Dolphin-6 inch diameter
(2)   Great White-12 inch diameter
(3)   Killer Whale-18 inch diameter
ii)      Order Sizes
(1)   Land Lubber-1 Pancake
(2)   Snorkeler-2 Pancakes
(3)   Scuba Diver-3 Pancakes
(4)   Free Diver-4 Pancakes
(5)   Davy Jones-5 Pancakes
iii)    Pancake Flavors
(1)   Buttermilk
(2)   White Chocolate Chip
(3)   Blueberry
(4)   Sausage
(5)   Bacon
(6)   Pecan
(7)   Hawaiian
(8)   Donut
(9)   Banana Nut
c)      Crepes
i)        Crepe Flavors
(1)   Tally Mon-Banana with rum caramel sauce
(2)   Brown-eyed Girl-Suzette
(3)   Santeria Chicken-Florentine
(4)   Mama Midinuit-Chocolate with Tawny Port reduction
(5)   Plantation-Nutella
(6)   Blintzes
(a)    Blueberry
(b)   Dutch Apple
(c)    Georgia Peach
(d)   Agave Nectar
d)     Grilled Biscuits And Gravy
i)        Gravy Flavors
(1)   Plain
(2)   Bacon
(3)   Sausage
(4)   Chicken
(5)   Redeye
e)      Grilled Biscuit Sandwiches
i)        Sausage
ii)      Bacon
iii)    Ham
iv)    Chicken
v)      Pork Chop
f)       Sides
i)        Grits
ii)      Sausage
iii)    Bacon
iv)    Toast
v)      Grilled Biscuit
vi)    Ham