Concession tents ?

Hi - first to let you all know the sirloin skewers were a great FLOP.
Gave the staff to take home and fed the local shelter as well as my freezer. Oh well. The corn dogs were of course the most popular.
Want some advice on easy to put up tents for the concession work.
Thinking of a 10 x 15 pop up unit with lettering on the canopy for best signage visibility.
Grateful for any input here.
Off to another big gig this weekend, hopefully crowds of 10,000.

Must have missed your first post... Ya, corn dogs do sell! Meat on a stick, by what I've seen, sells best after the sun sets... As for the tent, I wouldnt go spending the extra $$ on getting it silk screened with logos or anything. Find out who the beer distributor is for the event (if they have one).. If you ask nicely, they'll print up some string up banners with their logo and your name / ad for no charge... (Ya, you're advertising their product, but still they give you the big print on the banner)... Just a thought... Seen alot of this when working bars and some food events... Not sure if this is what your looking for, but thats my 1.5 cents worth! Good Luck!!

EZ-UPs work great!

EZ Ups are nice but you MUST make sure you have them tied down well. I am on my second one and you would be surprised how well I had the first one tied down. They are like a parachute the way they grab wind.

Any tent needs to be tied down to prevent it from blowing away. Our EZ-UPs have survived winds in the 30-50 mph range (tornado near by).

quote:

Originally posted by Raine

Any tent needs to be tied down to prevent it from blowing away. Our EZ-UPs have survived winds in the 30-50 mph range (tornado near by).

I would have loved to see that......

We bought 2 of the pop-ups sold by Bed Bath and Beyond for use at our daughters wedding but they have seen a lot of other uses through the summer. 10X10 they were under a $100.00 each, I'm sure a local screen printer could add decoration or perhaps some careful stenciling or computer gen graphix printed on heat transfer paper. For tie down anchors I'd suggest the screw in tie-outs usually used for dogs with 1/4" nylon line (visability) and colorful flags for added visability

We always tie ours down. They lifted up a little, but never blew over. The lighting was a little more frightening than the wind. Even had our big tent survive when HUGO blew through here. Now that was truely amazing.

quote:

Originally posted by Raine

We always tie ours down. They lifted up a little, but never blew over. The lighting was a little more frightening than the wind. Even had our big tent survive when HUGO blew through here. Now that was truely amazing.

Raine are you in S.C.?

No, we're in NC...Charlotte.

I'm from just across the river in Gastonia. Small world, isn't it.

I started with a EZ up and velcroed on hand painted signs. The EZ up only survived one season. If you would like I could send to you Picts.

quote:

Originally posted by Raine

No, we're in NC...Charlotte.

Its a small world

Kannapolis

And Raine? You don't like RO's?

Thanks everyone, useful advise, of course tents must be secured at all times. We have been using concrete blocks to stabilize the corners and this has worked well so far. Just place the corners poles inside the blocks.
The season is sadly coming to a rapid close, next question, how do you mentally get through the down time ?
Concession work is by far the most appealing to me, too bad our summer's are so short ( approx 3 months only )
Keep dreaming up new menu items that are very new and gimmicky, would love to get a banana thing happening with the same batter as the corn dogs, yummy, but oh so hard to handle, they don't skewer well and are gooing to do by hand. Once again, everything is great deep fried.
Not always the healthy choice, but it's not like your eating these menu items every day - they are definitely a treat.
The Elephant Ear thing did well but the storage is tricky when you don't have the proper refrigeration. (frozen 7" pizza shells) We had a few cases expand on us this past weekend (as I feared) Held them in proofing carts with ice, but they only kept max 2 days, on the third day the cases were like a 300 pound sloppy red neck stuffed into his 2 yr old daughters blouse.
I like the idea of velcro signage, change up is easy and sticky velcro is cheap. Got to have the big letters for the bigger sales.
Can't believe it's almost over already, feels like it just started.
I guess I'll just have to pack up and head to Mexico for the winter, and wait for another season next year.
Great forum, it feels like home, and everyone feels like family.
All the best in the food world.

V960, don't like RO's slaw as they call it. Never had anything else from them.

Sams has a canopy tent that looks fairly sturdy for around $149.00 What is your thoughts on thouse? I can not recall the name...

I did the canopy gig for 3 months and then graduated to a trailer for about 3,500. for a 6x10 what a piece of crap.
The lessons I learned was to have insulation in between the walls. screened windows, AC, a bigger breaker box, and most of all a wider trailer. 7ft minumum for two people. there is a 8x14 concession trailer locally for sale 4,500 w/2serving windows, bare inside, It would cost at least 3,000 to outfit it. For my location that I have, I'm moving in 2 months to a better site on the same property, Then I will talk them into letting me have a storage shed to work out of. A 12x24 on ground would work better. Our board of Health does not care about exposed beams inside just as long as there is no dust on them, Go figure. There are a few set up permantly at a local farmers market done as food sheds. Then I can put in freezers and refrigerators, full size. So to sum this up is what I am saying is look for a permant site. or not. CBB

does anyone have a link to tent comapnies that make sturdy/waterproof tents to surround and cover a hot dog cart?

Best thing is to find a local canopy maker. It will get ripped at some time and they will be more willing to repair it if they made it. Just my $.02.

As food vendors, primarily festivals, market days and catering, we also have been seeking a canopy that is reasonably priced and that has longevity. So we were pleased to find a discussion related to this topic.

We have looked at the below links for a 10’ x 15’ canopy. Before reading Cowboy Bob2 comments we were going to have it screen-printed, but the cost was astronomical.

This brings up a question for CB2: On using Velcro to stick your signs to the canopy, and due to our lack of knowledge, how did you do it?

We wanted three small logos on the 15’ side (lip or overhang), two on the 10’ side (lip or overhand), large logo’s on each topside of the canopy.

Below are links to the different canopy companies we have looked at and would appreciate constructive input from readers.


http://www.kdkanopy.com/

http://www.asteele.com/acatalog/EZUP.html

http://ezupdirect.com/ezup-shelter-index.htm

http://www.ezup.com/products.htm

having done a bit of research on tents,,,i have decided, after talking to the manufacturer of this line of tents, to get this model

http://www.elitedeals.com/cacl10x10wip.html
the price at this site is the best i have come accress,,,,,,so check it out and also the other tents on their site.

i decided against the "easy-up....the caravan line seems to be better quality

anyone have any experience with kdkanopies
the factory keeps e-mailing me like crazy

hi guys just to give you a heads up if you are frying or cooking in these tents they need to be fireproof and you need a class k fire ext or in some towns they will shut you down the fire dept that is

If I were going to sell out of a tent this would be the company I would buy from. http://www.economytent.com/products.php?pag=32#

They specialize in concession tents and offer great customer service. I have two friends in this business and they both use this brand and have nothing but good to say about them.

Gee Guys and Gals, an easy up tent from Sam's Club is only $168.00 (fall sale price) to $198.00 dollars, early spring price.

I buy one or two every year and at the end of the season if it's bad I throw it away.If it's still usable I use it the following year until it looks bad and then go buy a new one. I don't want to work any harder than I have to during set up and tear down. And the easy up tent is set up in about 6 minutes. I use 4 and 6 inch PVC pipe filled with concrete and an I-bolt on bungee cords for anchors.But didn't we just discuss all this in a thread just a month or two ago?

$399.95?? Whoa! Got a quik-shade or something like that for 80.00, no problems, tie it down, good to go.