New NC food truck project

Hi guys,
my name is Bruce, and as the title says, im in North Carolina....... i have been lurking a few days checking the site out, and thought i might as well go ahead and get my "probation" period out of the way for pics and links.
 
a little back story......i have always loved cooking, and have entertained fantasies of owning/running my own place for some time now......since i was around 24ish actually.
well, after getting laid off last year and sitting around for 9 months wondering what the hell i was going to do it finally clicked.......time to go back into business for myself...... and after seeing the sorry state of affairs in the real estate market over the last few years, and being a bit of a "radical" at heart i have decided to open up a food truck since there is little but growing competition in my area....... i hope to be up and running at the fore front of the boom around here......i can see it coming, its just a matter of time.
 
i just purchased a 78 p20 stepvan, old i know, but i like the more classic looks of its older lines, and it will fit into a lot of the areas i am going to be marketing to...... drag strip, military(off base) firing ranges, car shows/cruise ins, the fri/sat drinking crowd, biker parties....etc....
 
i already have a fabricator on retainer, a paint and body man also, both good friends of mine, so i will get most if not close to all of the cosmetic work paid for with good ol' blood sweat and tears.....
 
i have done a mock up of what i think i want it to look like, a classic silver on black with red, yellow, and green graphics, and some super shiny 4x4 "rock crawler" grade rims to set it all off..... the 4x4 rock crawler grade rims are built to take a beating while out 4 wheeling, so i figure they should stand up to any weight i put in/on the truck itself. the van is a p20 3/4 ton, single rim rear axle. LOL, i was born and raised a gear head, so any mechanical issues with the truck dont scare me in the least, thats just another day at the races so to say.....
 
i plan on serving comfort style food mainly...... roasted pork sandwiches, ham sammies, burgers and dogs of course, a couple different sausage choices, rubens, and cubans.....i might get fancy with a bacon wrapped dog as well......
 
i plan on fresh cutting the fries right into the fryer, and doing a grilled cheese made with texas toast and thick cut locally made cheese that we call "hoop" cheese around here...a huge local favorite!......
 
and i really really want to have a 4 head soda system installed and serve just the basic 4 flavors in my opinion.....coke, orange, sprite, and root beer......the only thing i want to have to worry about keeping in a cooler is bottled water, and maybe a diet selection for the fat chicks....
 
im going to try my best to stay away from pulled pork...everyone and their brother around here does pulled pork bbq, so unless my customer base just absolutely insists on it, it will never see the light of day in my truck......
 
plus, with all the roasting i want to do, im going to try and lean towards a healthier way of eating on the fly, not HEALTHY so to say, just good food cooked the way it was meant to be cooked (i plan on frying in 100% lard) until the masses are re-educated in the fact lard is not evil, and hydrogenated this and that BS will kill you i plan on keeping that on the down low, will just let everyone wonder why my food tastes so much better then the other guys!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

if i can convince the local H/D to let it fly, im going to install a small 6 rack smoker for  cooking the pork loins, hams, and pastrami......
 
i have paid for the truck, but have not picked it up yet, so i dont have a complete grasp on the room im going to have to work with, i already know it will not be enough, lol..... but i will make due with what i have until i expand in the future.
 
does anyone have experience raising the roof on one of these trucks..... i am 6'4 and the 6'2 ceiling in the truck just isnt going to cut it, but like i said, i have a well experienced fabricator standing by to get it done....
 
my deal with him is as follows.....all labor upfront is free(deferred), i will pay for the materials, and provide any labor he needs/wants to help get it done, then after up and running, i cut him a check for 5% of the net each month until he is paid back for what the labor (friends rate) would have been....
 
i made the same deal with my paint and body guy..... sound like a good deal ?
 
agreement is, we are all in this together, if the project fails, then we all walk away with our tails between our legs, if it blows up, we start looking for a second van, and do it all over again, this time as full 1/3rd partners so we can get another better van, and diversify......maybe a coffee van, or milkshake van
 
i know to some of you this may sound like a vague and dangerous agreement, but trust me.....there are still parts of the world where some good ol' boys can get together and do something without having to resort to lawyer poison being injected into every aspect of it.

Ay Dios Mio! Diet soda for the "fat chicks".
 
Ok the all in on it together deal is (seperate from) after the 5% payback deal...or is the 3 man partnership deal right from the jump?
 

lol, ok, maybe my humor is a bit rough around the edges.....
 
if i understand you right, the agreement on the first truck(mine) is over and done as soon as the 5% payments equal whatever the labor costs are....... or until its decided its a bust, hopefully the first option is the one that plays out, lol 
 
if it busts, then i keep the van, and the equipment is sold off and we make up the differences....
 
if everything goes well.....then we sit and decide if we want to do it all over again with a new idea (probably a milkshake truck) and that one will be a full on 1/3 equal partners, since the machine itself costs around 13 grand

theres a little more to it then that, but that is the general outline of the idea

Ok got it. Well let's talk about something nice before we get into the perils of all that. ---->
 
If you are thinking about a milkshake truck...pie shakes would be a splendid idea.
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/food/2010/10/09/2010-10-09_the_most_decadent_drink_on_the_block_hill_country_chickens_pie_shake_.html
 

believe it or not, thats exactly what part of the idea is.....
 
possible flavor ideas would include..... peach cobbler, cherry cobbler, coconut, blueberry, apple, lemon, chocolate, cheesecake, peanut butter, with seasonal ideas of pumpkin pie, and eggnog....... lol, the eggnog and peanut butter arent born of pie origins, but they make helluva milkshakes...

we have a chain down here called Cookout, they have been using pie slices in milkshakes for years....... but its the corporate, cookie cutter fairly tasteless pies that they use.......
thats where i got the idea for a milkshake truck to begin with...... lol, but the 13 grand for a decent machine warranted a "take the long road approach" to that idea

Excellent! Is the machine you are considering a Taylor?

yep, lol, i never had a clue they were worth their weight in gold though....
 
i made friends with a worker at my local cookout and he gave me all the serial and model numbers for the equipment they use...... that may be a reason for the high price
 
lol...shouldnt you be in bed by now ?

It is a snow day tomorrow so I get to stay up late.
 
The base is very important for a milkshake. An electro freeze is less expensive and is used at Momofuku Milk Bar....and yikes it is good. It is modified but you have the mechanical friends to figure it out.
 
http://www.momofuku.com/restaurants/milk-bar/

hhmm, gonna have to do some more research, i havent really put a lot of time into as of yet, trying to get the food truck up and running first..... but in all honesty, im more then willing to put everything into the milkshake truck, i really believe thats going to be the money maker around here

lol....sNow days ROCK !

When you merge quality components in every aspect of a concept and add your own unique vision (especially with modifications that nobody in your area is doing)...you have little competition (even when they might be selling a similar product by name) and you command top dollar.

did you ever watch the show pushing daises?
lol, i have wanted to open a pie shop called the pie hole ever since seeing that show...... and that would feed right into the milk shake pie cream truck, lol 

and in my twisted world, i would want to paint it up exactly like a SWAT truck....
 
and call it Service With A Twist......i bet the local LEO's would love that, lol

the Milkshake Pie Cream Truck.......... lol, i like that :)

I looked up rock crawler rims. That and the SWAT truck ensemble will make for some bad ass milkshakes. Very good for your adult target market. The Harper Valley PTA Moms will warm up...eventually. "Junior...no going near that milkshake man. Ya hear?"

well thanks :)  mmmmm, PTA moms :)
i have a million ideas on different things, just need to make them all work now!

Cookout looks as if it has a bunch of milkshake offerings. Like up to 50 different varieties at any given time. Including a seasonal little diddy...watermelon. That sounds a little odd.
 
Wow the folks with some creative selections. You could do a spin on banana pudding by merging it with toasted marshmallow. Blueberry oatmeal cookie (never saw that one but sounds good to me)....Biscotti shake...for the Italians.

oohh let me tell you........ you havent lived until you enjoy a watermelon milkshake....... only available like july and august, during melon season.....
that is actually my favorite flavor, i cant believe i left it off the list before
 
lol, and yes, anything with blueberries in it has to be good :)

you have to go to sonic to get a coconut cream pie shake though....thats a good one also

the machine cookout uses is basically a soft serve machine with two taps, both pumping out vanilla, all the different flavors are added to the cup first, then its filled and mixed.....
 
the cheesecake flavors get a slice of that flavor of cheesecake for example, the pie flavors a slice of pie, more like a half slice size piece,  m&m, toffee, heath, snickers, reeses, etc.... all get a good dose of those different candies......
and anything chocolate simply gets a good squirt of hersheys syrup added to it
lol, the peanut butter(my second fav flavor) gets two heaping tablespoons of skippy peanut butter, i get mine with an extra spoon full ! lol 
 
so all in all, its a very simple set up to duplicate...uumm, make better i mean
they run their machine from 10am until 2am every day of the week, and they tell me it takes about 30 minutes to tear down and clean every night

For $13K you could get a very excellent quality machine (other than a Taylor) that can and will do what you want...plus have reserve left over for maybe a smoker  that will most likely get the green light from the powers that be. If milkshakes are your business it might be somewhat seasonal. If that is good...fine. If you need to roll through the entire year...you need something additional.
 
Bacon maple breakfast shake!
 
 

well, this is NC.....we have summer type weather about 10 months out of the year......heck, it was 72 here today, but will only be 50 tomorrow, lol....
 
i should say summer type weather 7 months out of the year, july, aug, and sept are just simply like hell on earth
 
i really hope the smoker flys, im looking at a bradley unit, all electric with digital controls bradleysmokers.com .......thats going to be key in having the best cubans on the east coast, and for hot pastrami sandwiches !

the best thing about the bradley is it has two seperate elements..... so when i need to slow roast i can without constant smoke or attention......and with the digital controls and pucks of smoking materials, i can set it to roast for an hour, smoke for 20 minutes, or any combination that works for what im doing, and i wont have to keep too watchful of an eye over it while im busy with other things

i found a small combo unit oven/fridge that im thinking of using for a proofing oven, with that in play between the smoker and the customers, and a little careful timing, and a little luck, i should be able to keep a steady flow, of fresh from the oven product going out the window........ use of the steam table would only be for the loin/brisquit that im currently carving..... thats my event strategy anyway...
for daily breakfast and lunch slinging i dont think i would need the little combo oven......

NYC is not BBQ central. So I have no idea about Bradley smokers. Are they commercial smokers or just like for the yard?
http://www.alto-shaam.com/tabid/101/cid/13/Smokers/Default.aspx

they are a consumer unit...advertised for outdoor use only.....
but with a little ingenuity anything can be made to work where you need it...
 
the bradley has a tight seal on the door, thats another good aspect of it, i might need to put a small drawing fan in the exhaust depending on how tight the fit is with the "fire box", but i think it will be fine like it is..... i would need to fab up a flu for it to go in the truck though.....thats my concern with the HD, its all stainless on the inside so hopefully any NSF issues will be minimal..

I know hoop cheese is somewhat like Farmer's cheese. Farmer's cheese is very good...smoked. If hoop cheese is popular in it's own right...you may want to put on a little experiment...and put some smoke to it. It would open up a new unique spin to a local favorite.