question from newbie

hi all....im new at this hotdog thing and have a few questions...thanx in advance for all who answer...

Im starting off pretty simple with a non-extensive menu on my trailer...im just selling different kinds of hot dogs of course, along with a tuna sandwich for lunch...for breakfast, im just selling muffins and bagels along with coffee...so not alot of choices...

do you feel it is ok to have such a menu as described above? should i also include a sausage and perhaps a turkey sandwich for lunch? what percentage of my customers will be there for the hotdogs, and what % will be there for the other things? thanx....ed

Trolleymass,

I think you stand a better chance of receiving informed opinions on the restaurant professionals forum, on this site, only a click or two away. There are literally scores of hot dog vendors there, totalling virtually hundreds of years in behind-the-cart experience. Good luck.

The Bear

Start small with the basics and let your customers guide you on expansion of your menu. Be sure you will be altering it continuously.

Best training manual you will find will be to read EVERY ONE of the posts on here from the beginning. There is a wealth of solid info here.

Best of luck.

Go withthe sage advice of spud. As a noob, you need to get the wrokings of your cart down to science before adding to many new options. Once you have achieved cart nirvana and you have the trust of your clientelle, then look to then for what they are looking for. I listened to what other things my folks were getting (conversation between hubby and wifey; "I'll be right back, hon, I'm going to Dean and Deluca for a chicken salad sandwich" Now I serve a great chicken salad sandwich and get them both.

Go get'em!

V

Chiliman;

its almost scarey how often we are on the same page. I also think we are of the very few that are making money and enjoying what we are doing.

spud

thanx so far for the responses....so you all think that a pretty simple menu of just coffee, muffins and bagels for breakfast, and hot dogs, tuna and drinks for lunch will suffice for now? of course we also have chips, brownies and a few other goodies but im talking about the main dishes...most have told us to add at least a few other things right now, so we are thinking of adding sausage and turkey to make 4 main dishes instead of just 2...

our goal is eventually $500 per day gross, so hopefully we will be able to achieve it...

Find the right location, dont settle on the first one or even two, be interested in what youre doing, give it about a year and you should be clicking off 500 days like nothing. PATIENCE AND QUALITY.

thanx for the advice spud....as far as being nice, personable etc etc, that wont be a problem for us...my wife and i are both friendly outgoing people who like to "gab" to people or customers. so no worries there...

as far as location is concerned, i think we have a good one...it is a very heavily travelled route right before getting onto a major highway...less than a half mile away are tons of shops, shopping centers, and office buildings.......we are rignt next to a major intersection wiht stoplight, so alot of people will notice our trolley trailer as they wait for the light...at least i hope they do and then stop in...

the only possible problem i forsee is that the parking lot we are in, in an office bldg parking lot, is not that big and while we have a nice corner spot that we will inhabit, if there are ALOT of cars at one time....well, i just hope it will all work out...

we looked all around for locations and though we were just offered this ONE spot, it was always near the top of our list as far as where we wanted to be so i think it will be ok...i wish we had a CHOICE of locations, but that didnt happen to us...

we will surely have patience and as far as quality is concerned, we plan on using kayem NC 8/1 dogs, which we feel are very tasty and of course we will grill our buns as many people like them that way..btw, how important our toppings to most of the customers? is it the hot dog that counts, the toppings, or both...?

so working 7:30-4 mon-friday, and 11-4 on saturdays, do you feel we will be able to make $500 per day? most carts or trailers just open for lunch so we are hoping that our breakfast menu will attrace customers and increase our bottom line...thanx..