by Tracy Jones | Jul 31, 2017 | Eat, July 2017 / August 2017
Please your party crowd with a food truck
When my husband requested that our favorite food truck cater his 40th birthday party, I was intrigued, but skeptical. We’ve catered parties before and I’m not the housewife who insists on making everything from scratch, showing off my culinary prowess to friends and family. But we’ve never had a giant truck park in our driveway.
It turns out that my husband had the right idea.
Barone Meatball Company rambled into our driveway, started its meal prep, and by 6 p.m., had the windows open ready to serve. With a party of approximately 100 people, I was grateful to have the crowd outside (instead of gathered around my kitchen island) while also giving them something fun to experience.
“We’ve noticed a general trend toward food truck catering in the past few years, which is growing exponentially,” says Ross Resnick, CEO and founder of Roaming Hunger, the leading provider of turn-key food truck catering.
Food trucks are taking a huge bite out of the $12 billion catering industry, especially now that they have become more available and mainstream.
“It was consumer demand that brought food trucks into the catering space. Anything from birthday parties to large corporate events, food trucks became in-demand at consumer locations,” says Resnick.
It is this demand that food trucks need to keep business going.
“When you park in the street you know there are people there, but you don’t know if they’ll come to the truck,” says Stephen Dewey, owner of Barone Meatball Company. “You know how much business you are going to do coming into it, rather than hoping for business. It’s easier to be prepared.”
When Dewey first began the business, he would book five to 10 private events per year but is now doing two to three a month. And he’s not alone.
“There are so many trucks now that I’ve never even seen, I’ve only just heard about,” he says. “The more trucks that are out there, the more people know about us. I don’t think we’ve hit that saturation point, though.” Dewey, once a Sous Chef at Bella Monica Italian Restaurant, says that while one day he hopes to have a brick and mortar location, he never wants to give up the truck. “It’s my favorite thing to see people who travel and follow [us]”.
With new companies like Roaming Hunger, it is now easier than ever to pluck a truck off of the street and park it in your front yard. Basically, you are bringing a portable commercial kitchen to your door with nothing to clean up afterwards.
“Food trucks provide a laid back, social environment that gets people out of their chairs,” says Resnick. Food trucks often became a key ingredient of the experience at an event. Essentially, food trucks bring a fun environment and delicious food to locations that traditional caterers are ill-equipped to handle.”
by Christa Gala | Jul 18, 2016 | Eat, July 2016 / August 2016
There are more than 60 food trucks in Raleigh spinning their wheels daily each with their own signature food style—from Creole cooking to cupcakes, barbeque to beignets. And each truck’s identity is literally driven by the person inside. Who are they and what’s their story? We find out.
STUFT
Stephanie Ruggiro, 27, had always dreamed of working in the advertising industry in New York City. After graduating from UNC-Wilmington, she landed a job—and hated it.
“I soon realized that a 9-to-5 desk job was not for me,” says Ruggiro. “After almost a year, I got laid-off, and it was the best thing that could have happened.”
After moving back to North Carolina, she began researching the food truck industry and came across an idea that would take her back to her roots. Ruggiro’s parents had owned a baked potato business up north when they first married, selling food at a local flea market.
“My parents both helped me get the truck started. A lot of the recipes we use on the truck came from my mom,” says Ruggiro, who started her potato truck in 2014. “She keeps me sane on this crazy truck; my twin brother also helps.”
But there’s a silver lining to her brief stint in advertising. Ruggiro realizes the importance of good photos and promotion through social media to ensure the success of her business.
Arepa Culture
“When we first started, we thought we were going to do this part-time,” says co-owner Hannia Jara, a former teacher, who came to the U.S. in 2001 through a cultural exchange program. Her husband, Pedro Rodriguez, a marketing specialist, came in 1983 to attend college.
“We both ended up jumping into this adventure full time as we encountered amazing feedback,” says Jara. “We are bringing our Venezuelan and Costa Rican culture to our food and trying to make a difference by offering mostly organic, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free menu.”
Arepa specializes in traditional handmade South American cornmeal patties that hold everything from chicken salad to “La Surena,” BBQ and pico de gallo. The cuisine is catching on, though Jara says people were a little hesitant to try the food at first.
The couple have three kids, a blended family, and the youngest son, Marcel, 19, and his girlfriend often help with the business. “Although they are full time students, they have become pretty much our right hand,” adds Jara.
Baton Rouge Cuisine
For nine years Anthony Greenup, 36, played basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters. Now, instead of touring with the team, he tours Raleigh in his Cajun-inspired food truck.
“With the team, I was away from home about ten months out of the year,” says Greenup. “I love doing what I do on the food truck. I meet nice people, and I can make my own hours.”
Greenup moved to Raleigh from Baton Rouge to attend Shaw University. After graduation, he played for the Charlotte Bobcats before signing with the Globetrotters.
“After college, I just stayed here; I wasn’t thinking about going home,” he says.
But he’s brought a bit of home to Raleigh. He serves family recipes like Shrimp Creole and Jambalaya through his mobile eatery. The player formerly known as “Airport” because of the way he jumped, now juggles the truck and his family, wife LesLee and two kids, ages 5 and 1.
Mr. A’s Beignets
For 30 years, Arlton Cangelosi delivered the mail. When it was time to retire, he thought about doing something he’d been good at as a teenager—making beignets, a New Orleans fried dough specialty. Cangelosi launched Mr. A’s Beignets in December 2015 just a month after he retired.
“I could have done other things, but I thought that not too many people have made beignets successfully and I could,” he says.
Family and friends help him run the truck four days a week. And it was his daughter who advised him on the truck’s design with the bright yellow chef hats.
“She said, ‘Make your food truck fun!’ She also told me to do black shirts and to embrace the powdered sugar that gets everywhere,” he says.
Not everyone knows what a beignet is, and that’s part of the fun.
“Watching someone eat their first beignet is the highlight of my day,” says Cangelosi, who admits to eating three a day. “It makes what I do worth it.”
