After the building fell through in Leeton I looked at buildings in Sedalia. There was one really nice one in downtown with space to make apartments upstairs. It didn't have a kitchen and would have to be remodeled a little to add that. The price just got too high when calculating the building, renovation, kitchen equipment, and employees I would need to open a restaurant in the middle of downtown. So I started looking to other options and that's when Jeremy and I thought food truck!
I actually decided to go with a trailer so if my engine breaks it's not attached to my kitchen. We found a great trailer on Craigslist that was only 1 year old. Dad and I drove 4 hours to southern Missouri to get it.
We will be opening November 8 from 11-3 in the parking lot at 7th and Ohio in Sedalia. We've been issued our city license and the county health inspector comes tomorrow.
Our bread is being made by a Mennonite family in Centerview that has a professional kitchen. The meat and cheese are coming from Alewel's in Warrensburg. I will get the lettuce, tomato, onion, and green pepper from local farmers when in season.
I will be selling my sandwiches as a meal. They will come with a bag of kettle chips and a drink. I still have to find the supplier of the kettle chips so tomorrow I'm going to Restaurant Depot to check there. I've also contacted Frito Lay since I now own a business (oh my goodness, I own a business!), I can find who my distributor would be. The drink will be a canned soda or bottled water. Maybe later I will have tea and lemonade. My counter space is very limited so two big containers would take up a lot of space.
All my meals will cost the same. I'm not going to make a distinction between sandwich type. I'm definitely doing a Reuben and everyone wants a Philly Cheese Steak. I don't think they realize how difficult it is going to be to eat that thing with my bread type. I don't have deli rolls but nice, soft, Mennonite sandwich bread. Maybe if I make the meat onions and peppers on my grill then squish the sandwich together in my panini press like a Reuben. I'll use provolone cheese and we'll call it a "sort-of like a Philly Cheese Steak"
The meats I ordered are smoked ham, smoked turkey, corned beef, and bacon. I was trying to keep it simple but so many people want a Philly Cheese Steak that I think I need to order regular roast beef and green peppers too. I bought a deli slicer so I can slice my own meat and cheese. I think it's nicer that way.
I did to make my own sauces such as Thousand Island. I had a lead on homemade mustard but she doesn't use an inspected kitchen so I can't use her product (which tastes delicious). I am also too scared of food poisoning or death to make my own mayonnaise so maybe I'll forgo the homemade sauces.
Another thing I'm going to look into this week is how much it will cost to remove the vinyl that is on the trailer and put my own logo up. I'm debating and thinking I won't remove the words from the top of the trailer because all those things could be done.
My trailer came with a lot of stuff. I have all the equipment and syrups to make snow cones in 24 flavors. I have both open and sealed boxes of cups, boxes for sandwiches, sandwich paper, forks, etc.
One thing I found out is that I will not be able to work out of downtown Warrensburg. It is against the zoning regulations to have a food truck on a street. There are some talks before City Council to hopefully loosen these regulations in the future. I hope it passes, that would be nice.
Well that was a really long post. I hope you didn't get tired and stop reading. I have been accused of saying too much and writing emails too long but that was when I had a job: Now I own my job.
