If you’re planning on opening a food truck with your favorite theme or menu, you’re probably feeling a little anxious about whether or not the locals will dig your concept as much as you do.
Foodtrucks Are Here to Stay
You can see food trucks outside office buildings during lunch hours, and at the side of the street on weekends. It doesn’t matter whether or not you agree that the food truck revolution is here to stay, because at least for now, it’s doing pretty darn well. The cool thing about running a food truck is that you have an opportunity to connect with your fans in different areas of a town. For example, a New York food truck could be sitting outside the event on the south side one day and end up selling to customers by central park the next day
These mobile restaurants have come a long way since ice cream and hot dogs, with trucks running the gamut from gourmet cupcakes to sandwiches to ethnic fusion street food. If you can dream up a menu and have a solid concept, you can carve out a food truck business. As food trucks continue to evolve—showing up in rural areas and at weddings and other private parties—so will their menus. With low startup costs and high mobility, food trucks can be a great way to share your culinary ideas with the world.
Check out our latest builds
Barbecue
BBQ is a great concept because it combines low-cost food with high appeal. Carnivore BBQ out of Washington, D.C., incorporates the best of Texas-style barbecue with locally sourced foods and environmentally friendly packaging. An added benefit? That sweet, smoky smell coming from your truck is its own form of guerrilla marketing.
BBQ CONCEPT
Cupcakes
This food trend has proved its staying power. Gourmet cupcakes can be served up plain and simple or wildly decadent. Cupcake Blvd. out of Rockville, Maryland, offers a wide selection of gourmet cupcakes, include alcoholic specialties like mojitos and strawberries and Champagne. They also offer catering services, delivering cupcakes far and wide, thus expanding their profit potential.
Ethnic Fusion
Blending one or more ethnic cuisines results in some tasty ideas. Current trends for ethnic fusion include Korean barbecue and Vietnamese cuisine. Lemongrass Truck in the nation’s capital offers traditionally prepared lemongrass chicken, in a salad or a taco, for a lunch-friendly take on international classics.
Paninis
Sandwiches gone gourmet, paninis require minimal equipment (a panini press or two) and offer a huge variety of dining options, ideal for the lunch crowd and a great after-hours snack.
Organic and Local Fare
Local foods and organic produce do not have to be boring. In fact, the flavors often blow commercially grown products out of the water. Vegetables and meat can be purchased locally almost anywhere and are a great way to promote a food truck as a sustainable business. Want to take it one step further? Swap your engine for a hybrid or bio-diesel unit.
European Flavors
The Old World makes its resurgence via food trucks. The Bratwurst King out of Virginia offers bratwurst (obviously), paprika chicken, Austrian goulash, and homemade cakes and strudel. To make the most of this theme, go as far as possible with it, really selling the concept of a culinary transportation.
Italian Food
Italian cuisine is generally characterized by its simplicity, with many dishes having only two to four main ingredients. Italian cooks rely chiefly on the quality of the ingredients rather than on elaborate preparation. Ingredients and dishes vary by region. Many dishes that were once regional have proliferated with variations throughout the country.
Here at united food truck we had the pleasure of building a food truck for Italian cuisine.
ITALIAN CONCEPT
Porchetta is a savoury, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition. The carcass is deboned, arranged carefully stuffed with liver, wild fennel, all fat and skin still on spitted, and/or roasted, traditionally over wood for 8+ hours. Porchetta is usually heavily salted in addition to being stuffed with garlic, rosemary, fennel, or other herbs, often wild. Porchetta has been selected by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policy as a prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale (“traditional agricultural-food product”, one of a list of traditional Italian foods held to have cultural relevance).
Waffles
Waffle trucks come in all types: from waffles and chicken to simple waffles with butter and maple syrup to gourmet waffles with blueberries with lemon cream cheese filling. This concept, like paninis or tacos, can be served almost all day and will be as big a hit for breakfast as it would be at 3 a.m.
Burgers
Always popular and a perennial favorite, burgers can be served plain or with panache. Burgers always sell, but they also tend to be one of the most crowded niches. Consider adding a spin from one of the other themes on this list to make your burger truck truly unique.
BURGER CONCEPT
Ice Cream
The original food truck theme and an American classic, a benefit of an ice cream truck is that you can do whatever you want with it. You can serve creamy Italian gelato or classic American ice cream flavors like rocky road or peanut butter fudge. Some more enterprising ice cream trucks only serve their product seasonally, converting the truck for the offseason or else renting it out altogether.
