Fuzzy Things in the Corner of the Kitchen
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Fuzzy Things in the Corner of the Kitchen
The Food Truck Ride: Bumps, Wins, and Surprising Twists - Part 1
Julie D'Aloiso, Kris Bohonik, Kevin Spring, and Daniel Molnar join us to share their unique perspectives on the vibrant world of food trucks. Ever wondered what it's like to leave a steady job in construction for the unpredictable life of a food truck owner? Daniel takes us through his adventurous leap, navigating the maze of health inspections and licensing in Ohio. Meanwhile, Kris brings tales from Slyman's Tavern, where the food truck hustle is as fast-paced as it is rewarding. Kevin, with his deep-rooted experience as a restaurant cook, shares his curiosity about the logistics of these mobile eateries, offering a fresh viewpoint on the challenges and intricacies that come with the territory.
We celebrate the highs and lows of food truck entrepreneurship, from the creative thrill of crafting a streamlined menu, like the tantalizing Mexican burger, to the fulfillment of engaging with the community through fundraisers and events. But it's not all savory delights; the reality of exhaustive daily clean-ups, unpredictable event preparations, and unanticipated competition is also revealed. Despite these challenges, the unwavering support from loyal customers and the sense of community keep the wheels turning and spirits high, reinforcing the sense of accomplishment that drives these passionate food truck owners.
Daniel's journey takes an unexpected turn as he recounts the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his business, prompting a shift from public food service to an even more service-oriented job. In this reflective chapter, we delve into the relentless grind of the food service industry and the strategic pivots required to survive in unpredictable times. From the early promise of a commissary to the emotional and financial toll of running a VFW kitchen, Daniel's candid story highlights the resilience and dedication needed to succeed.
Look for part 2 coming soon where the discussion turns to health inspectors and music festivals!
What should we talk about for the next episode? Do you have any questions? Please, let us know!
Hello everybody. This is Julie D and this is Fuzzy Things in the Corner of the Kitchen, and I have with me today Khris Bohonik, Kevin Spring, Daniel Molnar. Now, Kris, tell everybody a little bit about your background.
Kris:Yeah. So today we're going to be specifically talking about, you know, food trucks. So, as far as my background and dealing with that, I worked with Slimon's Tavern and ended up running their food truck for a couple of years, which had a lot of fun doing, honestly, missed the food truck game. Maybe at some point I'll get back into it, but it's definitely a different experience than running a restaurant or working in a restaurant, but it's a fun, more social, more social and fast-paced environment. I found I really enjoyed the aspect of both doing the cooking and the front of house service side.
Kris:So yeah that's my experience.
Julie:And Kevin, I know that you have some past experience with restaurants.
Kevin:Tell us a little bit about yourself I am a cook, so, as everybody knows that the cook, I have an idea. I start a restaurant. I get pissed off, I shut it down. Everybody knows that I'm like, oh, I'm so tired of this. Never did a food truck, though, though, and I am very curious. I've always wanted one. You know, it's the dream, right, it's the food truck, and I know that there's a ton of work that goes behind it. Never really understood, never really, you know, could find out, like, what makes trucks work, how do they do it, the commissaries, the food chain, like a whole bunch of stuff. So, really, looking forward to this episode.
Julie:All right, and then? Danny, let's let you take it from here.
Daniel:So the background I came from originally was construction and maintenance. I started at Mr Chicken. I was in their maintenance department and then there was an open position for the catering director. So I took over the catering department of 12 stores and I multiplied their sales like times 10. And then, as I did that, I seen the growth in the food truck industry and I decided I'm going to jump ship and just try this myself. And I did, and it was very hard our first couple of years. But we, we jumped leaps and bounds in our first five years and it turned out being great. But everything that came along with it was, uh, a lot of bullshit so sounds just like catering, doesn't it?
Kevin:uh, care is not so bad.
Daniel:You know you guys are in the restaurant industry, so the health inspections started that. So a typical restaurant only gets inspected twice a year. Right? A food truck? You're subject to inspection at any time, wherever you're at. So you could be in the middle of service, in the middle of your hardest rush, and the food service health department wants to come on your truck and inspect you right now when you have 20 tickets hanging.
Kevin:What do you do, food trucks? Aren't you guys inspected every event? Right, because you guys have to get you? From what I understand, you have a mobile license year-round, but for every event, uh, the local health inspector or board, they have to come in and inspect you, along with the fire department, right?
Daniel:well, where it starts is they can. So your mobile license guarantees you the entire state. So, but the local, whatever county you're in, can come and inspect you at any time.
Kris:You always have to have your documentation and paperwork and all that on board. Yeah, so you have to have everything.
Daniel:Do a T, and that's the other screwy part. If you don't, they will shut you down.
Kevin:unlike a restaurant, you can have a dead rat in the corner and you could still operate yeah, well, good news, we're not in restaurants anymore now we're in in-flight, but which is pretty much you know. So what you, what you're saying, is all that really stringent health code. Now quick question for you though. So before we get into all the nuts and bolts, how does the licensing work here? So obviously we're in Ohio, that's what we're going to talk about. How does the licensing work? From what I'm understanding, it's just a nightmare. Every you got to pay money here, you got to pay money there. Like what is it? What's the framework of that with the health?
Kevin:department or fire, with all of everything you need on board, all of your licenses in your thick book of we've got, we're licensed from the state, from the county, the fire, the health, all of it.
Daniel:Well, it starts at health. When you go to the health department, you license through the county that you're registered in. Then it jumps from that. Then you have to go to every single not every single, but the majority of cities and small municipalities require you their individual fire inspection, which they all run off. Get fire inspection and there's always a gray area. So one might walk through your food truck and be like everything's cool, but then the next one comes through and says nope, Like I had it happen in Hudson.
Daniel:He crawled behind the prep cooler and there was a wire nut that wasn't taped and he failed me. So, like little dumb things like that, it just screws up your whole entire operation.
Kevin:So I'm assuming you're parked at an event, you got your stuff going or you're getting ready to go, your food's ready, your people are there and then he fails you well, not like that.
Daniel:Like hudson, you have to be pre-registered for that, okay okay, where were you?
Kris:where were you based out of danny? What county? Or Summit Summit? Okay, it was Summit County, but it was good for the whole state. Yeah, and I know us. When I had to go get registered I had to go down to City Hall in Cleveland and then you have to write down each precinct and whatever you're looking to operate in.
Daniel:Cleveland is its own different animal which is hard to do so go ahead, go ahead. Sorry about that, you want to go to cleveland has their own health department. So they're not even that's not even kaya hoggart county. But if you're, if you pass your inspection throughout your county, they can still walk on your truck and shut you down. If they want to, but, like you know, walnut Wednesday was or is.
Kris:Yeah, yeah, we never did it because it was crazy.
Daniel:I did it. I mean, we flourished through it, like we made a lot of money there, but those were the assholes that would jump on your truck. When you have 100 people in line, what are you doing? I'd lock the door and say, no, you're not coming in. You, you knew it. We get here two hours early. You have the time to come here and do your inspection, but you refuse to.
Kevin:Yeah. So do they close you down because you wouldn't let them on board? No, they could not.
Daniel:There's a loophole there.
Kevin:Okay, I'm in the middle of a rush, I'm not letting you on my truck.
Daniel:It's a food truck. We did Walnut Wednesdays. I had five people down the line of my whole truck. My truck was very big. I cannot have a health inspector in there putting probes and shit and trying to tempt things and you know doing their, doing what they need to do in the middle of a rush yeah so tell us about what tell us about your trucks.
Kevin:What'd you do? Where'd you serve? You know what, how you started and what it grew into right, so give us the history of your brand. So it was SWAT truck like.
Daniel:SWAT team, for instance. I uh, I live in Macedonia on Highland Road, the guy that owns Interstate Towing. He bought a mobile command center from Washington DC airport through an auction. I went, I drove by it every day me too.
Daniel:I used to take my kids to the the high school, and every day I would drive by that truck like, wow, that's cool and every day I'd go to work and I'd be like man, that'd be a cool food truck and I'm killing it for my boss that mr chicken being the catering director like I'm making him expensive exponential amount of money. And I got tired of being treated like shit. I was paid well there, not gonna lie, but I seen that thing every day. I drove past it to and from work, so one day I got it right up, I drove by it.
Kris:My boss wrote me up for something really stupid and I bought it so what was the initial cost that you had to do to kind of what was the initial purchase of that, and then how much did it cost you to actually, you know, turn it into a food truck?
Daniel:I bought that truck for 35 000 with 7 000 miles on it wow but I also outfitted it with 40 000 worth of equipment yeah, so I mean that's still all in all.
Kris:I mean you're, you're in it for about 75. That's not terrible for a food truck. I've heard of closer to 100 for a lot of people.
Daniel:So it's not bad. Well, when you look at my truck and you look at other people's food truck, there's a big difference. Does the size matter? Some women say yes, some people say no, no comment. Driving that truck in events and stuff like that like I had a vision, like I wanted to be the biggest, baddest, effing food truck in the world. If I'm going big, going home, I mean I took out, I sold all my toys. I had boats, motorcycles, suv, you know everything. I sold it all to do it, am I?
Kris:mad about it.
Daniel:No, it was a great experience.
Kris:So you definitely did have one of the most recognizable food trucks out there. Man Cause I mean I definitely, you know I've I've been on it before, not been on it but, like well, been to it before.
Kevin:So what was SWAT team? So what? What was SWAT trucks? Like how, how did you get so big, right? So so we know that you went to three trucks, we'll get to that, but what was what? What differentiated your truck from everybody else's? Because you know people out there like I remember that. But you know what, what were the keys to the success for you?
Daniel:in the food truck game. Honestly it was. It was the, the crazy menu, the shit that me and my wife came up with, and just grinding man. I mean we would grind every day. We did in the beginning, we would do anything and everything, like any event. Can you do this? Sure, sure, sure. We did everything, even if we weren't making a dime, we did it. But it got our name out there and then people tasted the food they're like the food, the service, everything was great.
Kris:That goes a long way. Yeah, it does. So speaking. So, speaking of like doing, you know a little bit of everything. Obviously. Once your name was kind of out there and you were bigger, what's like what did you enjoy doing the most? Or once you got a choice to kind of pick it, pick and choose like what you wanted to do. Do you like doing the food truck parts you like doing the most? Or once you got a choice to kind of pick it, pick and choose like what you wanted to do, do you like doing the food truck parts? You like doing the festivals? Did you like doing stuff like walnut wednesday or like office events? You know what were you kind of, what was your interest? What were you most?
Kevin:whatever made the most money what?
Daniel:what was fun or what made the money?
Kris:there's a difference, yeah, I guess I guess both what did you enjoy doing the most and then what actually brought in the most money for you, because I mean, obviously we can go into with different, uh, event venues the fact that some you know a lot of them have um kickbacks.
Daniel:You got to pay a certain percentage if they provide, you know you want to get into that yet, or do you want me to continue? Yeah we can get into that later, but we'll back. We'll back burner so, like starting out, it was just mainly like just getting our name out there. Julie helped us out with that along the way, obviously, thank you for the shout out about that you definitely did and she would.
Daniel:She did it before I, even before there was a contract with anything, nothing, nothing. Julie helped me out, which was awesome. I put my name out there and I'd be like, oh my God, who's this lady? And then I meet Julie. She's like I love you. It was great.
Julie:Your jalapeno burger was so good.
Daniel:It's called the Mexican burger Julie. Well, it's been a while, danny. So this very simple thing, though, like what people fuck up in the restaurant industry, is making their menu way too big. So we dialed it in to where we made our menu work through all of our sides and stuff. So there was a Mexican burger, the one that Julie liked. Julie, what did it have on it?
Julie:I just remember jalapenos. Again, it's been a while.
Daniel:Jalapeno, cream cheese, chorizo blend. But then we also put that on loaded tots. You had a mexican burger, you had a loaded top yes so we had a smokehouse burger that had pulled pork fried egg that went also on the top. So you make your menu work all the way together so you don't have too many products on the truck so it's just kind of like a taco right.
Kevin:So you have your tortilla, you got your meat, you got your bun and your burger, and then you just got a whole bunch of different toppings that go on it pulled pork it just works man yeah, okay, what.
Kevin:What did you at? What was your the most favorite thing you wanted to do? You know, like you wake up and you're like because I know I dreaded busy days, I know I was a restaurant owner or whatever, but I really enjoyed the when we did like a fundraiser for kids or whatever. It was just a good, you know, it gives you the feels right. So what was your thing that you did with your trucks that you just really loved to do? You're like man, I can't wait for that event.
Daniel:I mean, we gave back so much like exponential amounts where we did so many events and charities where I didn't want nothing. I just wanted to do it, Like you said, like a kid event or something like that. I didn't want nothing, I just wanted to do it, like you said, like a kid event or like something like that. I didn't want no notoriety whatsoever, I just wanted to do it I think the festivals were fun that's my yeah, she's on here too so now, what was your?
Kevin:so now, moving to the other part, every everybody out there that's listening that wants to open a food truck. What was your worst day? I mean, what was that thing that you absolutely dreaded? You're just like, fuck, I do not want to do this. This sucks. You know what I mean. So what was the cleaning? Cleaning Did you?
Daniel:I can take that, you know well, you had a really good sized food truck, but six people in there slamming out hundreds of orders is going to get kind of dirty right it gets, it's terrorized, I mean by the end of the event, but then everybody's burnt the fuck out by the end of the day, but the truck still needs to get cleaned. So I'm not doing it, I'm paying you people to do it. What are you doing? And then, a lot of the times it would happen you have to go back and do it anyways.
Daniel:I clean the truck my wife's looking at me right now. Yes, she did it she did it. I would do something I shouldn't have done and I'd say you guys worked your asses off today. Go ahead and go home, and then it got on the back burner and then my wife would have to do it, prepping for events. Prepping too.
Julie:Three days in a row that were an hour away. That was ridiculous, because you have no clue what you're prepping for.
Kevin:You're hoping to make money, you know so I did festivals. Now I didn't have a truck. We went, we set up and brought everybody on a everything on a pinkey. But I only say that because I can relate to that fear of, okay, you have to pay to go and do an event, wine, festival, whatever you're whatever, you're going to pay up front yeah right, licensing fee, the health department fee, that's what we had to pay.
Daniel:I don't know if you have to or not let's retract that too, also all the events that we would do or sign up for.
Kris:they want you fucking signed up in January, way in advance, yeah, before you even get to your money season at all.
Daniel:Yeah, and we're paying out tens of thousands of dollars just to be in these events that we don't even know it's going to come of them.
Kevin:Yeah Right, because they don't give you it's going to come of them. Yeah right, because they don't give you the attendance records and if they do, it's probably just bullshit. Anyways, we're going to expect 15,000 people.
Daniel:They lie and then they overbook and they say we only have four food trucks. And then you book this shit in January, you get there in July and there's fucking 15 of them. We're only going to have four food trucks, and then you book this shit in January, you get there in July and there's fucking 15 of them yeah.
Kris:There's only going to be one dessert truck.
Daniel:Yeah, the promise that we always. It didn't matter for us, though, because we built a really strong name for ourselves in northeast ohio. We would laugh about it. We're like okay, whatever, and there'd be 15 trucks there and we would get 75 of the sales. Yeah, because we were like a cult-like following.
Kevin:You guys have like a cult-like following. They followed you around. Yeah, um for sure. Did you ever get to one of those events and you're like what the fuck are we doing here? Like this is some bullshit. There's like two people you've got like 10 trucks. You've got you know this nasty ass people next door in this tent that looks like it came from a circus that's using thaw and meat out on their fence next door. You got some.
Daniel:I one thing me and my wife have always done. We've always toughed it out till the end.
Kevin:I'd always make my obligation yeah, but I would tell them don't ever call me again even if so, so with that I would take it that you know as a truck owner or as any business owner really. But you know with you guys are sitting there with, let's just say, 1,000 pounds of prepped out food and you just take a beating. We took a beating at a wine festival A beating, I mean they just really beat the shit out of us. We lost about $7,000. In product, just in product, right, yeah, I mean it was horrible, not including your people.
Daniel:your time that's what people don't understand. You lose out on something like that. You're fucked.
Kris:Now, Danny, did you usually go in with minimums that they had to hit and hold them to any kind of contractual obligation with that?
Daniel:In the beginning, no. But once we built the brand and the name, yeah. Then we're like yeah, I'm not even coming to you unless it's 2500 bucks yeah, at least get away with it slow day, they're paying for it anyways did you ever have to pay a percentage of the sales? Do you want to talk about percentages? Oh god cedar when do we start? Cedar Point took 40% of our sales.
Julie:Wow.
Kevin:Did you increase prices to cover it, or did you just eat dog shit?
Daniel:No, we definitely increased it. I was charging what?
Julie:Like $17 for a burger $17 for a burger.
Daniel:$5 a burger. $5 for an eight ounce hot chocolate $17 now seems like a deal yeah, yeah right.
Kevin:Well, back in the day, it wasn't so did that affect your sales? Any $17 for a burger?
Daniel:it didn't. We gained a lot of momentum from that, though also, I mean, we got a lot of private parties out of that, like that was the best fucking food we ever had. Yes, can you do my kids graduation party absolutely where you live?
Kevin:so with the horror stories, right. So that'll lead us into a horror story. So for you will, no, look, because everybody out there, you know, look, a lot of people dream about owning food trucks and that's like the dream and everything else, right. So obviously, just owning anything in food service, you know, 10 bucks, you're gonna, it's gonna turn into a disaster or you're just gonna be be jumping for joy, like that's just the reality of the business. But owning a food truck, horror stories. So people are romantic. It's very romantic, right, with everybody that I talked to the food truck. You know, if you guys remember, back in 86, when the food truck thing started with the movie Short Circuit, she owned a little truck, muffin truck, and she went around and you did all that stuff and then it started. So, but I don't think that people really understand the grind, right. So you spoke about the grind and that's a horror story in itself. Long hours, long, like if you, what can people expect in the first year of opening a food truck?
Kevin:like I mean, let's keep yeah yeah, however long it takes, however long. How long did it take you to to name your price, so to say?
Daniel:the first year you can guarantee yourself you're not going to make it like hands down. You're not going to make it Like hands down. You're not going to make it. I mean we had, when I bought that truck, outfitted it. It was perfect, it looked beautiful. We had the baddest-ass truck out there. Our first truck event was the Talmadge Food Truck Festival, which was huge. Back then I had a line that was like 200 people deep and I was sh. Back then I had a line that was like 200 people deep and I was shitting bricks. I kept looking out the window going is it over? Please tell me there's no more people, because I can't even do this.
Kevin:Definitely pushed you to your breaking point right.
Kris:How many people did you have working for you at that point?
Daniel:We had six people on the truck and I couldn't keep up. We were rusty through the years. I didn't know, I didn't streamline shit like how we were cooking shit. There's a lot that goes into it.
Kevin:It was just that mentality of let's hurry up and make what they want and get it out At the end of the day you like fuck.
Daniel:we lost 300 on 600 people right, yeah, but you don't want to make it I? I refuse to put out a bad product, right? So they're going to get what they paid for, I don't care how long they wait. That was my mentality in the beginning, but then I learned how to make things faster, so then I streamlined everything. But then I learned how to make things faster, so then I streamlined everything. So you guys are both chefs, right? I am yes, what Kevin is yeah.
Kris:You don't cook.
Kevin:I cook, but I'm not calling myself a chef, that's for sure. So let's try to keep Kris out of the kitchen.
Daniel:I'm just fucking with you, Kris. So, like when you're cooking, it's different. Like in a restaurant, you're cooking it to order. They're going to get their food. They're going to wait, no matter what, right Right At a food truck, festival or an event. They want their shit now. They don't care about the quality. What they do. It's hard to explain.
Kevin:They want quality. So off of a food. Anytime you go to any food truck, no matter where it is, you know that you're not stepping inside of a restaurant, right? So you know that quality is any food truck quality is not going to be 110%. So I think that everybody kind of has a little lowered.
Daniel:You know the the expectations which you didn't do that's where we succeeded is because I strive for excellence every fucking meal so I think I think a pretty good example is you know, there's a big like mainstream taco food truck around here.
Kris:I'm not going to name the Name it, name it.
Kevin:It's not mine, that's for sure.
Julie:Come on, Kris, name it. He said Barrio.
Daniel:No, they suck ass.
Kris:Yeah, they're fucking terrible. But you know what. You see what they do on that truck and they pre-make all these tacos and wrap them up in foil and they sit around for hours and hours and hours and people pay a shit ton of money to get this. You know, four hour five hour old taco, that's just garbage, but people still show up to all their trucks I'll tell you everybody.
Daniel:You want me to remind you what they do, because I'll tell you yeah, good so mario has all the. I don't mean to knock them at all. They're a great business.
Julie:They're very successful.
Daniel:But all the bullshit that they have their own commissary, so whatever doesn't sell goes back on the truck. That's why you get the poopies from it.
Kris:Yeah. I mean they do that stuff in their restaurants too.
Kevin:I don't care this is what it is. I mean operating a food truck. So operating your food truck with that kind of high standard, right? So I'm assuming that you just had a ton of weight, right? So something didn't look right, you throw it away.
Kevin:Something's like yeah, you know what, not really going to work out, so we throw it away garbage yeah yeah, I don't think that people number one I I hope everybody here agrees we're all in the food business. Opening up any kind of food establishment is bullshit. I mean, if you got a passion for it, god bless you. I really wish you well right, would never do it again. But on a food truck I seems that that you just got to take like a magnifying glass in the sunlight because you know it's a high stress environment. It's probably hot because your air conditioner it's a small square footage, right.
Kevin:The air conditioners are just kind of not there in the middle of summer yeah, in the middle of summer, in direct heat, in a festival, out in the fucking back it up a minute.
Daniel:Yeah, there's a reason I bought a truck with three air conditioners on the top of it did they work?
Kris:yeah, man good, good, because I I see that well, no, no, no because I was good huh tell you what you're real lucky that you had that setup, because what we had was a little window, like you, and you get like pipe out and that, oh, that's a flyman's guy.
Daniel:Yeah, yep, yeah, that's a flyman's guy.
Kris:My, my employees that work for me told me about that and then, when they came to work for me, they were like this is god sent.
Daniel:Yeah, so we were sweating our balls off, man. No, my employees were chilling like a villain. Just do my recipe, shut up and that's it. Don't try to tell me you have another way to do it.
Kevin:Do it my way. Did you guys get a commissary when that new commissary law came into effect, or were you already out of the game?
Daniel:It was a weird thing. Do you guys know where Odessa auto auction is?
Kevin:Yes.
Daniel:So our our first, second year in business. We're trying to figure it out. I told my wife I said go over there and try to do our own business. See if we can go over there just to bring the food truck there. So the GM there was like yeah, you can bring the food truck here. Why don't you just take over the whole kitchen and you only have to operate on Thursday morning and lunch for the auction, but you can have the full facility that's pretty nice sounds like a dream we backed into shit and ended up with gold yeah, yeah, I was curious how you
Kris:were doing that because we were coming from a situation where we just had a restaurant, so I just went back to the restaurant every time that was our so literally that that's like a two minutes from our house that's even better perfect
Daniel:so we had a full commercial kitchen there that was certified from the health department as a commissary, which we fell ass backwards into and it was great, I mean. And then covet happened and then covet happened yeah and then I had all my trucks there. I had three trucks and they said you're no longer allowed in the building period. What the fuck do you mean? I have my kitchen in there and at the time I put, like I don't know, $30,000, $40,000 worth of equipment inside the building. Oh, walking cooler walking freezer my truck.
Daniel:And they said I was not allowed in the building anymore.
Kevin:I said how?
Daniel:is that even possible? So it was. It came down from corporate. It wasn't the, the gm, that ran the business. He's like. My hands are tied.
Kevin:I don't know what to tell you, man so did you get your money back, or was it just a loss? Oh, it was a hard loss yeah, I bet 40 grand hits out.
Daniel:That's hard we had a good relationship for several years before covet happened.
Kevin:But yeah, yeah, but I mean, it was a corporate directive, so nothing you could do, so so did you. So after you got shut out of that building, what? What'd you guys do?
Daniel:so after that, then covered happened. We reinvented the wheel, so to speak, and my wife came up with the touchless order thing. I knew a local business owner that owns a property around town, so we set up shop on the corner of uh valley view and 82. And we're able to sustain, like through the pandemic yeah, yeah. What did you do as far as the kitchen situation? We refunded like. What was the number? $38,000 in catering deposits.
Julie:Yeah, because that was the summer where all the events canceled.
Daniel:Everything canceled at once and that was basically our bankroll and we're like what are we going to do? We're a small business, but I wasn't the jerk that didn't refund people.
Kevin:I refunded everybody, which took a huge financial hit to you.
Daniel:We had nothing.
Kevin:We went from $40,000 in the bank to zero. So what was the turning point for you to be like? You know what I'm done, D-O-N-E done Walk away.
Daniel:We struggled through all that shit. We made it. I mean, we killed it over there. Channel 3 covered us. I mean we were doing more business than we could handle a little bit at some points. And then the opportunity happened to take over the kitchen at the VFW in Norfield and I did that and then we moved our whole operation over there. I took over the kitchen, remodeled that kitchen and put another $40,000 in there.
Kevin:So what happened? So now, if you go into any one of those fraternity type things, were you required to provide, I don't know, lunch or dinner. I mean, there's always some stipulations on those kitchens, like you have to feed the membership.
Julie:Were you under any of those.
Daniel:Yeah For the VFW. Yes.
Kevin:Okay, did you eat eggs or did you actually break even or did you make money? We paid our bills. Barely breaking even Okay.
Daniel:We barely broke even.
Kevin:Okay.
Daniel:I dumped a shit ton of money into that place. The people there are awesome. I love them all. They welcome me into their community, which it's hard to get into something like that. Yeah, they really have to trust you and you know yeah, they're they're awesome people but ultimately I I stuck it out for more than I should have, Like we were losing. We were bleeding for a minute.
Kevin:Well, yeah, I mean, it's nothing against anybody, it's just business, Right so. But the business aspect of it, you know personally great people. But the business itself, right so, was it if you're bleeding, how did you like? How did you repair that? Did you just like what? When did you say, all right, I'm out of this, I'm done, like? What was the tipping point for you and your family to be like, yeah, we can't do this anymore, whether it's financial, whether it's just like you're tired because it sounds like you put a lot of emotion into your food, you're very proud of it. After a while, that takes like a toll, a huge toll, on you and your wife. Everything is perfect all the time. Eat pretty soon. I mean, did that have a toll on you? What was the tipping point?
Daniel:well, I totally respect you saying that, because that's basically what it was. It took a toll on us. We're trying and trying and trying. It's like we're beating a dead horse. Now I'm like we're we're trying to please, we're trying to please everybody, but it's not pleasing our pocketbooks. So we kept doing it and doing it. We kept trying different avenues. We come up with so many crazy different things we were doing.
Kris:And then it got to the point were you still trying to run all three trucks at that time, or did you cut it down at all with COVID?
Daniel:I sold two of them. So then we were down to one and then the one we were running just me and my wife. But but what dumbfounded us both was we were running these private events, like 100 people events, just me and my wife, and we were killing it just me and her. But you know, retrospectively looking at it, we're like we had four people on the truck before we were paying two people really good money to do this yeah, but that was full menu yeah, and then.
Kevin:And then you just take a look around because everybody knows, you know we can't pay mortgages on hopes and dreams, right? So eventually one of the most hardest decisions, I'm assuming, is you have a choice to make, right, and that choice is just unbearably hard. You don't want to leave, but you kind of have to leave even though you don't want to. It feels, even though COVID and all that other stuff because we had to lock the doors on ours too it sucks right, and you just feel like it's great experiences, great memories. But then you take a look in the rear view mirror, like we should never do, and you're just like shit, so was it? I mean, obviously it was painful, but we don't want to bring up too many memories, but what was your final thought, you know, like when you just had to close, just was it like?
Daniel:I'm not going to lie. That was probably the hardest breakup of my life. I bet it was. We built something great. We killed it, literally killed it for nine years straight. And then the pandemic. And you know, whatever, whatever happened.
Julie:Different situations Right.
Daniel:I will hang my head high. We killed it, but ultimately then we were like you know what? What are we doing? We're both 40 years old yeah.
Kevin:So you guys took on, I mean, because you put so much passion into it, you two were the SWAT truck the SWAT into it. You two were the SWAT truck, the SWAT truck was you and you were the SWAT truck right. So when you, when it closed, you literally just felt like you lost a piece of you, is that? And it was just. Yeah, you're welcome. My pain is your pain, buddy. Your pain is my pain. It's okay, you know, with that would you do it again? Would you do it again?
Daniel:Food.
Kevin:Nothing, hell no.
Kris:So so what if you weren't personally working it?
Kevin:Oh, my God.
Daniel:I don't know. We still own the truck. It's still in my possession. Everybody jokes, I've been saying this for how many years now, babe?
Kevin:You wouldn't trust anybody enough to run your own business no, I won't good for you, and that's how it should be amen to that not even me not even her so for the people out there that want to do a food truck, what is coming off of nine years of success? You're known all throughout. You know northern ohio. What would you like to tell people if they're like oh, I would love to have what you have, because that comes, I'm because that's already married to it, like when I say married, I mean married how many?
Daniel:hours a week sundown every day, baby 12, 14, 16 hours a day, you're going to go to sleep thinking about it. You're going to wake up the next day and you're never going to accomplish it because you're going to keep going and going, and going, and going, and going and going. You're not going to be able to sleep at night because your mind's going and going, and going.
Kevin:So if you had to do it all over again, knowing what you know would to do it all over again. Knowing what you know would you do it fuck.
Daniel:Yeah, I live with zero regrets would you change things?
Julie:you know make some changes. Probably COVID's the one that changed it.
Daniel:COVID's, the only thing that really screwed me.
Kevin:COVID, yeah, it screwed everybody. Yeah it sure in the hell did too. It changed the world.
Daniel:It changed our whole everything, yeah.
Kris:Obviously, you know people.
Daniel:We were at our peak.
Julie:Like we made it.
Daniel:No, we made it Finally. Yes, we made it. No, we made it finally. Yes, we made it. Yay, we had great people. I had fucking six great guys showed up to work every day, did their job. I mean, you know, here and there, you know you're not going to have the asshole employee, but I had some good guys and I paid them. Well, they made more money than I'm making now.
Kris:Put it that way now you know with you doing that obviously you make a bunch of connections with everybody else that runs food trucks, because you're at similar events and all that stuff. Right, do you keep in touch with anybody that is running a truck now, all of them, man, we're all friends. How's everybody doing post-pandemic? Have they rebounded pretty well, or is it still a struggle out there?
Daniel:Struggling.
Julie:Probably the ones that have restaurants are probably doing better, would you say. People that have restaurants are at least doing better than just the food truck people.
Daniel:No, I don't think so. I think everybody's hurting right now. It's going to change with I don't know your political strands, but Trump is going gonna change things.
Kevin:He was very for small businesses well, let's, uh, let's, let's hope that'll happen, because every small business out there is struggling right, and with that struggle comes, you know, comes the mob of Rome. Right, the mob of Rome is the American people. You're in favor one minute, you're out of favor the next. It could be. You know, I think that social media has a lot to do with it, has a tremendous amount to do with it. I think cancer, culture. If you do one wrong thing or you say one wrong thing, it's just you're canceled, that's the end of it. If you do one wrong thing or you say one wrong thing, it's just you're canceled. That's the end of it. So I think that now, nowadays, I think that running any kind of food service establishment is just. I don't think we're an in-flight, so we serve a whole different group of people. We're no longer in the public eye. I'm really grateful for that.
Daniel:And I'll never do it again.
Kevin:What's that?
Daniel:What do you know? We cater planes, aircraft big one that's awesome, but you have you.
Kevin:That's a contract it is so that you're guaranteed money.
Daniel:You're not on the grind. So you're guaranteed money. You're not on the grind.
Kevin:It's a grind. Ask Kris and Julie, they'll tell you it's a grind. Kris, I thought many times Kris was going to be walking out that door, but nope, he's a glutton for punishment. He stayed. And poor Julie, she got so tired, I felt so bad. She started crying. I'm just like, oh my God, what am I doing to these people? Ah, Julie, work harder. No, I'm just kidding Julie, you're crying. That means you're not working hard enough. You go sit with Kris, whatever, hey brother if you need help, I'll help you.
Daniel:Include me in it.
