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greetings from Alabama

485 views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  colleens 
#1 ·
Hi everyone, my name is Dave Stanley from Huntsville AL. Great site and thanks for having me!

I owned and operated a food truck here a few of years ago. We were the first food truck in town and had to fight city hall to get approval to operate. They were quite confused on what to do with us. At that time, our city had a huge boom in craft beer producers, so our plan was to set up out side the breweries - this worked out great for us. It was a part time gig for me and a buddy, cranking out out gourmet burgers, fresh cut fries, pulled pork BBQ, wings, homemade sauces, etc. Good pub food.

We sold the truck because we just didn't have the time (with working full time and wife/kids etc) to make a profit. We sure enjoyed drinking free craft beer while cooking some excellent stuff. A nice hobby of sorts. Here's a list of articles from the local paper on us:

http://search.al.com/brakes+bistro/

Fast forward 3 years and we have about 20 food trucks and city hall's full enthusiastic support. They close downtown for food truck rallies, opened all the restrictions on where they can operate, allowed for food truck parks, etc

The local brewery is expanding https://www.facebook.com/straighttoale and asked me to be involved in the food program. They plan to setup a brand new kitchen in partnership with the brewery owner and a local pizza shop owner, and asked me to recreate much of what I did on my piddly little food truck in a properly equipped professional kitchen. We are in the planning stage right now and targeted to open next summer.

Why an I here? I don't consider myself a professional chef (although people have called me that). Never worked the line in a restaurant other that on the truck. So I'm going to seek some advice on some pretty simple stuff from time to time. Tricks of the trade type stuff.

I'll also need help in day to day ops, and advice on owner/chef relationships.

My first posts will be likely on negotiating business/finances with the partners. and then will likely transition to thing like how to hold mashed potatoes for service. :)
 
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#2 ·
Hi Dave S, Welcome to Cheftalk!  Our site has members which span the spectrum from food lovers, at home cooks, to professionals and everything in between. Sounds like you have become quite a success in your town. Seems a common experience among food truck operators that there are so many regulations to follow.  I am sure you will find the resources, articles, and members here to be a help to you. 
 
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