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It's September. We're halfway through September and we're still not on the road. We've lost the whole summer, and I don't know where the end is.
The holdup is with San Francisco Parks and Recreation; we keep going back and forth on where we'll be allowed to sell. I sent them a 36-page proposal in the spring: We'd be serving this handmade food that supports the San Francisco food scene and so on. We sent it and we waited, and we heard nothing. And we'd call, and we'd leave messages. Or we'd send an email and it would come back "out of the office until July 23rd." Finally we heard back late in August. They were going to accept our proposal!
We want to chase the weather, basically, go where it's warm, and there's foot traffic. We wanted a location in Justin Herman Plaza, right by the San Francisco Ferry Building. We ran it by Parks and Rec: NO. That's it. Just, no.
Parks and Rec agreed that we could have a location in Golden Gate Park. What about the concourse right by the museums? "Well, it might work on Mondays and Tuesdays, but Wednesdays through Sundays there's a waffle guy there, and you don't want to compete with him." What? Waffles, ice cream? So next we proposed a spot by the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. No. There's a hot dog vendor there, and he apparently sells Nestlé's Drumsticks, and they have a contract that won't allow competing vendors. How are we competition? A handcrafted artisan ice cream for $4 versus a $1 tube of nastiness from the hot dog guy!
We've been getting our sea legs by doing some street festivals. The festivals were a good learning experience, but they're terribly expensive: We paid $950 to be at one festival for two days. We ended up covering our costs. And we were stuck right by the music stage listening to really horrible bands playing loudly, shouting at our customers to be heard. We are planning on doing the Off the Grid events in Fort Mason on Fridays and on Stanyan Street on Wednesdays.
The kitchen space we've rented is its own headache, too. We share a space with several other companies, and the place smells like meat and taco spices. And it's dirty. We have come in at night a few times to avoid the crowds, but it's not that fun to make ice cream at 10 p.m. in an industrial warehouse in a scary part of town. Oh, and the last time we came in, someone had taken all of our milk out of the refrigerator and just left it on the floor. Why? Who? I don't know!
I feel like I'm just complaining, but it's not all bad. I love cooking for a living. I'm so happy when I'm buying the ingredients and thinking about what I could make, and then making it, and selling it to someone and watching them get all excited. I hand something out the window, and it looks so pretty. And it's so freaking good! We bought four flats of raspberries from the farmers' market for $20 and made a ton of raspberry sauce and a raspberry ice cream, and It. Was. Heaven.
Our butterscotch sauce! Our really intense dark chocolate sauce! Our beautiful ice cream sandwiches! I make the cookies in the morning, so the sandwich is two fresh cookies and ice cream in a bowl. The cookies are soft, not frozen. The ice cream is soft. It's such a sensual and incredible experience, so different than a regular ice cream sandwich. It's stuff like that that keeps me going. I'm buying groceries on my credit card, we won't be making money anytime soon, I'm in massive debt, but my ice cream sandwiches? They are amazing.
You may want to consider getting in contact with the people at http://www.foodtrucksmap.com . They have a service that maps out all the trucks in major US cities and I've had nothing but good experiences using their iphone app to track down new food trucks.
What about farmers markets?
love reading your stories! and i wish you bucketloads of success (and cash). i was planning on running a food trailer on an army base in kansas but it all came to a screeching halt thanks to aafes, who owns all the food franchises on military bases, not wanting anyone to cut into their profits so they've banned outside concession peeps....the bastards:-)
on to plan b.....
"Waffles, ice cream? So next we proposed a spot by the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. No. There's a hot dog vendor there, and he apparently sells Nestlé's Drumsticks, and they have a contract that won't allow competing vendors. How are we competition? A handcrafted artisan ice cream for $4 versus a $1 tube of nastiness from the hot dog guy!"
I get that you are frustrated, but this...+READ
"Waffles, ice cream? So next we proposed a spot by the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. No. There's a hot dog vendor there, and he apparently sells Nestlé's Drumsticks, and they have a contract that won't allow competing vendors. How are we competition? A handcrafted artisan ice cream for $4 versus a $1 tube of nastiness from the hot dog guy!"
I get that you are frustrated, but this is a crappy attitude. You can handcrafted artisan all you want, but the hot dog guy really is a lot less likely to sell his crappy Nestle cones with you next door. Same for waffles - it's a sweet treat and so it what you are selling. If I were nearby and hungry, not likely I would buy both.-COLLAPSE
For safety, cleanliness, etc, try finding a commercial kitchen at a local non-profit like a church, woman's club, Grange, etc. They are usually spotless and heavily supervised.
Hate to say it, but when dealing with a gov't bureaucracy, it is naive to think all the kinks could get ironed out in a few months. These people don't understand seasonal business cycles, (though by common semse they...+READ
For safety, cleanliness, etc, try finding a commercial kitchen at a local non-profit like a church, woman's club, Grange, etc. They are usually spotless and heavily supervised.
Hate to say it, but when dealing with a gov't bureaucracy, it is naive to think all the kinks could get ironed out in a few months. These people don't understand seasonal business cycles, (though by common semse they should). Giving a business plan like yours (dependant on someone telling you where you can sell) a couple of years would have been a more likely scenario.
I'm sorry to hear you have massive debt, but did you get the advice of anyone already in the food business? Did you take advantage of your local retired business person's advorsory group? Did you search for mentors?
A great product and concept just isn't enough to make a successful business. Ask all the long-time restaurant owners who have gone under the last few years. If you are determined to open, maybe a change in area would work better for you. Down the penninsula or over in the valley? Start out in the lesser-valued areas and work up by demand to better locations. Try working events like opens artists studios, craft fairs, etc. But maybe you've thought of these already.
Just some thoughts, I wish you were in my neighborhood, I'd be there! Denver has a great food truck concept: they create food courts of several trucks and stands, complete with shaded tables for lingering, at all the major farmer's markets. They trucks are snazzy and sell food like crazy. It draws patrons to the market, and adds pizzaz to the atmosphere. SF should get with it--after all, it'd be a permitted situation, and permits are revenue.
Best of luck, keep giving out the samples and maybe give some to the waffle man. If he's on your side, he might sway parks and rec to let you both sell. Waffles with ice cream!-COLLAPSE
That really SUCKS that you have to jump thru all the hoops that city hall put you thru.But try and hang in there good things will come to good people.I too am tyring to start my own food truck and i know how hard it is for us little guys.Best of luck Jay.
hang in there! I work for The Flying Pig truck here in Los Angeles and they are clamping down on everyone's business now because there are so many trucks.
If you don't like that industrial kitchen try finding a restaurant that only opens during the day or night and use it during the time its closed. It may not be cheaper but you might not have to deal with the headaches.
I hope you are...+READ
hang in there! I work for The Flying Pig truck here in Los Angeles and they are clamping down on everyone's business now because there are so many trucks.
If you don't like that industrial kitchen try finding a restaurant that only opens during the day or night and use it during the time its closed. It may not be cheaper but you might not have to deal with the headaches.
I hope you are networking with savory trucks. In LA we often see desert trucks tag along with savory trucks and they do a cross promotional type of social network advertising.
Hope your business does well, in the end I would do events even if you don't make much money because it will increase your exposure.-COLLAPSE