Food trucks revving up

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This article was published 28/03/2021 (1680 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fil Romolo had dreamed about opening a food truck for more than a decade before he found a trailer for sale while scrolling Kijiji one day in 2017.

On a whim, he said, the Little Eggplant food truck was born.

“Among us vendors, we have a saying that it takes a certain breed to do it because it’s a lot of hard work and a lot of hours, and a lot of innovation to try and be different and unique,” he said.

Romolo served Italian deli fare at festivals and summer events from the Little Eggplant until COVID-19 shut down many of those usual spots last summer.

This summer, he’s trying to speed up the opening process to keep up with the warm weather. The food truck usually doesn’t open until mid-May or June, but he’s hoping to open in April to take advantage of the sunshine.

The Little Eggplant’s team plans to hit pop-ups around the city, including one held at Torque Brewing this weekend, to make up for losses that come with the second year of cancelled festivals and downtown workers staying home.

“For me, I’ve just learned how to — the word of the year — pivot and figure out where I would be more successful,” Romolo said.

While the food service industry was taking a hit across the board during the first summer wave, Romolo said he was surprised to find unprecedented success at farmers markets that were able to open in 2020.

“Obviously, there was a few busts in events, but as far as seasons go overall, it was a great season, it was busy,” he said. “I was surprised at how busy it was because I was anticipating for it to be pretty slow. I wasn’t even going to open at all.”

Romolo said many of his fellow vendors chose to not open at all for the season and credited his operation being smaller than most for giving him the opportunity to set up and hit farmers markets quickly.

Likely losing the festival circuit for another season will be a tough blow to the food truck season, but his hope is the demographic he built at farmers markets and pop-ups last summer will continue his good fortune into this year.

“Everything was about ‘support local, support your local business,’” Romolo said. “And I think that really changed people’s perceptions on how it is to run a small business, how it does take a community to build up a small business.”

As the Little Eggplant preps, BBK’s food truck sits in a Transcona industrial park by the railway tracks.

Danny Krahl, who co-owns the barbecue truck with this wife, set up shop more than a week ago and said he’s one of the earliest vendors in the province to get out this year.

“There’s no food out where I am, and if it’s nice out, I’m going out — what’s the use of sitting around?” he said.

While the first few days of sales have been “nothing spectacular,” Krahl said part of the decision to get out early was to get eyes on BBK’s and let people know the truck is open for business.

Last year’s COVID-19 restrictions were “horrible” for the food truck — Krahl notes he had been trying to get a spot at Folk Fest for nearly nine years and was accepted last year, just before the festival was cancelled — and a hotdog cart he also owns saw a steep drop in sales.

“We lost all of the festivals. I was (supposed to be) at the Red River Ex for 10 days. I’m out quite a bit of money,” he said.

Regardless, there’s reason to head out again this summer — Krahl called himself “kind of retired,” and health issues mean BBK’s is an important source of income even if less money is being made.

“I’ve been doing this for 23 years, there’s only a few more vendors that have been doing it longer than me,” he said. “We do this because we enjoy it. The festivals and that, we love doing them.”

Krahl said he hopes people take this summer as another opportunity to travel within the province and possibly stop by his truck.

“It’s keeping, hopefully, our economy in Canada,” he said. “And I’m just hoping that more people come out, and if they see me parked on the side of the road, that they stop and come get a bite to eat.”

There’s a wide variety of cuisine available at food trucks, and it means some are able to set up quicker than others, Marcia Warmington of Miss Tiny’s Jamaican Food Truck said.

Warmington remains “undecided” as to when Miss Tiny’s will be back in business this summer. She plans to apply for and receive any permits necessary to operate but said the labour and time cost that comes with making some Jamaican food — marinades and cooking times for many Jamaican dishes can take hours — means losses are greater than vendors who are able to make and store food in advance.

“We prepare our food fresh every time we’re going out, so if we don’t anticipate a certain amount of people, it would be a big loss for us,” Warmington said.

The food truck is situated in St. Andrews, making the possibility of delivering or small-scale catering untenable.

“It’s harder for us to say, ‘OK, we’ll do it if one person wants a meal.’ For example, to prepare that meal for that one person for delivery, it’s a waste of time for us for transport,” she said.

When the truck opens, the hope is to provide catering to groups of 10 or more that are able to take place throughout the summer.

“I’d love to be able to cater to businesses, I just have to figure out how to go toward that,” Warmington said.

Miss Tiny’s opened in late 2018, and Warmington only got one summer to set up shop at festivals around the province before COVID-19 hit and she found herself in a difficult situation.

Warmington describes the difference between 2019 and 2020 as going from 100 to zero, and whenever she gets the truck rolling, she said she’s keeping her expectations mild.

“COVID isn’t going anywhere, as far as I can see, so I’m looking at it like it’s going to be a year more like last year,” she said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_