A Day in the Life of Dallas Food Truck Owners
Dain Pool and Jon Wagner really should have known better. They both come from families in the food industry. Pool's father runs the Georgia-based Pool's Restaurant Group and Wagner's grandfather founded Johnsonville Sausage. So, a lot of people would argue that they should have known better then to stay in such a difficult business. Particularly after months of research and studying the food truck industries in other cities, they should have known that if they liked sleep at all, then they're in the wrong business.
LDD
Yet, together to two friends started Two Trucks LLC in October of 2011 and launched Gandolfo's New York Deli and The Butcher's Son food trucks, both of which have become mainstays in the Dallas food truck scene. They're about to roll out another truck in Spring of 2013, which will be their fifth local truck.
Here's my chat with Dain Pool about the daily schedule and life of a food truck operator.
What's a typical day like for a food truck operator?
5:00 a.m.
Arrive at the commissary to begin day
Review numbers from previous day
Manage cash flow
Handle business side of things, including payouts
6:00 to 9:00 a.m.
Shop for fresh produce and ingredients
Prep truck
Prep food items for lunch
Go through truck checklist to make sure everything is working
Check gas, oil and propane
Wash truck
10:00 am
Arrive at lunch service
Continue to prep truck
Begin cooking some items
Go through on-site checklist
11:00 am to 2:00 p.m.
Begin lunch service. (They say this is the easy part.)
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Go through all pre-meal checklist again
Make sure all the food for dinner is fresh
Purchase any last minute produce or ingredients
On-site checklist to make sure everything in the truck is loaded and ready to go
5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Dinner service
9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Get ready for late-night dinner
Check all ingredients and supplies
Prep for late night
11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Late-night dinner service
3:00 a.m.
Crew and truck go night-night
How many people work on a truck?
Some stops require two people and others require four. Sometimes it's just John and myself and that's just because we're the owners and sometimes we have to. If I'm going to put anyone else through that hell, I'm going to do it myself also.
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