About three weeks ago, I received an email from the Texas Restaurant Association asking me to call them. I don't get contacted by organizations like TRA often, so I immediately called to find out how I could be of service. They were finalizing booths for their Southwest Foodservice Expo and wanted to incorporate food trucks in to the show. Along with inviting Easy Slider truck, a TRA member and Empanada Armada to have their truck on the exhibit floor for people to tour, they asked me to be on site to answer questions about my perspective of the food truck scene in DFW. I jumped at the chance, not having a full appreciation of what the Expo encompassed.
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The Expo was held this year at the Dallas Convention Center, bringing tens of thousands of people to attend educational sessions and talk to hundreds of vendors selling any food service item you could want or need. There were vendors for appliances, kitchen tools, food, clothing and even custom food truck builders.
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At the Easy Slider truck, we talked to people, non-stop for two days. We were able to talk to people about the various operational format of the truck business, we talked about cost of truck ownership, we answered questions of all types. We talked to culinary students planning their dreams. We talked to restaurant owners who are in various stages of opening a food truck to extend their brand.
Interestingly, we talked to Heath Department staff and elected city officials from various cities, who are interested in bringing food trucks to their cities and also writing the rules under which the trucks will operate. Most important to me, we talked to readers of my blog, who are doing their research to find out what they need to be doing to run a successful food truck.
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We even talked to Food Network celebrity chef, Emily Ellyn, the Retro Rad Chef, who was very excited about food trucks!
TRA graciously provided us with some passes for the Expo, so many of the current food truck owners were able to attend at least one day of the event and attend the educational sessions on improving their business. It was fun to see the owners of Nammi, Jack's Chowhound, Trailercakes, Maui Wowi, Unforsacon Bacon, and Gandolfo's/The Butcher's Son/What's da Scoop all on site and I understand there were many others who I didn't get to visit with.
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I would be remiss if I didn't use this blog to thank Cruising Kitchens for setting me up with swag for my table. Everyone knows that you have to have give-away items at trade shows and Cruising Kitchens provided me up with really nice, double logo koozies, bags and t-shirts to give away. Thanks much to Cameron and the crew in both San Antonio and now Dallas!
Over the last two years, there has been much talk about perceived competition between brick and mortar restaurants and food trucks. By TRA incorporating food trucks in to the Expo, the two business models are seeing how the other operates and that there isn't competition as much as there is providing a full range of customer experience to customers.
I walked away from the Expo with a revived passion for the food truck industry. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, last night you saw that my status said something to the affect that I talked to hundreds of people about their food truck dreams, many of whom have a concept planned out. If even half of those concepts roll out, DFW is going to become a leader in the food truck scene. I cannot wait for that to happen!
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The Expo was held this year at the Dallas Convention Center, bringing tens of thousands of people to attend educational sessions and talk to hundreds of vendors selling any food service item you could want or need. There were vendors for appliances, kitchen tools, food, clothing and even custom food truck builders.
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At the Easy Slider truck, we talked to people, non-stop for two days. We were able to talk to people about the various operational format of the truck business, we talked about cost of truck ownership, we answered questions of all types. We talked to culinary students planning their dreams. We talked to restaurant owners who are in various stages of opening a food truck to extend their brand.
Interestingly, we talked to Heath Department staff and elected city officials from various cities, who are interested in bringing food trucks to their cities and also writing the rules under which the trucks will operate. Most important to me, we talked to readers of my blog, who are doing their research to find out what they need to be doing to run a successful food truck.
.JPG)
We even talked to Food Network celebrity chef, Emily Ellyn, the Retro Rad Chef, who was very excited about food trucks!
TRA graciously provided us with some passes for the Expo, so many of the current food truck owners were able to attend at least one day of the event and attend the educational sessions on improving their business. It was fun to see the owners of Nammi, Jack's Chowhound, Trailercakes, Maui Wowi, Unforsacon Bacon, and Gandolfo's/The Butcher's Son/What's da Scoop all on site and I understand there were many others who I didn't get to visit with.
I would be remiss if I didn't use this blog to thank Cruising Kitchens for setting me up with swag for my table. Everyone knows that you have to have give-away items at trade shows and Cruising Kitchens provided me up with really nice, double logo koozies, bags and t-shirts to give away. Thanks much to Cameron and the crew in both San Antonio and now Dallas!
Over the last two years, there has been much talk about perceived competition between brick and mortar restaurants and food trucks. By TRA incorporating food trucks in to the Expo, the two business models are seeing how the other operates and that there isn't competition as much as there is providing a full range of customer experience to customers.
I walked away from the Expo with a revived passion for the food truck industry. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, last night you saw that my status said something to the affect that I talked to hundreds of people about their food truck dreams, many of whom have a concept planned out. If even half of those concepts roll out, DFW is going to become a leader in the food truck scene. I cannot wait for that to happen!
