hi everyone. im back and looking to get back into business after my divorce...
i am interested in information on these dessert trucks... how do they work? does anyone have any information on these?

Are you talking about the lunch trucks that go to industrial parks?

Here's a bit of info on one gals experience.

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/ones_to_watch/129/treats_truck-1.phtml

You might want to read over these also.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Food-Service-Equipment-2480/food-truck-start.htm

http://www.mobilecateringbusiness.com/

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/exclusives/0310/mobile-1.phtml

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-become-a-caterer

HTH

Thank you for the great links--I am interested in this as well.

This is very interesting. I am interested in actually buying a small mobile home and getting the kitchen updated to licensing requirements. Has anyone done this before?

Street food is always popular. There is a bakery in Austin that has at least 4 vintage (HD inspected) airstream trailers (can't miss 'em they have a giant cuppie with pink icing and colorful "sprinkles" on top...a real show stopper!) parked at some great locations around the city. An important thing to remember is the parking issue. We will pass right by if the lot is so tiny that you cannot find a safe place to pull off the road. They bake all products in an inspected and liscensed kitchen to comply with local laws. There is another business that bakes and delivers your cuppies and a pint of your fave "waiting by the phone for him to call" ice cream to your home or office.

Ive too thought about it as we have a non experienced local who has a created a booming business out of it here in the San Fransicso Bay Area called CupKates... http://cupkatesbakery.com/

I'm in the process of opening a small cupcakery and cupcake truck business in my city. What specific questions do you have?

Other fun trucks:

www.followthatcupcake.com
www.buttercreamphiladephia.com
www.sweetridesf.com
www.cupcakestop.com

I would like to know how you go about finding places to park. I read in the one story that if you park by restaurants or stores they get angry because you are taking business away from them.

Will you have designated spots that you have to pay for? Or is it more random than that?

i have previously looked at all of the links that you posted. I just too afraid to take the plunge, have you started your business and how's it going. Where do you start.
Any advice would be great. Thanks, soffee, heather

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoyRide

I'm in the process of opening a small cupcakery and cupcake truck business in my city. What specific questions do you have?

Other fun trucks:

www.followthatcupcake.com
www.buttercreamphiladephia.com
www.sweetridesf.com
www.cupcakestop.com

I haven't opened yet. I am doing a cupcakery with a cupcake truck, so the truck won't be a full time thing. My main plan with that is to be hired out for various parties - birthdays, tailgate parties, store openings, customer appreciations, etc etc. I am in a big college town (University of Alabama, and there are 2 other small colleges here) so the potential for being hired out for those is big. Our city grows by 80,000-100,000 on game days!

That said, I do plan to do stops throughout the city... I definitely wouldn't park in front of a restaurant like mentioned above. Our downtown area has lots of public parking that'd be appropriate. You definitely can't park just anywhere, I think it really depends on the city and how everything is set up.

Thanks for responding. When you get up and running please post and let me know how it's going. I'm in WV, college town also, just so scared to take the plunge. Soffee Heather

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoyRide

Quote:

Originally Posted by soffee

i have previously looked at all of the links that you posted. I just too afraid to take the plunge, have you started your business and how's it going. Where do you start.
Any advice would be great. Thanks, soffee, heather

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoyRide

I'm in the process of opening a small cupcakery and cupcake truck business in my city. What specific questions do you have?

Other fun trucks:

www.followthatcupcake.com
www.buttercreamphiladephia.com
www.sweetridesf.com
www.cupcakestop.com

Initially I had planned to just do the truck, but after our health department wouldn't let me rent kitchen space from any establishment, church, caterer, etc, I decided to re-write my business plan and find a small commercial space that I could set up as a little cupcakery, and go from there. Check with your city and health department on all the regulations. I learned quickly that it was much muuccchhh harder to get going than I thought it would be.