What made the food trucks successful? Chef Vin & Empire BBQ
New York City is home to a plethora of signature restaurants, cuisines, and culinary specialties. But in recent years nothing has taken the food world by storm as much as the food truck. Fun, interactive, and iconic to NYC Streets, street vendors deliver service to thousands of city residents, office employees, and tourists daily, providing affordable food options for workers and communities and revolutionizing the way people enjoy their meals. However, NYC’s entrepreneurial and legal constraints have made the business more complex.
Though many elements like low start-up costs may incentivize some to try, the city’s food truck environment has made the industry one of the most brutal and difficult to succeed in the city.
Chef Vin outside Empire BBQ
In spite of these challenges, food trucks have found themselves a unique niche between consumer demand and local economies that benefits the communities they serve. Vin Mangual, co-owner of Empire BBQ, and several other trucks in the NYC area shares his experience as a food truck owner.
Having been in the culinary industry all his life, Vin bought the first Empire BBQ truck in 2018. Vin and his people would park the truck next to a local Brooklyn church and do most of their cooking using the church kitchen or inside the parked truck.
“Getting started wasn’t that hard”, said Vin. “We didn’t really do a ton of modification, except for this propane tank and other liquid storage the city needs you to have”.
The truck pictured is the second Empire BBQ Truck, which Vin said they purchased online for around $50,000 from an out-of-state seller.
Food trucks serve as a platform for aspiring chefs and entrepreneurs to showcase their culinary talents without the high costs associated with opening a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant, and Vin’s story (when considering market changes) lines up with earlier studies that estimate average food truck startup costs to be around $20,000 to $50,000. Vin’s comments on the truck modifications come from New York City requirements that food truck vendors must install specific storage for materials like water, waste, or propane, but Vin believes that most vendors like him don’t consider these to be bothersome. However, even though low startup costs might make food trucks appealing to aspiring entrepreneurs, food truck owners are challenged by both circuitous city regulations and the difficult nature of the business itself.
Being mobile businesses, food trucks have the unique ability to provide service on demand. For example, Empire BBQ’s specific NYC license gives them permission to serve food on private property. With a lease agreement from the property owner. As a result, meaning most of their business consists of becoming hired for catering services. In addition, becoming hired to operate their truck at venues. Thus for Vin, maintaining good relationships with venues and third-party organizations is fundamental for keeping a customer base.
“Reputation is everything,” says Vin, “If no one knows your food is good, no one’s gonna reach out to hire you”. If this goes well, food truck owners can build strong ties to their community like Vin.
But if owners struggle to put themselves in the spotlight, the business becomes much harder. The versatility of the mobile business model gives food trucks the versatility to fill service roles that communities are in demand for. However, this same mobility and smaller physicality can make it a nightmare for food trucks just starting out
Food truck owners also face many problems unique to vehicle based-businesses. The mechanical factor of operating a truck is something Vin highlighted as one of their biggest challenges. “This thing caught on fire all the time,” Vin said about their first truck, “One time, we had black smoke coming out of the top. People even asked if we were ok, and we just had to smile and wave them off”. Though Vin says his business is in a place where he can easily pay off maintenance costs, it remains a more hazardous part of the job. “It sounds bad but you get used to it. But the scary part is that you do get used to it”.
When asked what the city does to support food truck entrepreneurs, Vin commented “City doesn’t help at all. If anything, they’re cutting into us with all the fines they hand out”.
Since Empire BBQ’s license doesn’t share the same business model as many other food trucks, restrictions on where they legally find themselves allowed to serve doesn’t apply to them! Even so, Vin and his people are still regularly subject to stringent regulatory penalties like parking tickets, truck code violation fines, as well as tolls, and various other fees, making operating in parts of the city more difficult than it can be.
Even with these challenges, food trucks like Vin’s are more than just businesses. Food trucks have the potential to generate street labor, and businesses like Vin are also providing for the families of their employees. “We’re feeding around six or seven families,” said Vin “I treat my guys well because I know they all have people waiting for them back home.” By both providing service to and creating job opportunities for their neighborhoods, food trucks are a community business.
But to Vin, his trucks aren’t just a living, they’re his life.
Vin acts as both an owner and an employee of his own business. During our interview, Vin had an issue where they ran out of buns for a menu item; Vin personally ran from his truck and went around neighborhood shops until he found what he was looking for. Beyond the managerial aspects of owning a business, Vin also heavily involves himself in the physical work. When Vin and his people aren’t out there serving customers, it’s early mornings doing food prep or logistical work at their Staten Island kitchen, or late nights driving back to clean and store their trucks.
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge connecting eastern Staten Island to Brooklyn.
In conclusion, in an industry where things like service and customer interaction are just as interpersonal as transportation and supply logistics, businesses like Vin’s breathe life into the communities they’re a part of but also take a toll. “It’s hard. It’s one of the hardest industries in the city”. Says Vin. Yet in spite of these obstacles, Vin’s hard work and dedication keep him here, still serving delicious BBQ to wherever customers are found.
Written by Casey Wu
