Food Trucks Can Be First StepTo Opening a Restaurant

There is a lot to like about the idea of starting a restaurant with a food truck before you dive into the idea of leasing space and opening the whole business.

For one thing, you need a lot less to start. For another, it gives you a way to test the menu and concept in a way you can easily adapt and change to get it right before you commit to the whole package.

For a third thing, by having a successful food truck operation you increase your credibility a hundredfold in talking with investors and bankers about your ability to run a profitable restaurant operation since you are actually doing it rather than just talking about doing it.

Best of all, you can build a dedicated audience to start serving the day you open your non mobile doors so that you can potentially be in the position to break even from day one which is a fantastic position to be in and also allows you to get the doors open with a lot less cash since you won’t have to fund months of negative cash flow.

The food truck revolution is moving indoors.

The owners of some of the most successful trucks are using the knowledge, fame and bankability gained from operating their mobile eateries to start sit-down restaurants.

Eric Tjahyadi, who with his brother Erwin and two other partners started the Komodo Truck with its Asian-influenced food two years ago.

That was in the middle of a recession, when it was tough to start any business, let alone one as notoriously vulnerable as a restaurant.

But the truck, which costs far less to operate than a bricks-and-mortar establishment, was a hit, racking up good reviews and, more important, devoted fans. In March, the Tjahyadi brothers opened their Komodo Cafe in the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles.

“The food truck,” Eric Tjahyadi said, “is an engine for validation.”

Probably the most famous pioneer of the hip food truck movement is Roy Choi, whose Kogi BBQ operation has gotten international attention. But back when he and his partners started rolling in 2008, the prospect of starting a restaurant seemed like a distant dream.

“We had $1,500, no job, a career of self-doubt, and no one watching or caring what we did,” Choi said. “There is no way we could have gone a traditional route with all the bells and whistles.”

Choi has helped open two Los Angeles-area restaurants: A-Frame and Chego.

Other restaurants that used food trucks as springboards include Flying Pig Cafe in Little Tokyo, based on a truck with a pork-centric menu; Frysmith in Hollywood, known for its French fry variations; the Gastronomico in Los Feliz, based on the Gastrobus truck; White Rabbit Fusion Cafe in Canoga Park, which has a menu inspired by Filipino cuisine; and the soon-to-open Fukuburger in Hollywood, based on a Las Vegas truck co-owned by Colin Fukunaga.

Operating a truck is also relatively cheap. The owner couldn’t fit many workers into the vehicle even if he or she wanted to. Advertising, in the form of social media and word of mouth, is often free.

And even without a wait staff, a truck can serve a steady stream of customers who seemingly don’t mind long waits in line if the truck is popular.

One of Joe Kim’s primary aims in starting his Flying Pig truck was to test the menu before taking on the expense of a restaurant. He had planned to keep the rolling operation open only about six months when it started in 2009.

But the vehicle drew devoted followers, and its popularity even helped persuade potential landlords to sweeten property deals. Kim decided to keep the truck running, and opened Flying Pig Cafe in July.

“Our Plan A was the restaurant,” Kim said. “But in this economy, it would have been very difficult to get a crowd at the restaurant without having the truck first.”

There are obvious pluses to having a restaurant, high on the list being the additional room for inventory. Nor does the cooking have to be done in a severely cramped kitchen, or in a rented space shared with other food truck owners.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Kim said. “Even if there’s a long wait and service falls at the truck, people still give you faith. In a restaurant, there’s very little room for mistakes.”

On the other hand, the business landscape is getting tougher for trucks. Popularity has brought competition, even from big fast-food chains that now have their own rolling operations on city streets. Trucks are no longer a novelty.