Suggestions for mobile catering/BBQ kitchen trailer

Max, I have a good friend of mine that is trying to do the same thing. He is going to go with a food truck. He likes the idea of a truck so he doesn't have to drag a trailer around. He has a used truck located here in KC, but I don't think he has gone any further than that. The truck is fully equipped with all he needs except the smoker.
Good Luck,
JT

Max- James Stephens at Extreme BBQ Trailers will custom build to your design. I had James build my 8.5' X 22' last year, it has a 6' rear deck. I am very happy with the trailer. You can check out his webpage at Extreme BBQ Trailers or give him a call at 901-268-5529.
Don

His website came up on my Google. Thanks for the input.

Max,
Just started the very thing you are asking about.
I am working with colony cargo in Fitzgerald GA.
Tim has been a great to work with. I toured 4 different manufacturing plants. colony was the best in my opinion. Tube vise shaped metal for more strength. Best rust treatment for under side of the trailer, best use of flashing between walls and floor etc.........
Give Tim a call 866-618-2186. My trailer will be the first they will have done with an FEC500.
You will have the advantage of my learning curve.
Bill

Thanks jax...I'll check 'em out.

So, Max, figure out the weight, how big a truck do you have to pull how much weight?

And figure capacity. Do you need a 500?

I like the idea, i'd even reach out the Fast Eddy and see what he thinks, he has a LOT of contacts.

We met with the local VT health inspector on site this morning. VT has amended the codes to allow for a mobile concession trailer to operate without a restaurant license as long as on site seating doesn't exceed 16. Take-out is unlimited. The only requirements is that potable and waster water be obtained/disposed within stipulated guidelines. Neihter of which probably exist on the present property.

Over 16 seats, we then come under "restaurant" guidelines. The trailer can be used if it's hard piped to a water supply (approved, read: drilled well) and disposed of via a new septic system. A restaurant license would also mean approval from the local zoning board. It's presently zoned light retail. That would likely be an uphill battle

Push come to shove, the 16 seats with take-out would be a breeze from D.O.H. and zoning. Present listing for the 9 acres, 3 barns and 3 BR house (livable but needs work) is $650K I'm guess $400K would get me the keys. We would need to sell our house and live on-site as part of the zoning requirements. We would run with a 6 month (May-Oct) season and probably head south for a cpl of months during winter.

Making this financially feasible will depend heavily on take-out traffic. I could envision a Sonic like drive-up with squawk box and runners bringing food out.

Gotta meeting with zoning board tomorrow night. If they indicate a positive response then I'll get busy running numbers.

Probably MORE than you wanted to know but I'm just thinking out load. Good suggestion re: FE.

I purchased one from SLE Equipment in Nashville in late April. Price was right but quality isn't to good. It was built by Freedom Trailers in Georgia. I would suggest staying away. I ordered 12 guage wiring with all 20 amp circuits. Came with 14 guage and 15 amp. The waste tank fell off of the bottom about 3 weeks ago. 4 sheet metal screws on each side holding it on. They forgot to put the support straps under it. Gave me the run around about the 90 day warranty. Just lucky it didn't cause a wreck or buckle and come up through the floor.

We went without the exhaust hood and put a fryer on the porch. I would recommend this if you can do it. I didn't need a flat top grill or charbroiler though. 13,000 BTU AC is barely enough on hot days even without the cooking equipment inside, let alone an exhaust hood.

We spent $17,000 for a 8.5 x 22 ft. w an 8 foot porch. 3500# torsion axles which I would recommend for a better ride.

Driving by at 60 MPH it is pretty sharp but when you get to looking at it the craftmanship is pretty poor on ours.

Pays to shop around and shop local if you can in case there are issues later.

Other than that, my wife and I can shove about $1200 to $1500 per day through it just selling brisket, pulled pork and fried breaded tenderloin sandwiches and fries to the lunch crowd in a small town about 15 miles from where we live.

Sorry to hear about the bad news. I'd be chatting with a lawyer about the various under-spec'd elements.

On the flip side of the coin, your daily sales seem quite good for a two "man" road act. How many folks do you serve each day? (i.e. what's your check average?)

Thanks for the tip on SLE.

We do a $4 pulled pork sandwich and a $5 smoked brisket each of which we are putting on a full 6 oz of meat. Buns run $1.00 per 8 made fresh at local grocery store and are better quality than you can get off of a truck. Tenderloins are 6 oz meat + breading which gets them up to 8-9 oz. Those buns are $0.25 each since they are a lot bigger. These go for $4.50. We usually run between 140 and 225 sandwiches per day with Wednesdays being the busiest since we have about 3-5 good sized call ins that day. Mondays are usually the slowest but you just never know in this business. 60-70% of our day is done between 11AM and 1:30PM, but we are usually open until 7PM. Rain or shine doesn't seem to make much difference. We also pop kettle corn and caramel flavored corn which is close to a 10:1 cost ratio. Sell about $100-$150 per day on a $15 cost.

8oz orders of fries and sweet potato fries for $1.75 and $2.25. We also do baked beans, mac & potato salad for $1.50 for 6 oz cup.

Chips $1 and bottled pop for $1.50. Drinks have lousiest margin of anything we do. I can't justify (yet) putting in a fountain machine.

I started using all packers cut brisket instead of flats due to cost savings.(Choice flats $3.35 per # and yield around 55% or and Choice packers $2.10 per # and yield 45-50%). Smoke em with BBQ Delight 1/2 hickory, 1/2 mesquite pellets on FEC 100 @ 225 to about 170 or higher and then wrap them and put them in a holding oven at 205' for rest of night, slice about 10 AM and ready to go. I have tried about 20 different rubs as well as making my own and I must say you can NOT beat Cookshacks brisket rub with their mild BBQ sauce on the side in my (and our customers) opinion.

We are planning on doing a french dip roast beef and occasionally offer ribeye steak sandwiches and baby back ribs, but I like the volume we are able to achieve on a limited menu. Just worried our "regulars" may get burnt out on a 3 sandwich menu.

I like to smoke the butts ahead and warm up as we go. We use a somewhat sweet sauce that I make and I think it is better if you refrigerate it for a day or so and then warm it up as you need it. Gives the flavors a chance to go through it better.

I would be glad to help anyone start something like this. I unfortunately didn't have anyone to learn from except my own trial and error. I'm no expert but if you put out good food at a decent price, the word gets around. We have only spent about $50 on advertising and the rest has been word of mouth. This is in a small town of about 2800 but other than Subway or Pizza Hut, there wasn't really much for the 30 minute lunch crowd. Worked out a deal to plug into a buddies power for $25 per day which is a great deal.

On another note, the kettle corn business is worth looking at. They don't come along often, but our biggest event this year we popped 3800 bags for a John Deere plants 100 year anniversary party. Grossed about $7600 on about $850 expense in one day. There is no way you could do this with BBQ on a 4 person crew in about 8 hours.

We are in SE IA and are trying to plan for winter. Not sure a building is in our future but we are looking. Investment on trailer and equipment is about $33,000 with a great return. Commercial property taxes alone on a older not so prime location that would take a minimum of $175,000 to get going are about $11,000 per year. Not to mention the 7 days per week and personal management and so on.....

Just some of my thoughts. Feel free to fire any ?'s you have at me. I would be glad to you my opinion.

If you want to check us out (hope this is ok to put on here) do a search on facebook for Baileys BBQ Barn. I was going to upload some pics on here but can't find where my wife stuck them at.

That's a wealth of info...greatly appreciate it. I've skimmed thru it as I have a busy morning but will print and re-read later today.

Two brief comments:
Have you tried buying your pop (haven't heard that name since leaving Cleveland ) at a food club?
I'd be tempted to expand the menu but 3 sammies done well is nothing to sneeze at. Look what McDonalds started with in the 50's...hamburger, cheeseburger and Filet-O-Fish.

I'll get back asap. Again...THANKS!!!

We buy some at Sams Club. Two problems though. One, they are 125 miles away so can't run up there for a few items and two, you really have to watch the expiration dates. We were there on July 5th and the bottles of Pepsi products they had out expired on July 18th. The delivery trucks aren't the answer, to expensive. Better to watch for sales at local stores. We get out Coke products at Walmart which 6 24oz bottles are only $3.50 + deposit. Only about 20% of the lunch crowd gets a drink but we have done auctions where I think 90% purchased one.

If I had it do over again, I would get a bigger refrigerator in the trailer so we could keep our drinks in there. Figure a 20# bag of ice for $3.79 and we use about 5 per week, it would pay to get a larger fridge pretty quick. We could probably freeze our own ice but our health dept. says it can't be done in our home. Not sure why but not willing to risk it I guess.

We purchased ours from custom concessions, a 44' goose neck with a 5' bathroom, details are on this site. We use Restaurant Depot and Sysco for most of our food purchases. 5" seeded buns from Flowers Bakery, loaded with a 1/2 pound of chopped pork #1 selling item.
http://www.customconcessions.com/

Great thread guys...this is exactly what I'm looking into in rural AR. Appreciate all the tips...keep 'em coming!