They’re not food trucks — but they’re certainly not brick-and-mortar restaurants. They’re mobile food concepts, or at least that’s what we’re calling them.
Think a retro pushcart selling bagels or a pizza oven being pulled on the back of a truck. They're highly stylized and they're showing up all over town. And, Gabe Gardner says, they’re a great way for food entrepreneurs to get their foot in the proverbial door.
Gardner is the director of food entrepreneurship at Local First Arizona. He spoke more about it with The Show.
Full conversation
GABE GARDNER: Food entrepreneurs are trying these out, these kind of specialty food carts or like you said, you know, I'm not sure what the proper name is. But we're trying them out as a stepping stone between the beginning of a business where you're doing a pop up out of a 10 by 10 tent, say at the farmers market or on the patio of a brewery or a coffee shop on their way to a food truck. And then I think ultimately to a brick and mortar restaurant.
LAUREN GILGER: So it's a stepping stone for a lot of folks, it sounds like.
GARDNER: Absolutely. Absolutely.
GILGER: So, it's the new version of food trucks, even pre-food truck.
GARDNER: Yeah. And I think the thing to understand about them is it's a lower barrier to entry, right. So a fully equipped food truck brand new, I mean, can cost, oh, mercy me, is $60,000, $70,000.
GILGER: Wow.
GARDNER: Yeah. And so these smaller units, you know, whether it's a cart or something built into a mobile pizza oven or something built into a smaller piece of equipment that's still mobile, gives you the flexibility of being able to go to multiple spaces, multiple locations and set up, but also requires simply less investment.
GILGER: Yeah, less investment up front. There's a, there's a big kind of branding side to this. It seems like with, with many of these, they have to have an online presence to sort of tell people where they're going to be next and people will kind of follow them around, right.
GARDNER: Yeah, absolutely. And I think the thing that these smaller kind of hyper mobile units allow is there's a focal point to the business.
So there's a popular one, Caffio Espresso, which is built in an old Vespa car like you would see in other countries as a taxi. And what's really cool about that is that it gives a focal point and they use it as part of their branding. But also if I'm walking around a farmer's market or a street fair or a festival of some sort you see this thing from afar and like it draws you in because it's so striking visually and they, I mean, they happen to have really delicious coffee and that of course, like that the food or the drink or whatever they're selling has to be spot on. But I think what draws them initially to it is the fact that this is out of the ordinary.
GILGER: Yeah. What kinds of concepts are you seeing? You mentioned the, the Vespa coffee cart, but there's also bagel versions of this. There's like a pizza oven someone's bringing around town, right?
GARDNER: Yeah, for sure. So certainly, built into an old Vespa car. The cart is a really popular thing. So there's Bagelero, their south Phoenix space, they work all over the city and their cart is kind of an older retro style thing like you would see in the movies. And again, it's this thing that draws them in.
And there's folks that are using mobile pizza ovens that are wood fired that still have that classic domed Italian pizza oven look and are pulled around to various events. And again, the focal point of the business is whatever the equipment is and that draws folks to it.
GILGER: Let me ask you about the state of food trucks in the Valley because it was such a huge phenomenon for some time there several years ago. I wonder what's happened? Like, are there a lot around, have a lot closed. Do you still see big events featuring a lot of food trucks these days?
GARDNER: Yeah, I think the food trucks have become part of kind of the food culture and the food scene in the Valley, which I think is fantastic. But I, what I would say specifically about the, the units that we're talking about today is the more the merrier and that it breeds in some diversity into that.
And it also, like I talked about earlier, it's removing a barrier or at least lessening a barrier for folks to begin and grow a business. And that's precisely what Local First is all about is that we're nonprofit, set up and designed to help folks begin to grow and scale businesses. And we believe that you know, economic development happens best when entrepreneurs do entrepreneurial things. So the more people that are involved in the food system in that way, the better.
GILGER: So do you anticipate some of these food concepts you're seeing move around town and carts or, you know, Vespas or whatever it may be? Do you think they're gonna, you know, make it one day you'll work with them to try to get into a brick and mortar or many more someday?
GARDNER: I hope so. I mean, selfishly, like I like to have really fantastic places to go out to eat. And I would love to see some place like Otra Pizzeria, who is, you know, this business that has this mobile wood burning pizza oven, step into a brick and mortar and maybe that is the dream that is the goal. But for the time, like, I'm content to have a thriving and, and bustling street food scene and event food scene in the city.
But I'm also all for, you know, for fantastic new restaurants. I think the great thing about these mobile units is just because you open a brick and mortar restaurant doesn't mean that the Vespa or the cart or the, the pizza oven ceased to exist. And so then you have two streams of revenue. You have a business that is making money at a brick and mortar establishment in a location day in and day out. But they also have the ability to go out and do special events, to do catering, to do street fairs with the mobile unit, which is really cool. And then ultimately, you know, they're bringing more cash to the business.
