The Food Truck - 9. Chapter 9

As in the past two years, no one worked on the Friday following Thanksgiving. The boys and I used the time to clean the food truck and the kitchen. There was no need to clean the bedrooms. I always thought that was odd, until I realize that for them, their bedroom was their home. And as far as I was concerned, that area would always be treated as their home.

Saturday, we made our usual visit to Restaurant Supply. Now that we have our own freezer we could purchase larger quantities of meat, allowing us to take advantage of special prices.

Denny took it upon himself to check the Internet for companies that supplied food to restaurants. He said that with this information, we can determine if we should order or buy at Restaurant Supply. The boys never thought of themselves as employees, rather they took an interest in the business as if they owned a part of it. I think that contributed to the success of my business. It didn't take Andre long to fit right in. He accepted Donnie and Denny as they accepted him as a co-worker.

Now that Thanksgivings was over, we had to start looking toward Christmas. Dennis printed out three menus featuring turkey, ham and roast beef. We tried to have the same sides for each of these menus, deviating only for special items that would normally accompany the particular meat. For example, stuffing would accompany those meals based on turkey.

Based on last years experience I began to purchase a small quantity of ingredients that we’d be using for the Christmas orders. Dennis ordered theme boxes for packing the orders. Andre suggested we wrap the boxes with red and green ribbons. That caused Donnie to suggest we use candy canes as an additive like we did with relish trays for Thanksgiving. The obvious question, could we just use one cane per box or should we use one cane per meal.

“Let's check at Restaurant Supply and see what they offer and costs.” I knew we could get the ribbons online and probably the canes as well.

Saturday at Restaurant Supply, Donnie found several boxes of canes. One box has several small canes but I thought they might be too small. I told him to look for a box with canes just a little larger. It took him a while but he understood what I was looking for and found them. “They had only four boxes this size and they where at the bottom of the pile.”

Denny, Andre and I agreed, they where the right size. I spent a lot of time at the meat section. I specifically looked for turkeys at fourteen pounds, when I found one I added it to the dolly. Similar, I looked for hams and prime ribs. As I found smaller sizes, I added them to the dolly. I knew that I would have to get larger sizes depending on the number of people per order. But it was always harder to find the small size as many restaurants utilized them.

Two weeks before Christmas we started to receive catering orders. In addition, we started to book evening catering affairs. There were a lot of parties scheduled from Christmas through New Year’s. As Christmas got closer, the boys became more excited and wanted to decorate the food truck, specifically the serving window. I told them to do it and have fun.

As we began to receive catering orders, Denny started to print out the orders. He had developed a program that listed all of the possible sides. This allowed us to know how many servings per side per order and a total of the number of a side for all of the orders. Donnie and André begin to pull together the items for the orders, placing them in the cold box or freezer. We were also getting catering requests for parties. Again Denny began to pull together a list foods for the parties.

Reviewing the lists, I realized that I’l need to make more than one trip to Restaurant Supply. Hors d'oeuvres require a different approach than producing dinners. Again I ask my mother to help out. I seriously thought about a very restricted breakfast, lunch and dinner menu for a few days before Christmas. I discussed this with the boys while reviewing our catering orders. They agreed that the days before Christmas were going to be very busy. One thing in our favor, Christmas this year fell on a Tuesday. That meant we had the weekend to focus on Christmas meals.

As the orders came in I began to realize I needed another delivery van. The small electric was sufficient for the park but I could not use it for delivery of our catered dinners and parties.

I called John and asked if he had any vehicles that's could operate as a delivery van. John said the best he could offer would be a station wagon or hatchback. Before I made any commitment, I called the dealer where I bought the food truck. He said he had a used vehicle that was used to deliver baked goods to various restaurants. This sounded like a good possibility if the price is right. I talked Dad into going with me to check on this van.

Arriving at the dealership we met salesman who we talked with when we bought the food truck. He wanted to know how the food truck was working and I was glad to tell him that the business was a total success. “In fact one of the reasons I am looking for delivery van is our catering business has begun to grow.”

“I think I have just the van for you.”

Dad and I follow the salesman to the used car lot. At first I didn't see any vans only pick-up trucks. As we stood looking over the lot trying to find the van, the garage door behind us started to roll up. “Dan, where’s that van that came in last week?”

“I had it in the shop checking out the motor. I needed to replace the spark plugs and change the oil. I'll drive it out.”

Dad and I watch as Dan drove the van out of the garage. It looked like if needed a paint job but that was alright because I was thinking of putting a logo on the sides anyway. I was anxious to open the back to check out what the interior looked like. While dad talked to the salesman, I went and opened the rear doors. I was surprised, on both sides of the interior where wooden racks to hold I assume trays of baked goods. This would be perfect if the price is right.

“What do you think?”

“It needs a new paint job but the back is equipped with shelves which would suit my needs very well.” Dad and the salesmen started to discuss the price. Dad thought twenty-five hundred was a little too much. He offered two thousand cash, the salesmen accepted and we now owned a delivery van.

When I drove it into the Park, the boys were excited. Then the questions, are you going to repaint it, what colors are you going to use, are we going to put our logo on, can I drive it. That was Donnie, he had just passed his driving test.

I really hadn't thought about that but it made sense. He can drive the van and I’d follow in my car. But first I had to get it painted. When I told them this, then it was a what color, are we going to put a logo on it. As soon as I said yes to the logo, Denny was off to the computer to design a logo.

The next morning the boys presented a design for the logo. The design is a photo of the current food truck and above the photo where the words ‘Food Truck Catering’ in small print under the photo was our telephone number. I took the design home and ask Dad what he thought.

“Who made the design?” I told him that Dennis made the design on the computer. “He’s quite adept utilizing the computer. This is a good design, have you picked out the colors yet?”

“No, I think I'll let my business partners pick up the colors.”

“Business partners?”

“I was thinking that this Christmas I’d give them a share in the business. I could never have done this without their help. What started off as serving only lunches has now evolved into breakfast and dinner beside lunch. We now deliver lunches at the far end on the park and we are thinking about delivering dinners there as well. The catering has done exceptionally well. We now cater Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Fourth of July. We also started to cater private parties. I think I'm going to have to add another employee and a cleaning crew.”

My father winked at my mother. “I think that might be a good idea. I didn't tell you Paul will be visiting a few days doing the holidays.”

“That's great I can put him to work.” I didn't have time to have the truck painted before we delivered the Christmas boxes. But I did make arrangements to have it painted right after Christmas so it would be ready with the New Year’s catering.

The boys decided we should paint it white and use colors to bring out the logo. I thought that was a good idea that’ll allow the Logo to stand out, the boys had to select the colors and I was fine with that.

Christmas dinner was at Mom and Dads. For their gifts this year, I gave Donnie and Denny a card indicating that they were now co-owners each with ten percent ownership. At first they didn't understand what I meant. After explaining what it meant, they are now partial owners of the business, their smiles extended from ear to ear.

“Jim, you’ll now have to incorporate since you have investors. I’ll talk to my lawyers to file the necessary papers for you. You’ll have to notify your accountant as this may create some tax issues.” I was lucky, my dad was always looking out for me.

New Year’s, we repeated the same menus from last year, we did add a few new sides to be selected by the customer. It seemed from Thanksgiving through New Year's all we did was focus on our catering business. In a way, it provided the final push for a successful year.