With restaurants having to shut down dine-in areas, takeout has been the savior that hungry residents have used throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. But instead of guests driving all the way to brick and mortars for take-out, what if the take-out drove to them?
Food trucks owners are driving all around the city, from downtown Jacksonville to Nocatee, serving communities and providing flavorful options for those who are tired or have ran out of ingredients to cook at home.
“We’re very fortunate to be doing very well,” said Evan Eriksen, owner of food truck Pie95. “Some (food trucks) have dropped because they’re not getting locations or aren’t as well-known.”
But according to Eriksen, Pie95’s sales have gone up about 30%.
Eriksen thinks that not only practicing safety guidelines, but also notifying clients on how they are being practiced and keeping them updated on the business, is essential to maintaining a following during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Just last week, Erikseon posted reasons why it’s still safe to order from mobile food vendors, such as how food trucks only use single-serving containers and silverware (limiting risk of cross contamination), food trucks are open-air establishments so guests aren’t breathing recirculated are, nor are they boxed into one common area, and the fact that trucks have significantly fewer staff members handling food.
“With food trucks, we’re blessed that we’re mobile and do take away,” he said. “You can also see who’s serving you. If you go to a bigger business, you don’t normally see who’s in the back putting your order together, or in the package. When you're shopping at a small business, you see everyone and all the health precautions being taken.”
Thomas Ulwelling, co owner of pan-Asian cuisine truck, Lolly’s Food Trolly, has done the same and said that his guests showed appreciation when things get cleaned, are fast and safe.
“We are doing our best to make sure our customers know their safety is the first priority,” he said. “Employees are asked to wear masks as much as possible, change gloves as much as possible and sanitize every station and utensil used, no matter how often it was used. Most trucks have three to four employees on, which minimizes the spread of infection. Also, most trucks usually employ family members or close individuals that they trust and normally, you know who they've been in contact with.”
A strict practice of social distancing has also been the biggest precaution taken at Lolly’s, Pie94 Butt Hutt Smokehouse and other mobile vendors.
“We suggest that one person per family comes out per order to limit the number of people around,” Eriksen said. “We also do marking on the ground, 6 to 8 feet away. Our register systems are wiped after each use. We prefer that people use card over cash. We’re working on an online-ordering system now. Overall, we have a very clean system.”
He also added frozen pies to the menu for “take and bake” options for families, and although his strategies have been effective so far, he gives credit to fellow food truck owner and friend Jacob Bander, owner of Butt Hutt Smokehouse.
“Honestly, I messaged him and asked if I could re-post the same message he posted,” Eriksen said about Bander’s COVID-19 updates.
“It’s essentially a guideline for what we did to make customers not just feel safe, but actually be safe,” Bander said. “We implemented online ordering. Just pay online, set a pick-up time and everything is ready to go with no physical transaction. The only person touching the order is the person preparing the food and the person ordering the food.”
He also said the register window is sanitized between each customer who does pay at the truck, mentioning using only pre-packaged utensils and again, a strong implementation of social distancing for customers and staff.
“We also switched from lunch to dinner just because in my mind, that’s when the people who are quarantining come out and they’re only focused on picking up their orders,” Bander said. “They are less interactive with the public.”
Bander also started selling meat in bulk to help families staying at home. A family can order up to 5 pounds of pork, which comes refrigerated and vacuum-sealed at 35% discount.
Bander, Eriksen and other mobile vendors are thankful and fortunate to still be in business, but as much as the community supports the trucks, Eriksen is still concerned for small business owners that own brick-and-mortar locations.
“We spoke to a food distributor who originally had about 34 accounts, but are now down to 13,” he said. “I’m not trying to be rude, but corporate America has their buy-outs and loans. Here, we have ma-and-pop restaurants that are hurting. People need to go out and go to local, family-owned restaurants. Everything right now is relying on the community supporting the community.”
