The novel coronavirus pandemic thinned the ranks of food trucks in Southern California, but in the midst of hard times new opportunities appeared for some vendors.
COVID-19 restrictions have been polarizing, according to Ross Resnick, founder of Roaming Hunger, a food truck booking company based in West Hollywood. Although times have been tough for more than a year, some trucks are doing better business than before, he said in a phone interview.
“It’s been a time of incredible creativity for food trucks, looking at where they can be, where they can’t be, and being as flexible as possible.”
When Gov. Gavin Newsom first locked down California in mid-March 2020, demand for food trucks evaporated. Most of the places where they did business — office buildings, schools, sporting events, fairs and festivals — were closed. Gourmet food trucks, the kind with unusual menus that foodies seek out, lost as much as 80% of their business, according to an estimate at the time by Arafat Abdelkarim, president of an Orange County commissary called International Catering.
Full-service restaurants had to close their dining rooms and also took a big hit.
But food trucks have advantages over brick-and-mortar restaurants. One is that they can move around.
“Many now provide gourmet meals that come right to our neighborhoods, allowing us to ‘dine out’ even when indoor dining is restricted during the pandemic,” economist Andrew H. Hait wrote in an article published by the U.S. Census Bureau in September.
With little corporate business and most events on hold, successful food trucks started courting large apartment buildings and homeowners associations, Resnick said.
Matt Geller, chief executive officer of the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association, said vendors also went from working days to evening shifts.
“It went from high-density office buildings to suburban neighborhoods, a neighborhood that has, say, 15 people that ordered delivery that night,” Geller said in a phone interview. “While it’s nowhere near what it used to be, it’s still a touch of normalcy.”
One truck that learned to adapt was The Big Easy Sandwich in the Inland Empire.
When the pandemic hit, it lost a lot of weddings and big events such as union picnics that feed thousands, said owner Aracely Jarrell of Beaumont.
“But we gained a lot of business. We got in touch with our own community, and that had kept us really busy,” she said.
The Big Easy went from being the vendor for Last Name Brewing in Upland to setting up at tractor supply company in Calimesa. But their customers were crowding out the store, so the truck went farther east, Jarrell said in a phone interview.
The truck got a 17-week contract doing international horse shows at Desert International Horse Park in Thermal.
“We just rolled with the punches and adjusted according to the demographic. But we had to go find the market where we would be successful.”
It’s difficult to know how many food trucks have gone out of business.
“Some trucks shut down completely. Some trucks shut down and are still waiting to come back,” said Geller.
“There are so many permanent food trucks,” he added. “Nobody ever lets a permit go once they have a permit on a truck in Los Angeles County, Orange County or San Diego County. If you let the permit lapse, when you get it permitted again you have to bring it up to the most recent California code. So they sit there on a lot, waiting to go out.
“If there’s food truck demand, you’d better believe somebody’s going to jump in.”
He said with new revenue streams, demand could potentially double when traditional business comes back.
Resnick sees bookings starting to pick up for such events as weddings and birthday parties, although not at pre-pandemic levels.
Christian Murcia has had a truck called Crepes Bonaparte in Orange County for more than 10 years. He and his wife Danielle also have a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Fullerton, do catering, and book other food trucks for entities such as colleges in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
He said in a phone interview there has been a dramatic drop in the number of food trucks in Orange County, although he didn’t see it in surrounding counties. He wasn’t sure why, but observed that most vendors can’t just sit and wait for business to come back.
Food trucks have relatively low overhead with employees being a major expense, and some can get by without them.
Murcia said when the pandemic hit, “we cut back the variable expenses that we could, which was our labor.”
The couple went from 25 employees to themselves and are now back up to 20. They had a truck they weren’t using and recently started sending it to a stop in Whittier, where they are experimenting with online sales. Customers order in advance and then come to the truck to pick up their food.
Geller and Resnick see food trucks offering the ability to order ahead online, but Murcia said it really doesn’t suit the business model.
“We’re already the convenient option. It’s not that much more convenient.”
Murcia said he isn’t expecting a speedy recovery.
“The food truck industry on the whole in Orange County is a really big hole, and it’s going to take a long time to get back to normal.”
In a recent report data firm IBISWorld predicted 6.8% business growth for food trucks in 2021. Resnick said he is hearing from a lot of entrepreneurs who are interested in starting up their own trucks. Some are food lovers with a dream and some are restaurant professionals who have been displaced.
Murcia wondered whether available trucks will be able to serve a growing number of events that want them and if new trucks can pick up the slack.
But with the arrival of spring and the appearance that things are opening up, Jarrell is hopeful for the future.
“Our president has promised to have everyone vaccinated. I think we’re going to have a great summer,” she said.
“People are going to want to get out.”
Resnick said people are ready to socialize.
“If if we are going to get together, how are we going to feed everybody? A food truck is maybe one of the best ways to do it. It’s outdoors, contained, and distanced. It checks all the boxes.”
