We Don't Care What They Say, Launching a Food Truck is Hard Work!

Rickshaw Stop's grand opening was a success at the Boardwalk on Bulverde (BoB) this past weekend!

<<  Insert insanely over-the-top, grandiose amounts of cheers, clapping, standing-O's, toasting, high-fives, chest bumps, you name it, here  >>

We had SO much fun interacting with all of our customers and serving you our authentic Pakistani kebabs, samosas and family-recipe baklava! Our apologies for and aside from the 1 or 2 lengthy waits and the accidental omission of an ordered item or 2, we feel it went really well. (If you have suggestions or comments on how we can make your interaction with Rickshaw Stop better, please drop us a note at info@rickshawstop-sa.com - we are always open to feedback!)

To be completely honest, my husband Sameer and I have been working our actual butts off to get our truck launched. Seriously - we've both lost over 10 lbs in the past month due to skipped meals, tons of exercise polishing/cleaning the truck, you name it. Sameer's mom, aunt and uncle are all severely sleep deprived due to the long hours they've spent perfecting/scaling the family recipes and preparing all of the kebabs and samosas--not to mention all of their hard work on the truck serving them up to our customers. But without all 5 of us putting in 110%, our launch definitely wouldn't have gone as smoothly or successfully as it did.

Sameer & I have poured our collective blood, sweat and tears into our truck for almost 2 months now. We've suffered bruises, cuts, headaches, sore muscles, aching backs. We had our "kebab tasting" at BoB back in February with the hope that we would be able to launch in mid-March. However, once we tested all of our equipment, it turned out that our grill is a behemoth and we needed to have an industrial-strength exhaust fan system ordered/delivered/installed to suck all of the hot air out of the truck!

Once we got our "extreme exhaust fan package" installed and tested, it was time for the inspection. We knew that by having our truck's kitchen fabricated at Cruising Kitchens, we wouldn't have much to worry about--Cameron and his crew are pretty much the South Texas authority on how things need to be done inside a mobile kitchen. However, we weren't expecting the Fire Department to be personally involved. As it turns out, the mobile food truck inspections have changed in Bexar county since last year, and now they involve the actual fire department inspecting your truck. It also turns out that they are citing laws based on the Railroad for how they inspect food trucks??! (This will be a blog unto itself in the next couple weeks, I just wanted to throw this info out there for any of you who are looking to get your inspection soon--turns out the Fire Dept has initially failed ALL of the trucks who have come in for inspection since they became involved in the process.) Needless to say, we had to go back to the shop and have Cameron make some adjustments to where/how our propane tank and fire extinguishers were located/mounted/labeled before they would pass us. (These are things that would have easily passed last year.)

Now, I will attempt to catch you up to where we are today in an easy-to-read, bulletted time line:

• As soon as the truck passed inspection on Friday (whoo hoo!), Sameer dropped it off at Coldfire Signs to have as many of the graphics installed as possible before 5:00 pm.
• We picked up the truck to drive it to Boardwalk on Bulverde where we were going to park it and stock it for our opening day on Saturday.
• At Wetmore & Thousand Oaks, the truck started acting "funny."
• By the time Wetmore turned into Bulverde, Sameer looked like he was driving a hydrolicked-up truck from a Cheech & Chong movie--it was bouncing up and down and up and down--The clutch had completely gone out.
• As the truck pulled into the entrance of BoB, it totally died! Turned out the battery wasn't being charged in addition to the clutch going out. 
• Disclaimer: Our truck is a 1978 Chevy with what we're assuming to be over 500,000 miles that hasn't received any real TLC until we bought it, so these things are bound to happen.
• Here's an awesome video of the guys from the other trucks jumping in to push our truck out of the driveway where we could charge up the battery: 

So to recap, the night before our big launch, our truck pretty much died 50 feet from the finish line. But never fear! Scott from 210 Customs jumped in and was able to charge the battery enough to get it started and pulled into our spot at BoB. Here's a video of us pulling the truck into our new spot:

• Saturday, we were able to launch on time and we served food until 9:45 that night!
• Sunday, we started on time once again and served until 4:00 pm with the other trucks with no major issues to report. :)

So, now you are as caught up on our Grand Opening Weekend festivities as we are. I hope our experience doesn't scare you away from your dream to own your own mobile food truck. :) We have honestly loved every minute of the at-times stressful, challenging process. But this is OUR business. It's here because of our internal drive, ambition and love of the concept. We have a passion for introducing the people of San Antonio to a cuisine they probably have never had the opportunity to try. We love talking with our customers and getting to know them. In fact, the next time you're at BoB, stop by and say hi! You don't have to buy anything--but chances are, you'll walk away with at least piece of baklava or some samosas. Our food is just something you've gotta try. :)