Jun. 22—ROCHESTER — Food trucks from across Minnesota have flocked to Rochester in recent years.
As of May 14, 2024, 54 mobile food unit businesses were licensed through Olmsted County for the 2023-2024 season. With the influx of food trucks, the area has also gathered a wide variety of cuisines. There are an abundance of Mexican and taco food trucks, but there are also Mediterranean, Japanese, American and more. There are also chain restaurants with food trucks, such as the Rochester-founded Chick-fil-A Tri-State Food Truck that operates throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
The majority of these trucks come from Rochester, but there are vendors from Byron, Eyota, Lake City and more.
Some food trucks even travel from the Twin Cities metro area to Southeastern Minnesota.
For example, Brick Oven Bus is an Eagan-based food truck that recently dedicated an entire truck to servicing Southeastern Minnesota.
Why did Paris Rosen, owner of the Brick Oven Bus, want to move to the Rochester area? The city’s brewery scene, Rosen said. Breweries give food trucks the opportunity to meet new audiences in an accessible way and hopefully develop that audience into something more.
“We just want to continue that as we plant our roots in Rochester,” Rosen said, adding that this could include cooking for various corporate functions, corporate parties and more. “(It) takes time to grow that audience and our presence down there. … (And to) get everyone’s attention first.”
Rosen said business has been good since he moved to the area in early May. She said the market has similarities to the Twin Cities, just with new places and faces. The company prides itself on providing customers with good food, but more importantly, a good experience.
“The people are great, similar to the Twin Cities, but not identical,” Rosen said. “It’s an interesting group of people in Rochester, and we’re really enjoying it so far. They’re very happy to have us there. The response we’ve gotten from almost everyone has been great and we’re excited.”
The local food truck landscape has changed over time.
Before 2022, while food trucks were required to be licensed by the state of Minnesota, Olmsted County did not require county-specific documentation to sell food.
But post-COVID, the number of food trucks continued to increase, according to Cody Miller, environmental health manager at Olmsted County Public Health Services.
“The main problem with that is we can’t really do enforcement if we don’t have the permit,” he said. “So we should basically say you have all these problems and send it to the state so they can fix it.”
To better cope with the increasing numbers, the province has introduced its own permit.
Food trucks can obtain a permit for one day or for a maximum of 10 days. After the 10-day permit, the period jumps to 120 days of service.
The licenses are annual and must be renewed every year. An annual inspection is also necessary to check whether the rules and regulations are being properly adhered to.
“That gives us the ability to monitor and encourage as necessary, inspect and enforce and basically keep an eye on what’s going on. Our goal is to protect public health,” Miller said. He added that before the province had its own permit, it could not enforce any regulations. So when a food truck came in with something that needed to be repaired or cleaned, there was nothing the county employees could do.
Besides working out regulatory issues, other things have changed over time, Miller said food trucks weren’t always a popular idea, especially at brick-and-mortar restaurants downtown. To help with this, the city has drawn up its own ordinance on when and where food trucks can be located downtown.
“When they first came into town, there was some tension with the brick-and-mortar businesses because the brick-and-mortar businesses pay the taxes and all the other fees that the local food units don’t pay,” Miller said.
But what is it like to own a food truck and how does that differ from a brick-and-mortar store?
One of the biggest benefits of running a food truck is the ability to move locations, say area food truck owners. The constant movement allows them to reach a larger audience. Food trucks such as the Chick-Fil-A Tri-State Food Truck are very successful because they are in a different location every day.
“It was just a fun experience to do something that’s very unique,” Matt Stockdale, owner and operator of Chick-fil-A Ear of Corn at 1201 S. Broadway Ave., said. in Rochester, last year to the Post Bulletin. The popular fast-food restaurant has 30 food trucks across the country, including one in Rochester that serves the tri-state area. “…We are able to serve so many guests in three different states. Our team has done an exceptional job and we are thrilled to be able to do this.”
WinCity Wings, which sells food inspired by the city of Chicago, has seen greater success after moving from the city’s southeast side to Elton Hills Drive. The high visitor traffic encourages more business.
“We took a year off and now we have a new location,” Gaston said. “I especially liked this location because we had three (other) food trucks there. So I thought this was a good option as we tried to get our feet under the ground.”
While the freedom to move from one location to another helps a business expand its reach, it can also cause wear and tear on the food truck itself, and maintaining the truck can be both expensive and difficult. Moreover, there is always the added worry of breakdowns while traveling.
For example, Rosen said she’s had to change starts at a gas station before and there’s a laundry list of things they have to do to keep the trucks running.
“We don’t disappoint people,” she says. “For me it is very important to never disappoint anyone when he or she expects our truck to be there.”
Food truck owners like Rosen also know how important it is to balance the food business with the vehicle side. He looks at his business
“We’re 50% a food company and the other 50% is a transportation company, and that’s one of the big things we’re proud of,” Rosen said. “We are very good at running a fleet and making sure the truck with the load gets to the location on time every time. We are like the post office, and that’s when it snows, when it rains, when it rains , warm, when it is really cold, we will always be there.”
Preparatory work is also important for food trucks. Once the truck is on site, nothing can be picked up.
“You want to make sure you have everything on board before you leave home base so that there are no issues if you’re traveling to an event somewhere and then suddenly realize you forgot your cheese, and that’s possible” If I don’t make pizzas, that would be a big problem.” said Stephan Jennebach, owner of Firebrick Bread Wood-Fired Pizza.
For wood-fired pizzas with flint bread, the prep work is particularly important. The food truck has a fixed number of pre-made “dough balls” that serve as the basis for the pizzas. These dough balls are prepared the morning before an event and fermented in the refrigerator for at least 30 hours before cooking. When they run out of dough, they are done serving for the day. On a typical day at a brewery, Jennebach and his team might go through 80 to 120 balls of dough, but that number jumps to 160 or more when he’s at a farmers market.
The biggest uncontrollable business partner for food trucks is the weather. It can affect travel, profits and even the number of people who stop during the day.
“The weather is super unpredictable and you just have to battle it the best you can,” said Zach Welle, manager of the Duck Truck. “When it rains you have no one, so you have to hide your menu so you don’t have to do it again and when the sun shines you open again.”
The trucks start their season when the weather warms up and continue until the winter weather arrives. Minnesota’s harsh winters can make business difficult in the colder months.
Some food trucks don’t go out when the weather is bad, but other trucks, like Firebrick Bread Wood-Fired Pizza, cater events and go out in all weather conditions. They have adapted and made it easier to organize events in unfavorable weather.
“We have to be very careful with the weather, catering events will happen no matter what, rain or shine, unless the customer decides to cancel the event or move it to another date,” said Jennebach. “…Unless there’s a thunderstorm or a tornado warning or something like that, we would still be selling at a brewery where we know there’s going to be people inside.”
