Today we’d like to introduce you to Chuck Vessey
Hi Chuck, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In 2023 we decided to start a food truck business in our small East Texas town. We looked at different options but when the coffee trailer in town decided to quite business, we knew there would be a need for another. We designed our food trailer to resemble a Caboose. It is actually a 2/3 scale caboose.
We had a guy building it for us who turned out to be a con man so I showed up and took it home. We then completed the construction, which included everything inside, ourselves.
We opened in June of that year and have been doing very well since then. We moved to our current, permanentish location in October of 2024 and that has helped grow our business.
We have all 5 star reviews on Google and are the go to stop for coffee and breakfast for many regular customers.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As mentioned in the previous question, the guy who started building it turned out to be a con man who would routinely take peoples money then sell the trailer to someone else. He was 52 days late when I found this out and showed up to take it.
The next hurdle was getting permitted to operate in town. Some city officials made it very difficult but we persevered.
For the first 9 months we hauled it into town and back every day to set up in the parking lot of the Family Dollar store. This made it a tough task if the weather was bad.
Owning a food trailer is full of struggles in itself. You haven’t limited storage space for supplies and you are sometimes seen as something of a vagabond but owners of brick and mortar stores
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Heather has been in the food service industry since high school. She is an amazing baker and a master of the kitchen.
Chuck is in civil engineering and takes care of the marketing and maintenance aspects of the business.
We as a food trailer specialize in high quality food and drinks at a reasonable price. We come up with unique ideas that are also very tasty.
One complaint I have going to some coffee places is the lack of flavor. We make sure that the coffee that you order is what you taste. Being diabetic myself, I insist on us having a large variety of sugar-free options for those that can’t have sugar.
We use only farm fresh eggs in all of our breakfast sandwiches and quesadillas. We offer seasonal items that are phenomenal. We use fresh fruit and vegetables.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Starting a food trailer or any business nowadays is a risk in itself. Starting a food trailer in a small town is an additional risk. We have a limited customer base. Thankfully we have some very loyal customers.
Anytime we introduce a new product we are taking a risk. We know our product is good so the risk is minimal in our opinion.
We’ve also taken risk when we’ve gone to specific events with the trailer. Unfortunately, those don’t usually end up being profitable. Moving such a large trailer is an endeavor and a risk in itself.
We will take risks if we feel it’s worth the gamble.
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