Trailers and trucks serving cuisine are allowing new chefs to live their dreams, make a living on a budget and offer niche menu items
CRESTVIEW — An open-air food court coming to Main Street will do more than offer residents multiple lunchtime dining opportunities. It also will help budding restaurateurs get established without the expense of brick-and-mortar buildings.
"Opening a physical space in one location will run anywhere from $100,000 to $300,00 at the low end," Forbes magazine states. But Crestview resident Megan Bowersox said she needs just $2,000 for upfront business costs, such as licensing and permitting, to open The Sunshine Cafe, a vegetarian food trailer, off Main Street.
She will prepare the food — items such as Southwest and Mediterranean Paninis, quesadillas, hummus trio, various soups and no-bake vegan desserts — and will hire a server.
Her long-time dream of opening a restaurant is part of downtown attorney Nathan Boyles' vision: to bring the Al Fresco Pensacola outdoor food court concept to downtown Crestview. The low-overhead business model allows entrepreneurs to serve niche menu items with minimal investment, and risk.
THE AL FRESCO MODEL
Since opening in downtown Pensacola several years ago, Al Fresco has become a destination for visitors, downtown workers, families attending Blue Wahoos games, Gallery Night patrons, Palafox Market shoppers and folks from diverse walks of life.
It allows business owners offering a variety of cuisines — including Asian fusion, an oyster bar, barbecue, gourmet sandwiches and a taqueria — to develop their eateries in a fun, informal, outdoor setting.
Borrowing the concept, Boyles envisioned up-and-coming restaurateurs in two or three classic Airstream trailers offering a variety of cuisine on his Main Street site. Brick pavers, shade trees, umbrella tables, public restrooms and a choice of multiple types of food are among ideas Boyles borrowed from Al Fresco.
'FOOD RANGERS'
Boyles said his food court, a more than $100,000 investment three years in the making, follows the trend of new chefs operating mobile eateries to gain experience. The number of food trucks in America spiked 197 percent from 2011 to 2013, the last year for available data, according to the website Roaming Hunger.
Bowersox, the Crestview food court's first tenant, said the business model fits her budget.
"I thought about doing a brick-and-mortar restaurant before," she said. "But I noticed that the failure rate for a restaurant establishment is very high. There's a lot of overhead; things you can't control. You can never really pinpoint when you're going to make money.
"With the food (trailer), you do have a little bit more control over your overhead. My overall costs will be paper products, food items, my marketing, advertising, things of that nature, so I really won't have maintenance costs. Just my utilities and rent, and of course labor."
A Hawaiian burgers chef, “someone who wants to do specialty hotdogs, and someone who wants to do Italian ice products,” are among restaurateurs interested in the development, which would include a rotating food truck slot that allows residents to try different menu items each day, Boyles said.
He hopes the food court will attract more attention to the historic district while helping entrepreneurs.
“They're almost like food rangers, out there roaming the world because their model is new and it's different and it doesn't fit the traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants model,” Boyles said.
“I think we're bridging that gap.”
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
Email News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 'Food rangers' ditching brick-and-mortar restaurants for trailers follow regional trend