2020 was a hell of a year for most people. I was working in a food service industry job and while it paid some bills, I felt I could do more on my own than where I was at the time. I didn’t hate my job but, after almost 5 years of service, I felt it was my time to leave. Enter an eBay listing found mid-September, Custom Sales Stainless Steel Enclosed Hot Dog and Coffee Cart.

At first I was not sold on the idea. After all, I was just burned on an item on Facebook marketplace and I did not yet see the potential this cart could bring. It took some coaxing from my silent partner to warm up to the idea, and after a few days, we counted our pennies, came up with an Idea of what to sell and what to call it. It was only after about an hour of brainstorming we came up with (Spoiler Alert) Bowl R Cup.

Cut to the next day: We contact the seller (who lives approx. 150 miles away) and arrange a deal to pay for the cart now but come back for it in a couple weeks after we secured a vehicle to tow it.

It is now October 5th, the big day, the day we pick up our brand new (to us) food cart. We rented a truck and drive the two and a half hours down to an undisclosed location to collect our towable food cart.

When we arrived at the location, that’s when the fun started. You see, we left our house a little later than planned so we did not make it to the town until about 4:15pm, and when we did get there, we found that the truck’s hitch receiver was about 2 ft. above the trailer tongue. To make matters worse it was a tiny farm town and the nearest place to purchase the correct ball mount was 30 mi. down the road and closes in about 45 mins. After that is all sorted, we finally set off down the road to bring home our new pride and joy.

One more note; the trailer is only 3'9" wide, 6' long and about 6' tall. It was empty and, being made of aluminum, was exceptionally light. A lightweight empty metal box on two 6-inch wheels is not towable at speeds exceeding 55mph, with no wind, on a perfectly smooth road. We couldn’t take the interstate home. Oh no. We had to take the parallel roads and side streets all the way home. Our 2.5 hour drive home took us 6 hours! We never got above 45 mph. I mean, it was nice, driving through cul-de-sac filled neighborhoods during the time everyone is going home for the day, and down country roads that haven’t had any repairs in about 50 years. It was the most lumpy-bumpy, pothole filled roads you’ve ever seen, and of course, every bump made the cart wobble back and forth like monkeys were swinging off the sides trying to knock it over.

So, there we were, stressed about getting home safely with an item that took all that we had saved up all year to purchase that was actively trying to kill us or at least destroy itself via the county roads, we make it, a little after midnight, but we make it.

And that, was just getting the thing home, only the 1st piece of this puzzle. We still have to clean it and fix it up to be able to serve out of. At this point no paperwork had been filled out, there was no place to store anything to do with the cart, nor was there anywhere to service the cart. Over the rest of that week, I bought all the necessary supplies and then built a 4ft by 8ft storage building to store all food and other supplies for Bowl R Cup, and cleared out my garage to work on the cart over the next few months while I start on the paperwork necessary to start a business in New York.

As I said, this has only been the beginning. Next week we will cover some of the repairs and upgrades to the cart and touch on why it is important to both read and understand the requirements for starting a project such as this, at least for upstate New York.

Now, before I tackled the cart, I did research into what I needed for a Commissary (A building used for restocking, maintenance, and general servicing for your mobile food operation.) and decided, based on my understanding and current knowledge, that all I needed was a safe space to store the food and I could run the whole operation out of my home. So, off I went, I built a 4-ft by 8-ft building next to my garage that would house a freezer and some shelving for my food and supplies, planned to use my garage for maintenance, and to do any necessary dishes inside the house. Once that was complete, I started work on the cart.

One of the first things we did was take out all of the windows and give them a good clean. The small black rectangular sections over the windows turned out to be windows themselves, just painted over. Those got a good coat of paint stripper and a scraper. Unfortunately, that left them with allot of scratches, so we decided to frost them and paint them as semi-transparent signs and install lighting behind them so they could be seen at night. Some of the windows had been replaced by the previous owners as well as some of the hardware. All of which was evident by the fact that so many of the pieces no longer matched each other. That means a trip to the hardware store is in order to get both matching hardware and, in some cases, matching acrylic. The front display window of the cart had been busted on the initial drive back and the door’s acrylic was broken and partially replaced by a much thinner piece by a previous owner. The door is one big piece of acrylic with the bottom half covered in aluminum so it’s much too large and thick (and therefore costly) to replace now and we will simply have to fix it up as best as we can.

As I mentioned in the last post, the cart is only 3-ft wide, 8-ft long, and 6-ft tall, so there is not allot of room when you have to fit everything needed to serve for hours on end. Everything needs to be self-contained on this cart as much as possible so it can be setup anywhere needed.

Speaking of, I decided that I need some electrics installed in the cart for lighting and other things. I knew I wanted some interior lighting so I could see after dark, some lighting for the previously mentioned signage, maybe some attracting lighting such as you might find on a food vending cart at a fair, and lastly it could power/recharge my payment processing equipment (Read: my phone and Bluetooth credit card reader). I picked up a battery box, ordered some 12-volt lights and a fuse box, and set to work wiring it up. I would like to add a couple solar panels to charge the cart during the day at some point, but for now, I will have to live with a normal, AC powered, battery charger.

In the end, I have a 12-volt deep cycle battery (leftover from an old RV) connected to a fuse block that then goes off to a few switches (that will turn the interior and exterior lights on/off), to a couple 12-volt power outlets (for charging phones etc.), a car stereo (that is hooked up to marine grade speakers on the outside to be used as both an attractant and for entertainment purposes), and, of course, a battery charger/maintainer (to keep the batteries doing good even while in use). I built all of this onto a single board (except the battery itself) to keep everything neat, organized and, most importantly, compact. As I said, there is not allot of room in the cart so every square inch matters.

The previous was a couple months back. As of writing this, I have properly read the code and chatted with the permitting office in my county. Long story short, turns out that I was way wrong. You cannot run this type of business out of your home where I live. While the food is being prepped and served exclusively in the cart, you still need a separate place (NOT in your residence) to store, prep, and/or package food to be served, as well as do any dishes, and be a place to dump greywater and refill fresh water for your mobile food operation. Basically, I need a restaurant or a commercial kitchen to work out of. Now I have 2 choices, find a place to work out of or build my own.

“Basically, I need a restaurant or a commercial kitchen to work out of. Now I have 2 choices, find a place to work out of or build my own.” …

That was a few weeks ago. Since then, I have decided to build my own mobile food service establishment commissary. The property I live on is about 1 acre square with the house over to one side and a large open area on the other side. That open area is where I will build Bowl R Cup’s HQ. A 12-ft by 24-ft building with its own utilities, a complete commercial kitchen, bathroom, and garage space. It’s going to be a large undertaking. Step 1 is research, research, research. I need to know where the property lines are, what the requirements for this building are, whether we can run separate utilities, and, most importantly, whether we can even build a commercial building on the property.

For the last question, it turns out that my property is Zoned for Agricultural and Residential use but not commercial (even though the area is). That’s not a showstopper though. I just have to get a variance to allow for it. That Involves going before the planning committee and proposing the plans for the business. They will then say whether they will allow it to go before a public hearing to be approved (or not). Long story short, I just got back from the preliminary hearing and now awaiting the public hearing.

I had never done this type of thing before, ever. I had to go before a bunch of folks and explain not only my business but what I want to build on my property, how big and where, how will it get utilities, what’s the parking plan, what will it do to local traffic, etc. some of these questions I knew to have answers for but there were a couple that I did not. I would have, however, if the head of the committee had given me the application when we asked to have our case heard. As it was, they asked for my application, which I did not have filled out, of course, because I wasn’t told I needed one. Just that I needed a sketch of the property, a building plan, a parking plan and a couple other basic things. As it is I usually go a bit above and beyond for these kinds of presentations but I did not know what all was to be covered so a missed a few parts. Overall, the committee were hesitant, but did agree to allow my plan to be put before a public hearing to be approved or not. Phew. One step down.

Now, I have to tighten up my plan, get some estimates to provide within my plan and be ready next month for the public hearing. Yes, they only do these meetings once a month in my area. Because of all of this, It is taking longer to get to the stage of serving delicious soups, stews, chili, and chowder to my customers, but rest assured, it will be worth the wait.