Business feature: Food trucks on a roll in area

Staff photo: Brooke Finch

Clovis food truck owner Byron Beevers assembles a bacon cheeseburger for a customer on Friday.

When Aaron Crandall’s business is on a roll, it may mean he’s gone.

Don’t worry. He’ll be back.

Crandall owns one of the trendy mobile food trucks that are becoming popular throughout the Clovis-Portales area.

When Crandall lost his job of seven years, he decided to try AJ’s Wings, a mobile chicken wing eatery.

“I felt like there was a need that had to be filled, and I went with it,” Crandall said. “I think the appeal of food trucks is the variety in the menu offerings. We have a pretty simple menu, but I’ve seen food trucks that have real unique and extravagant menus that you aren’t going to find somewhere else. And they can change any day.”

His 3-year-old business is family operated and stays on South Avenue D and twice a week at Cannon Air Force Base.

“In this economy,” Crandall said, “especially in smaller towns, it’s worked out better for us to stick to one spot at a time. We have a pretty good following down in Portales, and the public knows where to find us. But in a bigger metropolitan area, I can see the benefit of moving around.”

Crandall said he incurs costs that restaurants don’t, like automotive expenses — fuel, insurance and maintenance.

However, he said he saves in ways a restaurant owner wouldn’t, including labor, electric and utility bills.

But sometimes mobile doesn’t mean mobile, as is the case with a Clovis food truck.

Byron Beevers, who co-owns Beeverboys with his brother, said his food truck has remained in one place for a year and a half — behind Walgreens on East 21st Street.

“We stay in this spot,” Beevers said. “We’ve never really moved around. It’s so people know where we are.”

Like the sweet appeal of an old-fashioned ice cream truck to children, the lure of today’s food trucks attracts customers on the street.

Beevers opened his establishment with his family after 25 years’ experience in restaurants. With the help of his wife and brother, Beevers sees the business as a starting point to eventually open a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

“In the long run,” Beevers said, “it doesn’t cost as much to start a mobile business as it does to start a restaurant, and it’s an easier startup. It’s all self-sufficient.”

Food trucks have less to maintain than a restaurant, he said, like fewer employees and a smaller space. His business, specializing in burgers and hot dogs, runs off of propane and a generator for electricity, and requires a vent hood to allow the smoke to escape.

According to the New Mexico Environment Department, the requirements are the same for mobile food service establishments as for other restaurants, “except self-contained mobile units are not required to have on-board restroom facilities for employees.”

Beevers finds there’s a growing demand of food trucks, and plans to extend his business hours from four days a week to five.

“People like food trucks because they’re different,” he said. “They’re not a sit-down restaurant; they’re not fast food.”

Although Beevers opts for a stationary approach, he does bring his unit to local events, like Draggin’ Main, admitting food trucks are most successful because “you get to move it around anywhere you want.”

Douglas Kirk, owner of Wing King food truck, agrees.

Kirk brought his chicken wing business to Clovis from Hobbs several weeks ago, following the success he had at the Curry County Fair. He’s operated his two food trucks for about two years with the help of his business partner, and together they rotate cities: Clovis, Hobbs, Lovington and Odessa.

“We travel around a lot,” Kirk said. “We do fairs, carnivals. We do it all — any event we can get our hands on. That’s where most of the business comes in.”

Kirk parked his unit Friday on Prince Street in the lot outside Burns Hardware, but said it’s best to take business on the road.

“I like to take our product to different parts of the town and show people. It’s also a good way to market, having different people taste your food. If you’re just in one spot, you’re kind of limited.

“When the economy goes bad, I can pick up and go to where the economy is good. Other restaurants have to ride it out; they have to stay. You can’t pick up your building and move.”

Besides mobility, Kirk said an advantage to food trucks is they’re more cost effective than restaurants.

“Your overhead is a lot lower,” Kirk said, “meaning it’s a low investment and you can test out if you have a product. You don’t have as many employees, you don’t have as big of an electric bill because we use generators, and you don’t have to rent the space of a building.”

Both Beevers and Kirk said inclement weather is a disadvantage for food trucks, unlike sit-down restaurants or fast-food establishments.

“I try to stay open year-round,” Beevers said, “but with that blizzard last year we were (closed) for almost a month. We try to stay out here, but I always add, ‘weather permitting.’ If it’s raining we won’t be out here; not only because there’s no customers, but also because we’re in a metal box.”

Kirk, whose business typically operates every day, said he loses business to drive-thrus in bad weather but finds ways to make up for it.

“People don’t want to get out of their vehicles,” Kirk said, “so sometimes, we’ll go that extra step if it’s a larger order and deliver to make it more convenient for that customer.”