At its most basic level, your food truck will be most recognized for the food you serve. Several categories of food have found food truck success around the United States.
One demographic food trucks haven’t left out is individuals who own dogs. Although technically not people food trucks, some trucks navigating around dog parks in the country supply canine customers with locally sourced, healthy dog treats that many dog owners can’t pass up when they find them.
Savory foods for your food truck business
You have a wide variety of options when it comes to serving savory foods in your food truck:
American cuisine is capable of making it onto any list of popular food trucks thanks to Americans’ love of hamburgers. Other popular American favorites are grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, French fries, mac and cheese, and various types of barbecued meat.
Mexican cuisine is known for its varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices and ingredients, many of which are native to the country. Tacos, burritos, tamales, and tortas are menu favorites of many food truck owners because they’re easily massaged to fit into various concepts.
African cuisine (for example, Ethiopian, Moroccan, or South African) traditionally uses a combination of locally available fruits, cereal grains, and vegetables, as well as milk and meat products.
Italian cuisine is hard to explain without mentioning pizza and pasta, but these two dishes tell you almost all you need to know about this style of cuisine. Some truck owners vending Italian cuisine regularly serve these dishes along with veal and eggplant parmesan sandwiches.
Asian cuisine (such as Chinese and Japanese) typically consists of rice or noodles, with a soup. Foods are made from fish, meat, vegetable, tofu, and the like. Food items are typically flavored with dashi, miso, and soy sauce and are generally low in fat and high in salt.
Mediterranean cuisine is full of fresh vegetables and high in flavor. Options for food trucks choosing Mediterranean cuisine include (but aren’t limited to) kabobs, gyros, pita sandwiches (vegetable, shawarma, falafel, and lamb), hummus, and baba ghanoush.
Thai cuisine is often confused with Chinese cuisine. The primary difference is in its flavoring. Thai food has a balanced mix of sweet, sour, and spice. Bánh mi is by far the most popular of the foods coming from Thai-themed trucks, such as the Nom Nom Trucks out of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Indian cuisine may provide the widest variety of food for your menu even though it’s most known for vegetarian fare. The real treats of Indian cuisine are chicken and fish tikkas, naan, and samosas.
Other styles of cuisine to investigate include Caribbean, Cajun, Cuban, German, Philippine, Native American, Spanish, soul food, seafood, Tex-Mex, vegetarian/vegan, and Vietnamese.
Serve desserts from your food truck
While some of the savory trucks provide minimal coverage of various dessert favorites, other food truck owners focus their attention on these sweet delights — everything from ice cream, waffles, cupcakes, shaved ice, whoopie pies, and brownies. You can even find trucks that provide more ethnic styles of dessert on their menus, such as cannoli, tiramisu, crêpes, and baklava.
You may wonder whether dessert trucks can provide enough income to justify multiple dessert trucks in one area. Don’t think twice about it — they can. Dessert trucks provide a wonderful way for customers to enjoy a full meal by simply going to multiple trucks that are parked near each other.
Savory and dessert trucks can work as a team to maximize the sales of both trucks. So if you’re looking to provide your customers a sugar rush to jumpstart their day, this avenue may be perfect for you.
Food trucks offer tasty beverages
Although food trucks serving alcoholic beverages haven’t been approved en masse, nonalcoholic beverage trucks have. Consumers are constantly attempting to improve their health, and food truck owners have latched onto this phenomenon by providing these customers with a mobile option. Trucks that sell nothing but juice or smoothies have made their way onto the streets of some cities with much success.