Taste of Success: Food Truck Businesses Roll in the Valley

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – You see them at festivals and fairs, stationed at wineries and brewhouses and catering employee lunches.

The food truck phenomenon even spawned a competition show on The Food Network. The trend has expanded to the Mahoning Valley too.

Marla Hermann started The Big Green Thing food truck 12 years ago.

“I was the first food truck in Youngstown,” she said. She started out parking her truck downtown and serving employees.

She grew up in kitchens, and a food truck was less expensive than a brick and mortar restaurant.

“And with brick and mortar, you sit there and you wait for customers, whereas [with a food truck], I could go where the customers are and you don’t have to sit and wait,” Hermann said while setting up at last month’s Youngstown State University Festival of the Arts.

A graduate of Boardman High School and the culinary arts program at Mahoning County Career & Technical Center, Tra’von Eley started Tra’s Gourmet Sandwiches in 2022. He worked in and managed a few Valley restaurants before deciding to move into the food truck business.

“I love cooking,” Eley said last month at the Mount Carmel Festival in Lowellville. “So I would say the cooking aspect of it, and you get to talk to people. In a restaurant, those guys are in the kitchen. They don’t deal with customers. They’re not meeting new people.”

Mark Primavera took his family recipes on the road in 2020 in Armida’s Cucina food truck. His family operated The Georgetown, a banquet facility that closed in 2020, for more than 45 years.

“I think people like the idea of being able to go and get something, and it’s sort of a cross between fast food and sit down,” Primavera said before opening for business one July evening at Birdfish Brewing in Columbiana. “So we offer very fast service, but I offer restaurant quality food.”

It’s the best of both worlds, he said. It’s “quick, but also something that’s homemade, unique and delicious.”

And food trucks are big business across the country.

Grand View Research, a market research and consulting company based in the U.S. and India, estimates there are 35,000 of the mobile eateries across the U.S. It also pegs the industry’s compound annual growth rate of market share at 6.4% through 2030. In 2021, the U.S. food truck services market size hit $1.16 billion, according to the market research firm.

There’s a National Food Truck Association and several state and city associations, but none in Ohio. In Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia each have a food truck association.

The Menus

Armida’s Cucina is famous for its peppers – Primavera’s grandmother’s recipe. They’re either Hungarian hot or sweet pepper sandwiches. They fill the peppers with homemade Italian meat stuffing. 

“She created these peppers, and then my uncle fell in love with them, my Uncle Rich,” Primavera said. “He fell in love with them, and he started making them and he really sort of started doing the concession stuff with peppers.”

It grew into Primavera’s food truck. But in addition to the peppers, Armida’s Cucina’s chicken sandwiches are popular too, he said, from chicken parm to blue buffalo chicken and bistro chicken. 

“So those are our two biggest things,” Primavera explained. “But everything that we do, we have a real focus on the quality of our food. Like our chicken sandwiches, we make those from scratch – raw, fresh chicken breast. This is raw chicken that we bring in, and we prepare it from start to finish. That’s the same thing with our peppers. It’s totally unique.”

They also have steak sandwiches, mozzarella sticks, fried green beans and fried cheesecake.

Tra’s Gourmet Sandwiches’ menu boasts an array of sandwiches, like the OG Burger, BBQ Bacon Burger, chicken sandwich with pimento cheese, honey, lettuce, tomato and onion and pickles – a top seller – jalapeno cheddar grilled cheese and chicken and waffles. Side entrees include waffle fries and mozzarella sticks. 

“Our main thing is we brand buns so it says Tra’s on it,” Eley said. “That’s actually really huge for us.”

He also has a vegan burger on the menu that appeals to a customer segment that often struggles to find food options at fairs and festivals. It’s proven successful.

The Big Green Thing’s menu includes breakfast wraps, a variety of sandwiches and grilled cheese selections including bacon guacamole and blueberry gouda. Hermann also offers vegan options. Sides offered span grilled asparagus, cucumber slaw and pesto potato salad. She also offers gluten-free options.

“I don’t have fried food,” Hermann explained.

Her customers are looking for healthier options – that’s how the business name started – so she doesn’t attend a lot of fairs and festivals. 

“I’m better for parties,” Hermann said. “I am perfect for block parties, catering, that kind of thing.”

Each truck has loyal customers who watch social media or the truck’s website to find them and buy their food.

“There’s one guy – I kid you not – he comes every day to every event,” Eley said. “He brings his whole family. We have a good, supportive crowd.”

Primavera has some customers who come to the Canfield Fair specifically for his food.

“They drive about two hours, pay to get into the fair. They walk straight to our stand, get our food and they leave,” he said. “It makes you really proud when you hear things like that.”

Equipment and Season

Primavera bought a regular truck and outfitted it with kitchen equipment himself. His business also includes a food trailer used at various events.

Eley’s truck is actually a trailer. That works better for him because he can take it to a location like a fair or festival and leave it for the duration. With a truck, he’d either have to drive it to and from the event each day or get a ride from someone else to and from the venue.

Also with a trailer, he doesn’t worry about losing a whole day of business if a truck breaks down.

Hermann retrofitted a Snyder Potato Chip truck into her food truck, doing the work herself with used equipment she procured from other establishments. She acknowledged the challenges of mechanical issues, which she also fixes herself.

And food truck season runs most of the year.

For Eley, the festival circuit starts in June and runs through early October, but spring and fall also bring activities at fruit farms and the like. Plus, catering for business events and individual parties rounds out the year. Eley also teaches in the culinary arts program at MCCTC.

Primavera follows a similar schedule.

“I work year-round,” he said. “We’re out in the winter.”

Both businesses also attend gatherings outside of wineries and breweries throughout the Valley, like Birdfish.

Those are good fits, Primavera said, because those businesses don’t serve food but draw customers who want to eat while they enjoy drinks with family or friends. 

Eley travels throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania, while Primavera covers about a 1.5 hour radius from the Valley.

Advice

Starting a food truck business can be expensive, though.

“With a new truck, it’s probably going to be about $75,000,” Hermann said, less if you do the work yourself.

But it depends on what equipment you put in.

“Whatever you think it’s going to be, it will be more,” Primavera cautioned. 

To be successful, you have to offer something other trucks don’t, Eley said. He’s a big believer in having and maintaining a brand. A new truck with just french fries on its menu probably won’t last. Also, at most festivals, food vendors are limited to one vendor per food item. Booking certain events can be difficult, as many vendors have attended the same event and set up in the same spot for years, even generations.

Eley doesn’t worry much about the spot he gets at a fair or festival, though.

“If you have good food, people will find you,” he said.

Pictured at top: Tra’von Eley started his food truck business, Tra’s Gourmet Sandwiches, in 2022. He travels all over Ohio and Pennsylvania, working most of the year.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.