Wheeled meals keep on rolling
Cape Breton food trucks going strong, despite ups and downs
SYDNEY — In Cape Breton, food trucks offer everything from homemade fries to pizza, fresh roasted coffee and gourmet sandwiches.
You can now add Filipino food to the list.
Cape Breton Regional Municipality officials say there were eight new vendor licences obtained this year, including one for Rachel’s Cuisine, located on the boardwalk on the Esplanade in Sydney.
Owner Rachel Aspacio, a native of the Philippines, had worked as a caregiver and then had her own cleaning business. This year she decided to hop aboard the food truck business and is open seven days a week 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“I hadn’t seen a restaurant or food truck offering Filipino dishes,” she said. “I thought I’d try it to introduce our dishes. It seems people are liking it.”
Aspacio said business has been even better than they thought it might be before she opened.
“It keeps adding up,” she said. “You get more people every day. People are enjoying the food they are getting from us.”
Their staple food is fried rice and stir-fried noodles, but they offer a daily menu which last Thursday included sweet and sour meatballs, honey garlic chicken, spring rolls, bistik and peppered steak.
As well as tourists, Rachel’s Cuisine is attracting a lot of customers from nearby offices. Plans are to stay open until the end of October and reopen next year when the weather gets nice, hopefully in June.
The new vendor’s licences granted in the CBRM this year also include Roaches Rd. Trucking & Landscaping Chip Wagon in New Waterford, Frosty’s Treats Ltd., Bungalow Coffee Beans Coffee and Cisco’s Takeout. Cisco’s Take Out was in the business for several years at one time but then took a break before deciding to step back into the business again this year.
Cruisin Cuisine C/O Celebrating for a Living Inc. doesn’t have a regular location but is being licensed as per each special event they apply for.
In information provided by Mary Ann Vuletich, assistant manager of planning, inspections and bylaws for the CBRM, the newest licensed vendor trucks — granted licences only within the past few weeks — include Creeker Cuts of Balls Creek and Highway 22 Food Service, Louisbourg. As of last Friday, nothing could be found yet on social media so the nature of these businesses is still unclear.
But what is clear is that residents of the CBRM like food trucks and like to go into the business with them. The CBRM issued 19 licences for vendors specific to food in 2008-09 and that number declined to 15 the following year. However, in 201415 the number jumped to 22 and continued to rise to 32 the following year, peaking to 38 in 2017.
In 2018 there were 27 mobile and stationary vendor licences issued as well as two circus permits. With respect to those vendors, seven have not been licensed for this year. However, a total of 27 vendors licences were issued so far this year as well as three circus permits.
Steve Smith, owner of Bungalow Coffee Beans, said he finally got his vendors permit in July and is located on Keltic Drive in the entranceway to Breton Brewing, usually open Monday to Wednesday, and inside at the Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. However Smith also travels to events such as the Ribfest in Sydney and festivities in Baddeck. Bungalow Coffee Beans roasts and sells fresh coffee beans, offering everything from roasted organic beans from Colombia and Hondura to Swiss Water Process Decaf from Peru, with notes of toffee, caramel, chocolate and lime.
They also offer fresh-baked goods from Harold’s Bakery and, at the Farmers’ Market, fresh baked goods from wife Heather.
But there can be challenges to this type of business, discovered by JB’s Pizza by the Slice, closing at the end of August. Owner Amy Griffiths, said after two years after not making any money, they had no choice but to shut it down.
Their truck was in Sydport,until March and although the business was seeing a good lunch group, things were slower at supper. As a result, they moved the business to Victoria Road.
“There’s lots of traffic there, we’re right in Sydney but just not getting any business.”
Griffiths went for a loan prior to their move and was turned down because of their location and was told if the business was in Sydney it would have been approved.
“Then we move to Sydney and business declines.“
Griffiths said there are a lot of pizza shops in Sydney and people support the one they are used to or go where they see specials. Different ideas were tried, including putting 2,000 flyers in mailboxes.
The business had a land line and a debit machine, features other food trucks don’t have, but those costs along with higher rent and having to pay retail for their products hit them hard. It was at a point they couldn’t hire anyone or even take pay cheques themselves. A decision was made to put their food truck up for sale and already it’s attracting interest. Griffiths said they are sad that things had to reach this stage.
“Two years is too long to go without making money.”
But there’s no bitterness over the decision to move to Sydney.
“It was a lesson well learned,” she said. “We’re not losing something because we gained the experience.”
A story about food trucks in Cape Breton couldn’t be complete without mentioning the iconic Glace Bay Chip Wagon, in operation for the past 73 years. In an earlier story in the Post, Mike Yorke, who has owned the business for the past 33 years, says it’s not only the oldest food truck in Cape Breton, but possibly the entire country.
In the story, Yorke had been asked what makes the food truck so successful to stay on the road that long and he said, ‘Having fries that are cut fresh, cooked fresh and served fresh.”