Interview With Chef and Owner of Nacho Bizness, Aaron Byers, Part II

Laine Doss

​

Clean Plate Charlie: What's a day in the life of a food truck owner like? Where do you prep the food; do you cook in the trailer?

Aaron Byers: I do absolutely everything in the trailer, though I have a commissary where I store my stuff. I do lunch from 11 a.m.  to 2 p.m., so I start to cook in the morning about 10 a.m. My tortillas are made fresh every day. I make ten gallons of my chronic lemonade per day.

I do everything in my ten-foot-by-ten-foot trailer, which happens to be about the same size of the galley on a yacht.

There are quite a few taco trucks on the road. Why did you choose tacos?

In the surf community and the extreme sport community, it's the food of choice. Tacos are healthy, fresh, and delicious. I went around talking to people asking where their favorite taco place is. People in South Florida think Taco Bell is a real taco place.

The food truck scene in Miami is huge and growing daily. What's the story on the food truck scene in Fort Lauderdale?

There's not much at all. There are some guys like Slow Food Truck and Nacho Mama's that are trying to make a little bit of a presence here. I don't think we have the traffic here to do the volume the other trucks already do in Miami.

What about organizing a Truck Roundup like in Miami?

We tried one night at Boomers, off I-95. We had about 20 trucks out there. I guess we didn't do that well because no one went back. I thought it was a great deal -- I did well.

Will you stay in Fort Lauderdale? I know you do Miami a few evenings a week, as well.

It seems like the trucks don't want to move out of Miami. I have a beach spot near Birch State Park. We're working with the Parks Department. If we were anywhere near the Elbo Room, we would kick it. It's like any new business; it's baby steps. I'm trying to not get too aggressive. I don't want to grow too fast and change my business. Fort Lauderdale is tough. There's not a lot of foot traffic. You basically have downtown and 17th Street. I set up at the corner of SW First Avenue and 18th Court weekdays for lunch. That works well for me, since I have repeat customers. My strategy is to stay in one established place, while other trucks like to move around daily. 

Do you have any plans for expanding?

I would definitely like to, because my overhead is a lot lower than these big trucks. I would like to have one trailer in Miami and one in Fort Lauderdale. I would like to have them working while I'm sleeping. I'm all into residual income.

Stay tuned for a recipe from Byers, coming soon!