In the five years James Coutu has been in the food truck business, he has seen competitors come and go as tastes change and yesterday’s trendy get-rich opportunity becomes today’s slog to stay profitable.
But people’s love for bacon is undying.
That’s why Coutu launched his Mo-Bacon truck two years ago to supplement his other porcine-themed mobile ventures, This Little Piggy and Porkinho. It has since taken over as his main money-maker.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re hungry, if they smell bacon, they buy it,” Coutu said.
Saturday, Mo-Bacon and 21 other food trucks from Whistler to Chilliwack will be parked around Inlet Park in Port Moody to launch the fourth season of the Metro Vancouver Food Truck Festival, which circulates to different communities until September 22. The event, which has free admission and runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., also features two live bands playing through the day, an artisans market and visits from characters of the animated kids’ show, Paw Patrol.
Organizer Laine Ogilvie said there’s food to suit every taste, from Jamaican to Malaysian, from Dutch to vegan.
While the event started as a way to take the growing excitement for food trucks to hungry customers away from downtown Vancouver, where an expansion of the city’s food truck program in 2010 set appetites alight, Laine said enthusiasm for the mobile eating experience hasn’t diminished much.
“I thought it would be a fad and it would burn out, but it really hasn’t,” Ogilvie said.
But customers have become more discerning.
“The food trucks that do the best are the ones that have a specialty item that you can’t get anywhere else,” Ogilvie said.
For Coutu, that item is the bacon jammer: a crispy grilled cheese sandwich topped with raspberry chipotle jam and five strips of bacon.
Coutu said having that unique fare that’s easy to hold in the hands is key to keeping customers returning. Capturing their attention and making their food truck experience fun gets them to the truck in the first place.
Coutu said he’s not shy to break out his megaphone, midway barker-style, to beckon patrons, music is a constant in the kitchen and sandwiches are served up with lively banter and maybe even a little dance.
“You have to be outgoing, engage people,” he said.
Coutu said the business has changed from trucks servicing locations with heavy pedestrian traffic or captive crowds of office workers looking for a quick lunch on their breaks, to a heavier emphasis on attending festivals, music and community events and, more recently, craft breweries, such as those on PoMo's Brewers Row, where Mo-Bacon makes regular appearances. Not every food truck has been able to navigate that evolution.
Coutu, who launched his food trucks as an extension of his catering business and now rarely does the latter, said success can be tough to pin down. Events are often weather-dependant and it can be tricky determining just how much food needs to be prepared to satisfy demand and still make the day profitable.
“It’s a gamble,” he said.
