Houston Embraces Tasty Truck Treats

The gourmet mobile-food trend that’s already taken over New York and California is creeping into other cities, and now it’s Houston’s turn with high-end street meat.

Fusion Taco, Oh My! Pocket Pies, and Frosted Betty Mobile Bake Shop have all recently started to rev their engines around the Houston area, catering to customers who crave gourmet food served quickly at reasonable prices.

Julia Sharaby, chef and owner of Houston-based Fusion Taco, who has been in the restaurant business for 15 years, says the mobile-food model provides her with lower overhead and expenses. She spent about $85,000 on her truck, far less than what she spent to get her previous restaurant concept off the ground.

“With the down economy, I knew I needed to focus on high-volume sales, rather than traditional restaurant sales,” she says. “I didn’t want to do anything that anyone else was already doing. People aren’t going to stop eating out, but they are going to start spending less for their food.”

Sharaby is gambling that the mobile-taco concept will appeal to hungry late-night club-goers in the Midtown, Downtown, and Washington Avenue areas, or may appeal to others as a catering option for corporate events.

She plans to use Twitter, the popular social-media site, to let people know the latest whereabouts of the truck when they connect to her page at @fusiontaco. And unlike the kind of bells or carnival music used by ice cream trucks that patrol suburban neighborhoods on Saturday mornings, the Fusion Taco truck plays electronic “chill out” music to attract its hip clientele.

“We’ll be out there,” says Sharaby. “And we’ll come find you. You won’t even have to look for us.”

While she is starting out with one truck, she hopes to eventually expand to three vehicles, each offering a different cuisine. But she isn’t abandoning the storefront-eatery approach and would also like to open a small freestanding restaurant that allows customers to dine in or grab gourmet food on the go.

“It’s a whole new way of dining,” says Sharaby. “I’m hoping to teach Houstonians that you don’t have to go sit in a restaurant to get quality, gourmet food. Houston is a huge melting pot that is home to many cultures, and I think they’re ready for this.”

Some industry observers say that although the mobile dining trucks give restaurateurs an inexpensive and convenient way to enter the market, there are some downsides to that business model.

Richie Jackson, CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, says the Houston weather could play a factor in determining a mobile eatery’s success.

“If it’s 103 degrees in Houston, I don’t think anyone is going to want to go to a taco truck and eat outside,” he says. “Or if it’s pouring down rain, it will be a slow business day.”

To read more about other mobile food vendors setting up shop in Texas, click here to read the full story from the Houston Business Journal (subscription required).

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Allison Wollam writes for the Houston Business Journal