Opening a restaurant is a common dream that many people share, especially those who love to cook and eat great food. Unfortunately, the costs involved in opening and operating a restaurant can be too costly to consider, especially in today's uncertain economy. Instead, many of those who yearn to open a restaurant may want to consider opting for smaller, more compact food service businesses that can be fully housed inside the body of a truck, bus or van. 

Referred to generically as a food truck, food service businesses that adopt this mobile model, instead of a traditional brick and mortar restaurant, are often able to significantly reduce their startup costs, while also keeping their ongoing costs very low. With no rent or mortgage payment and fewer employee-related expenses to cover, many food truck operators are able to build a profitable business far more quickly than they might in a traditional restaurant setting. 

Plan the menu before selecting equipment

When planning to open a food truck, creating the menu should be one of the first steps. Unlike traditional restaurants, food trucks typically have little extra space to store a wide variety of fresh or frozen ingredients. Instead, menus designed to be used in a food truck setting should rely on basic ingredients that can be used in a wide variety of recipes. For example, a food truck that plans to serve tacos could design a menu that uses ground meat as the base protein along with different spices to create several different taco recipes, instead of having to stock several different proteins. 

Purchase versatile equipment options

Once the basic menu is created, the next step will be to purchase the restaurant equipment needed to store, prep and serve the foods you will be selling. Using a taco-based menu as an example, food truck owners who want to be frugal with startup costs might consider purchasing a commercial restaurant flat top grill as their main cooking appliance. 

Ground beef could be cooked in quantity on the flat cooking surface, then divided and seasoned for each recipe and stored in a cooler until needed. When a customer places an order, the seasoned meat and a taco shell could easily be reheated on the grill, then dressed with sauces and accompaniments before serving. Working with this type of situation, the food truck would only need to purchase a suitable cooler and commercial sink, along with the flat top grill, in order to be fully functional. 

To learn more about outfitting a food truck with the equipment you will need, take time to contact a reputable restaurant equipment dealer like Continental Restaurant Equipment in your area. 

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