Food truck ‘movement’ took time to get traction in Wichita

After they first opened their Flying Stove food truck in December of 2011, Jeff Schauf and his brother, Rob, thought they had a brilliant idea.

They’d park their new mobile food business, which serves sandwiches, tacos and salads made with fresh, gourmet ingredients out of a truck fitted with a kitchen and a service window, at the Cotillion before a concert. The hungry people streaming in would flood them with business, they assumed, and they’d be set.

But that’s not what happened.

The people headed into the concert, unfamiliar with the food truck frenzy that had already invaded the West coast, didn’t understand that the truck was there to feed them.

“There was a line of 200 people there for the concert, and everyone had to walk right by us,” Jeff Schauf said. “But no one wanted to even look over.”

Almost three years later, the Schauf brothers are considered the unofficial leaders of the Wichita food truck fleet, which has grown to nearly 20 mobile food businesses serving barbecue, pizzas, bratwurst, cupcakes, sandwiches, tacos – even caramelized Belgian waffles. (Eight of them, including the Flying stove, will be gathered from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Wichita Eagle’s back parking lot for its Haunted Food Truck event on Oct. 24.)

They’re the pioneers of a new type of food business that, like many trends, reached Wichita late and found it somewhat unprepared. Though diners in Wichita are now embracing food truck culture and regularly standing in long lines to get a taste of their food, outdated city regulations (now under review) make it difficult for the truck owners to reach people easily on a regular basis, say food truck owners.

And the work is hard – much harder than the romantic pictures painted by shows like “The Great Food Truck Race” and movies like “Chef,” which portray life on a food truck as a low-cost, easy way to be your own boss and earn culinary adoration from the masses.

“Every day, you wake up and a million things are going on,” Jeff Schauf said. “You’re ordering food, dealing with advertising, executing the food, figuring out where you’re going, worrying if people are going to be there, guessing how much food to make, answering the phone and e-mail, getting to the location and realizing you forgot something, and it’s 5 miles away, and you’re about to open, and there’s actually a line this time.

“You’ll never know how hard it is until you do it.”

Trucks just keep coming

The Schaufs, it turns out, were in front of a trend that was about to hit Wichita full force.

Shortly after The Flying Stove rolled out, Michael Awesome-Noyes opened his since-closed Mmm Sandwiches. Then, Doug Buchanan and his sister, Jodi, appeared with their bright orange B.S. Sandwich Press trailer.

And the truckers just kept appearing. They were laid-off workers who wanted to set their own rules. Young couples with restaurant dreams. Backyard barbecue aficionados following the urgings of their families and friends. Cooks who found a line on a rig they could afford.

Some disappeared as quickly as they appeared. The Rolling Dough, a pizza truck owned by a young couple, was open only only about six months. Sabor owner Melad Stephan started The Hopping Pita, a food truck specializing in Lebanese Cuisine, in April 2013, but it was closed by October. Awesome-Noyes also had to park his sandwich truck, though he hasn’t given up on the idea of relaunching it.

The trucks started off parking in Old Town and learned that city code prohibited street vending within downtown’s central business district. They learned they couldn’t set up on public property without permission. Every time they park somewhere different, they’re required to get a transient merchant license, which takes five days to process from the city.

They got invitations from businesses and found private property was a better bet. They developed routes. Then, they banded together. In the spring of 2013, B.S. Sandwich Press and The Flying Stove teamed up with the WaterWalk to hold monthly food truck rallies on the final Sunday of the month. They’ve become so popular many of the truckers say they have their most profitable days during the rallies, where diners often stand in lines 30 people deep.

“The food truck rallies have been our record-setting days,” said Jodi Buchanan, whose B.S. Sandwich Press is Wichita’s second oldest survivor. “It’s so much easier now than when we first started.”

And it should get even easier soon.

Tom Stolz, director of the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department, said that Wichita City Manager Bob Layton has requested work on an ordinance that would address food trucks specifically.

The trucks now must operate under old ordinances put into effect before the food truck trend arrived, so the truckers must follow rules that were designed to regulate someone who, for example, wanted to set up on a corner and sell Elvis paintings, Stolz said.

Those ordinances don’t work any more, and the city knows it, he said.

Stolz has had meetings with several food truck operators and is working on crafting an ordinance that would allow food trucks back into the central business district and set up other specific regulations that work for the truckers and for nearby businesses that might be concerned about competition.

The city manager would like something in place by next year, Stolz said. His plan is to gather feedback from everyone involved, work with the city’s legal department to fine tune the ordinance then bring it before the City Council.

“People like food trucks. That’s just the phenomenon,” he said. “At the end of the day, we need to craft a food truck ordinance to regulate this, and that’s where we’re headed.”

The trucks keep coming

And the trucks just keep appearing.

Already-existing restaurants have started embracing the trend, supplementing their businesses with food trucks. Wichita Brewing Co. and Pizzeria was first, opening its Hopperoni Express trailer in May 2013. Since then, Luciano’s, an Italian restaurant in Mulvane, and Charlie’s PizzaTaco at 602 N. Tyler in Wichita, have also added food trucks.

“A food truck gets the word out a little more,” said Tim Holmes, whose high-dollar, high-tech Charlie’s PizzaTaco truck will have its first major outing at the Eagle’s food truck rally. “Typically, what I see in Wichita is that if you’re an east-sider, you eat on east side and if you’re a west-sider, you eat on west side. This gets your name out there and it helps to advertise and market your restaurant.”

The trucks will likely keep appearing, too.

Just in the past several weeks, Big B’s Beef owners Liz and Brian Bathgate closed their Delano restaurant and announced plans to transition to a food truck. Radio host Kate Clause revealed she will open a coffee food truck called Sunflower Espresso. And Smallcakes: A Cupcakery owner Lexi Bruner just opened Wichita’s second cupcake food truck, an extension of their bricks and mortar cupcake shop at 21st and Rock.

Wichita’s food truck pioneers paved the ways for those who would follow.

The veterans willingly help the newcomers through the licensing process. Jeff Schauf said he wanted to create an atmosphere of cooperation among the food truck community. He has become the movement’s unofficial leader, the person the newbies call for help and advice, the person who organizes the monthly rallies.

“We never approached it like it was us against everyone else. That’s not what starts a movement,” he said. “I know when I started, I would have loved having someone help me out. It’s already hard enough.”

Wichita has responded well to the food truck movement, the truckers say, and many are finding themselves in high demand by people organizing fall festivals, church rallies and other special events.

Buchanan said B.S. Sandwich Press had one of its best days ever parked at the recent Great Plains Renaissance Festival in Sedgwick County Park. The new Brown Box Bakery did swift business at the Junior League’s recent Holiday Galleria. Several churches, including GracePoint Church at 9035 W. Central, often invite food trucks to serve at big events.

Some of the trucks that won’t be at the Wichita Eagle meetup on Friday already were committed to a fall festival at GracePoint, which lasts from 7 to 9 p.m. that night. Funky Monkey Munchies is owned by GracePoint member Lisa Palacios, and Park n Pork BBQ will be serving at the church.

Church members love when the food trucks come, said Kristen Poljansek, the church’s children’s pastor, and because the trucks are so trendy, nonmembers are often lured by them to church events, too.

“The food trucks are getting so popular,” Poljansek said. “People love the variety.”

Though Schauf said he loves his job – especially on days when everything’s clicking inside the tiny truck – it’s hardly a glamorous existence.

But he wouldn’t change the past three years, he said.

“When you’re handing someone something you know they’re going to love, that’s the best part,” he said. “I love it. It wouldn’t be fun if it was easy.”

This story was originally published October 17, 2014 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Food truck ‘movement’ took time to get traction in Wichita."