A Flying Sausage has officially launched!!! Wednesday, February 10 was our very first event at 121 Financial Credit Union for breakfast and lunch. I had to drop the kids off at school before I could meet Thomas out at the location, which meant he had to get everything packed up and ready to go on his own. He got up hours before dawn to make sure he had time to get everything on the truck and ready to go. I got the girls to school and headed over to 121, and actually ended up beating the truck there. I stood outside and waited, scanning the road eagerly for my first sighting of our truck on the move. All of a sudden, I saw it pull up to the light. Words cannot even begin to explain the overwhelming excitement and pride at seeing OUR truck driving towards me!
We worked together to get everything all set up and ready for service, and we were just about finished when we had our first customer!! This is Dave, and he ordered our Biscuits and Gravy, which he loved so much that he came back and ordered again for lunch. He graciously let us take his picture and agreed we could post it to remember our first ever paying customer by.
We appreciate the friends and other food truckies that came out to support us on our first day! It was FREEZING and exceptionally windy, so we were even more grateful to those that braved the weather to come see us.Our good friends from Tikiz came out to check us out and Virginia Hocking took some amazing photos for us. I am so thankful that she did, because even though I took some photos of the truck, they weren't nearly the quality that she was able to achieve, and I forgot to take a picture of the menu board!
There were a couple of hiccups along the way, but we expected that as we learn the best way to run OUR truck. Overall, things went relatively smoothly, and we received some rave reviews on the food, and a surge of Facebook followers. We headed back to the shop and got things cleaned up, and reveled shortly in our first day bliss before crashing, exhausted, into bed so we could get up and start prep for Saturday's event.
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We were scheduled to go out to Jacksonville University to feed those attending a Lacrosse Tournament starting at noon. We were told it was going to be a massive event, so we prepped accordingly. We scheduled an extra helper since we anticipated such high numbers. We were up before the sun to get everything set, and that seemed to go more smoothly this time around. We got to the event and got ready to serve. It was still very chilly and windy, but it lacked the bite that Wednesday had. The concession stand was open, which we found out later was not what was agreed upon when they booked the event with the organization we received the lead through. Things were much slower than we had thought it was going to be, so we let our helper go in the early afternoon. Thomas' mom and stepdad made the 5 hour drive to come see us in action for a couple of hours, and we were able to feed them. It was so wonderful to see them and to show them what all their support has led up to. We wrapped it up around 6pm, and headed back to the shop to clean up. It wasn't what we had expected, but we were still happy with the numbers we did, and those that we were able to feed. We especially loved the older woman driving down the road on a scooter who waved so excitedly at us as we drove by.
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Our next event was Tuesday at FSCJ North Campus. We were told ahead of time that these are college kids who can't necessarily afford the higher priced items, so we dropped the entrees to include two sausages instead of three and lowered our menu prices. We got there for breakfast and immediately had a surge of people. They seemed to show up in waves between classes, and we had a steady ebb and flow the whole time we were there. We got to feed a round of the culinary students, which was very exciting for us. One of the girls actually just got her first job, and it is on a food truck, so she was very giddy to get to try us.
Our prices were still a little higher than the other two trucks who were there that day, but that didn't seem to slow people down. One of our biggest sellers that day was actually our highest priced menu item, the Lamb Gyro, which is served on our homemade garlic rosemary flatbread!
We were very encouraged by the numbers we had, and we are definitely looking forward to going back this coming Tuesday. We seem to be getting into the rhythm of the truck, and we are able to get our food out quickly, which has always been one of our goals.
We were surprised by one of our best friends showing up to this event and we were so excited to feed them! We were so thankful they made the drive all the way out to see us on the Northside!!
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Overall, we are learning quickly, getting things situated, and starting to get a feel for how much we need to prep of what items. Like any new business, it is long hours and little sleep, but we know it is going to be worth it! Thomas has his last day at his "normal" job on Sunday, and then we will both be working the truck full time. We have a few more events through the end of February, and then the calendar for March is bursting with almost back to back events! We are so excited to feed Jacksonville, so check our Facebook page for consistent updates on where we are so we can feed YOU!
