A Closer Look at Jacksonville, FL Food Trucks
Jacksonville, FL food trucks are emerging as a popular, first-choice food option for many foodies here in Jacksonville, FL. As the number of food trucks in Jacksonville, FL grow, so does the demand for them.
The number of Jacksonville food trucks has surpassed 100 and continues to grow each month. Today you can find just about any category of food truck in Jacksonville, FL. From Southern BBQ to home-made Italian and International cuisine, Jacksonville food trucks have it covered.
An Industry of Professionals
One of the most interesting things about the Jacksonville food trucks is the diverse, professional backgrounds of the food truck owners themselves. If you take the time to speak with some of them you might be surprised at what their careers were before the food truck life.
Software developers, engineers, chefs, entrepreneurs and local first responders are just a few of the many, many professional backgrounds that exist between the Jacksonville food truck owners.
Food Truck City
The booming food truck industry here in Jacksonville, FL has led to the development of many supporting businesses. I’m sure we’ve all seen or encountered a food truck driving around Jacksonville during the day, but where do all of these food trucks reside when they day is done? The answer for a large majority of the Jacksonville food trucks is “Food Truck City.”
Food Truck City is an all inclusive food truck commissary that is centrally located to Restaurant Depot, I-95 and JTB. The commissary provides food truck owners with secure and covered parking for their food trucks, along with dry storage and all the amenities you would need to sustain your food truck operation.
Onsite, food truck owners can fill up on propane, get bagged ice, enjoy an air conditioned facility for washing dishes and doing food prep. The facilities were also built to help the food trucks more easily maintain compliance with local health and safety standards.
Jacksonville, FL Food Truck Schedule
So now you know where most Jacksonville, FL food trucks sleep…but where can you find them for breakfast, lunch or dinner? For starters, you can head over to our Jacksonville Food Truck Schedule page to see a map of food truck locations around Jacksonville, FL as well as present and future food truck schedules.
Through the Food Truck Finder website, we developed a very intricate food truck scheduling system for the food truck owners. It is free for the food trucks and built to aid them in the scheduling process to help increase the level of visibility into the local, Jacksonville food truck community. When a food truck updates their schedule in our system, their location is distributed across multiple social media outlets, search engines and other media outlets to make it easier for you, the customer, to find them.
If you follow any of the Jacksonville food trucks on Facebook, most of them will post their weekly or daily locations on there as well.
Here’s a look into how Jacksonville, FL food trucks operate
Most people, especially those who have not been introduced to the growingly popular food truck concept, have no idea how Jacksonville food trucks operate. Below I will shed some light on how Jacksonville food trucks make money, how you can incorporate food trucks into your life and perhaps debunk some common food truck myths.
How do Jacksonville, FL food trucks earn a living?
The simple answer is: by figuring out where they can sell their food to the most amount of people.
Any successful Jacksonville food truck owner however, will tell you there’s way more to it than that, which is true.
Far gone are the days where you have illegal, rundown “roach coaches” driving around town trying to get any business they could. Nowadays, food trucks are just like any other business, except they’ve found a major competitive advantage to leverage…mobility.
Most Jacksonville, FL food trucks have custom-built, professional kitchens. They typically have a small staff and other operating costs such as gas, storage, supplies, fixed costs, etc. It’s because of these operating costs, each food truck typically has a target “minimum” amount of sales they want/need to hit every time they go to an event or location.
Of course each food truck is different and will have varying requirements, but as a previous Jacksonville food truck owner myself, I can confidently say that $300-$400 is about the bare minimum that a quality food truck is willing to come out for. Food trucks are an awesome, fun option for parties and events, but at the end of the day…if a food truck doesn’t think they can hit their minimum, it’s simply not worth it. Operating a food truck is a ton of work and it needs to be profitable.
Where you can find Jacksonville, FL food trucks
Jacksonville food trucks are pretty well spread out around town. On your average week, most food trucks will serve corporate office buildings for lunch, head downtown to The Court Urban Food Park, as well as cater private events. At night you can find food trucks serving at various apartment complexes, neighborhoods and private parties.
Food Truck Fridays
Friday nights are pretty big for Jacksonville, FL food trucks. All over Jacksonville and even North St. Augustine, local neighborhoods and communites have adopted ‘Food Truck Fridays.’ Food Truck Fridays are a great way to get everyone out of their houses and bring the community together. Depending on the neighborhood, you will have between 1-15 food truck and dessert trucks lined up to feed the community, coupled with drinks, entertainment and lots of socializing!
On the Weekends
Saturdays and Sundays are big money makers for Jacksonville, FL food trucks as well. The weekends are when you get the big crowds at local festivals, food truck rallies, and other events scattered around Jacksonville. The Riverside Arts Market is a great event that hosts not only food trucks, but tons of other local small businesses and vendors who sell everything from food and local produce, to unique arts, soaps and jewelry. The Riverside Arts Market takes place every Saturday from 10am-3pm at 715 Riverside Avenue and is free and open to the public. The Professor Panini food truck is there every Saturday as well.
If you think your neighborhood or office would be a good fit to host food trucks on a regular basis, give Shane a call at 772-233-1609 or fill out our food truck catering request form here.