IT’S NOT too often that you get to go out on a weekday evening on an eating spree. The session becomes more exciting when you realise that you have to try out ‘food trucks’, a concept which is essentially western, but which made inroads into the country a couple of years ago. These mobile eateries have come to be associated with serving not only quality food, but also offering it in a more hygienic and palatable manner; hence the renewed interest.
Since it was drizzling, we decided to begin our tryst with pop gastronomy with something hot and spicy. We headed to the Leisure Valley Road parking lot in the happening and busy Sector 29 market of Gurgaon—the satellite city of the national capital that has become synonymous with food trucks, besides Bengaluru and Mumbai. Our maiden target was Eggjactly, a recently-opened eatery, which also claims to be India’s first ‘GPS-enabled’ food truck.
Claimed by the owners to be an all-American and European cuisine specialist on the streets, the menu on the truck’s body had them all—burgers, pita pockets, omelettes, waffles, pancakes, crêpes and a variety of shakes/desserts, with one key ingredient in most of them: eggs. We went for a ‘loaded chicken sandwich’, which, as the name suggests, was loaded with meat. Next up was a ‘butter chicken wrap’, which felt a little flat—maybe it had something to do with my Delhiite tongue that craves for a lot of butter and spices in anything that’s called ‘butter chicken’.
The portion sizes are huge and you can at least not worry about one aspect: hygiene. Lvanika Parti and Vikrant Misra, the co-founders (they would, however, prefer their fancy designations—’chief awesomeness officer’ and ‘chief eating officer’, respectively), are personally present at the truck at all times along with the chefs to ensure just that.
Having filled our stomach to our heart’s content, we decided to head towards Gurgaon’s Sector 57, where Frugurpop, another deliciously-named food truck selling gourmet ice candies (popsicles) and frozen desserts, is stationed. It was about time we had an ice-cream—a hot and humid summer evening is a good time to pop a ‘popsicle’, we thought. There were many popsicles on offer here. We decided to go for one called ‘fruitilicious’ and rightfully so—it is ‘filled’ with an assortment of natural, solid fruits like exotic strawberries, luscious kiwis, peach and sweet blueberries. It is healthy and full of flavour due to the fruit slices.
With prices ranging from R100-150, some might find Frugurpop a tad too expensive. But the uniqueness and tastes on offer here aren’t easily available—at least in the street-friendly format. “In today’s day and age, Indians are slowly and steadily accepting new and different things in all spheres of life. Luckily, food is a huge part of this and that works in our favour,” says Pallavi Kuchroo, co-founder of Frugurpop, adding: “Several people come to our truck and wonder why they’re paying a premium price for a ‘thela-wala’ ice-cream. But then again, that’s part and parcel of business.”
While Kuchroo did her schooling from Lawrence School, Sanawar, and worked at Aidem Ventures and NDTV Good Times before starting Frugurpop, her co-founder, Sudheer Grover, is a Doon School alumnus and a graduate in business management from Jai Hind College in Mumbai. Both of them are full-time into Frugurpop now.
The street food scene in India is getting more and more vibrant. Earlier, there were food carts and roadside vendors serving sumptuous food, but of late, food trucks seem to be catching people’s fancy. Even at a conservative estimate, Gurgaon is home to about 10 food trucks. The number is similar for Mumbai and Bengaluru.
“Today, everyone wants more food options around their workplace or home surroundings, and ones that run late into the night,” says Misra of Eggjactly, who, along with Parti, launched the food truck in January this year after having given up on the idea of starting a cafe owing to huge rentals in Gurgaon. “Watching a lot of Eat Street episodes on TV pushed us to finally take the risk and launch Eggjactly,” he adds. Eggjactly is launching its second food truck in Gurgaon soon and has plans to scale it up to 10 within its first year of business. “In the past five months, we have reached an average of R6 lakh per month of sales. We have seen a growth of 25% month-on-month sales as of now.” says Misra.
Having lived in Boston, US, for many years and having enjoyed numerous meals at different food trucks, the food enthusiast in Nandita R Shetty wanted to bring this concept to India. “It is an exciting and fun space to be in. Moreover, given the trends in the F&B industry in India, it’s the right time for an initiative like this. The concept of food trucks has the potential to revolutionise dining preferences,” says Shetty, co-founder of Flavour Labs, another much talked about food truck in Gurgaon that we wanted to try, but sadly it wasn’t in operation at that point in time. When in operation, Flavour Labs typically goes to a mix of commercial buildings and residential complexes in Gurgaon.
Flavour Labs has 10 enthusiastic people on board and has served over 6,700 main courses since its inception in October last year. Some of its menu themes include ‘Kobri’ (inspired by south Indian food), ‘Hoppers’ (inspired by American comfort food) and ‘Malabar’ (crispy, fresh Malabar paranthas served with a choice of vegetarian and non-vegetarian kebabs and curries).
Mumbai and Bengaluru, too, have seen a fair share of food truck moments. One such venture is FoGo (short for ‘Food on the Go’), a food truck “built on the base of quick service and innovative products that are suitable to the Indian palate”, as per its founder 27-year-old Neeraj Kambli. Commenting on the difficulties in setting up a food truck business, Kambli says: “It’s very troublesome to start a food truck mainly because the legislative authorities themselves aren’t clear about the rules and regulations of the licensing requirements. That only elongates the waiting period of opening the business. The costs can go from
R5-10 lakh, depending upon the choice of vehicle, the cuisines offered and the appliances required,” he explains.
For Shakti Subbarao, the founder of Gypsy Kitchen, a popular food truck in Bengaluru, the problem initially was to jump over the hurdles in people’s mindsets that the food they serve was similar to the ‘street food’ already available. “After all, we were charging two-three times the cost of the local food cart offerings. But once people were willing to try out the food, they loved it and we started having regular customers from the first week itself,” he says, adding: “The plan was to start a café, but the high costs of real estate in Bangalore deterred us. While watching an episode of Eat Street, I thought to myself, ‘Why not get a food truck to Bangalore?’ I mean, we already have numerous vendors serving dosa and pav bhaji, why not bring in a proper and bigger ‘truck’ to the streets of Bangalore?” The search for a truck ended on OLX and Subbarao started Gypsy Kitchen’s operations six months later in June 2014. “As for the procedures, there aren’t any as of now. We tried to get all the permits needed, but realised there were none. The cost to set up my truck was R8.5 lakh,” he adds.
Jimson Johns and Leoma D’Souza, co-founders of The SWAT Food Truck in Bengaluru, realised on the first day itself that their set-up had to be a combination of a quick-service restaurant (QSR), as well as a restaurant. “We realised the service delivery time was as important as the food itself,” they say. The SWAT Food Truck’s USP is its all-American beef burger, which has been voted one of Bengaluru’s best, as per some reports. “Also on the menu are fish and chips, peri-peri prawns, molten cheese nachos, fish burger, BBQ ribs and corn dogs, among others. We constantly try out new things to give customers a reason to come back,” offers D’Souza. The food truck’s sales amount to an average of R8,500 daily with a 30% food cost, adds D’Souza.
Today, everyone wants more food options around their workplace or home surroundings, and ones that run late into the night. In the past five months of business, we have reached an average of R6 lakh per month of sales.
Vikrant Misra, co-founder, Eggjactly
It’s very troublesome to start a food truck mainly because the legislative authorities themselves aren’t clear about the rules and regulations of the licensing requirements. That only elongates the waiting period of opening the business .
Neeraj Kambli, founder, FoGo
People come to our truck and wonder why they’re paying a premium price for a ‘thela-wala’ ice-cream. But then, that’s part and parcel of business. We get great response from various housing societies, corporate offices, etc, and that keeps us going.
Pallavi Kuchroo, co-founder, Frugurpop
