A Tale of Two Denver Food Trucks

A Tale of Two Food Trucks

Denver has seen rapid growth of food trucks as they have become popular all across the country. The Food Network had a show The Great Food Truck Race that pitted food trucks against each other in multiple towns and cities across the United States.  It is exciting and enticing that many trucks are serving cuisine as good as well established restaurants. Food trucks are used for many purposes as some complement existing food establishments while others allow entrepreneurs and cooking enthusiasts to run a business without the costs of a permanent storefront. For this post I decided to interview the owners of two food trucks who are based in Denver. They differ from each other in that Uber Sausage has a food truck in addition to a physical restaurant whereas Solar Roast on the Road was started because this allowed the owners to run a business without the additional expense of an actual location.

Uber Sausage started in 2011 as a restaurant based upon the desire of three friends (Alex Gschwend, Brad Arguello and Henry DeMatteis) who are originally from Denver. I recently had a chance to interview Alex, whose grandfather (originally from Switzerland) introduced his family to the Swiss sausage and was the reason behind Uber Sausage. I spoke with Alex about why the business has added a food truck in addition to their restaurant on

2730 East Colfax Avenue

in East Denver.

Please note that J will refer to Jesse; A for Alex; N for Nathan

J: Why did Uber Sausage decide to add a food truck in addition to your location on Colfax?

A: The reason we have a food truck is because it allows us to get food to new people and new places while helping to build our brand and increase our market share in Colorado.

J: How do you choose your locations?

A: We choose locations by partnering up with specific businesses, like breweries and we also do a lot of summer festivals and events, like Civic Center Eats. Sometimes it is by trial and error by going to an event and determining afterwards as to whether it is worth us attending again.

J: What is unique about food truck owners? 

A: I think one thing that makes food truck owners and operators unique is that there is a general camaraderie amongst all of them and they are always willing to help each other out. It is almost a family in that sense. 

J: What is the most popular item on your menu?

A:The most popular item goes back and forth between The Swiss and the Colorado Buffalo.

J: How does Uber Sausage give back to Denver and the surrounding communities?

A: We give back to the community by providing food to numerous charities and sponsoring a number of East High teams, like the Robotics and the Rugby team. 

For more information about Uber Sausage check them out at

www.theubersausage.com or http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheUberSausage

Solar Roast on the Road also started in 2011 as the idea of two

longtime Denver friends, Nathan Stern and Chris Bass. I met Nathan at a networking event and was immediately interested when he told me he ran a coffee truck. I love coffee and hadn’t heard of many food trucks that specialized in coffee. In addition, as the name implies Nathan and Chris utilize solar panel on their truck, which is very unique in the food truck industry.

J: Why a food truck?

N: We started off aiming for a coffee shop with a board games theme, but for our first business we wanted to start with something more agile, that would allow us to try a wide variety of possibilities.  We saw the growing popularity of food trucks in the Denver area, and we thought that a truck would provide us the variety and flexibility we wanted.

J: Why did you decide to use solar panels?

N: Mike and Dave Hartkop started Solar Roast Coffee in 2005, becoming the only roaster in the world to use solar power to roast their coffee beans.  We were looking for a roaster to use for our coffee shop, and when we decided to do a truck instead of a shop we approached Mike and Dave to see if we could use their branding, to introduce Solar Roast Coffee to the Denver market.  We love what they are doing with solar panels, and they are also great people with great plans for the future, so we are honored to be representing the Solar Roast Coffee brand here in Denver.

J: What do the panels power in the truck?

N: On our truck, our solar panels power all of our equipment except our espresso machine, which includes refrigerator, blender, grinders, microwave, cash register, pumps, etc.

J: How did you choose the locations you go to?

N: We initially decided to target office buildings to vend coffee, and we started with the first buildings of an acceptable size who were excited to have us at their building.  We are realizing now that we want a greater diversity of locations, which includes college campuses, public festivals and private events.

J: What is unique about food truck owners/operators?

N: The camaraderie among food truck owners is what sets this community apart.  We often sell at the same locations, which puts us in direct competition with each other frequently.  While everyone wants to do a good business, we also want to help each other out to make sure the community remains vibrant.   Whether it is booking shared events, cross promoting, or helping out with the (frequent) mechanical problems that trucks experience, the level of collaboration among trucks is extraordinary.  We always say that some of the best food in Denver is served in trucks, and it is wonderful that the operators are great people, in addition to having a great product.

J: What is the most popular drink people order?

N: Our two signature drinks are our Pueblo Mocha, which is four shots of espresso and cayenne pepper in addition to espresso, milk and chocolate. The other is our Filbert Mocha, which is a combination of espresso, milk, chocolate, caramel and hazelnut.  We find that people want to try drinks that they can't find anywhere else, so those drinks are our most popular.  As you might expect, most people want our drinks iced or blended during the summer.

J: How do you give back to the community?

N: We have been a part of many great community events, but we are most proud of our partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver.  We are sponsoring their Young Professionals builds, providing the volunteers with coffee and then volunteering for the builds ourselves whenever possible.  In addition, we are beginning a project to build a solar roaster down in Haiti, since many people there can't afford energy costs for roasting from conventional sources.  We'll move forward on that project later in the year! 

For more information on Solar Roast On the Road check them out at

http://www.facebook.com/#!/SolarRoastOntheRoad