Food truck concepts supplement café’s offerings

The lunchtime crowds are a bit heavier on the days food truck concepts like Sloppy Mama’s BBQ, Red Hook Lobster Pound DC and Big Cheese bring their fare to the action station in the Greensboro Station Cafe in the SAIC Tower in Tysons Corner, Va. The café is managed by Flik Hospitality Group, and the food truck concepts are there at the company’s invitation.

“It’s almost like not fighting city hall,” explains Flik Regional Vice President Adam Salem. “Food trucks aren’t going anywhere, and in Tysons Corner, where Greensboro Café is, there are a lot of millennials and young people, and even though we’ve modernized the traditional café, they still love the food trucks even though the check average is about $3 to $4 higher per person. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we partner with them to come in one or two a week?’”

The café still has its everyday stations serving their usual pizza, grill, deli, salad bar and other offerings, but the action station hosts a food truck concept on designated days. The truck operator brings his own product and staff to prepare and serve, and the café gets a percentage of the resultant sales.

For the truck operators, it’s a chance to make additional sales and promote their brand, especially at a time of year when cold weather hampers outdoor operations.
Salem says equipment needs are not an obstacle, nor is there mixing at the site with the established stations. “They don’t go in the kitchen,” he explains. “They prep their food before they come here and then just take it to the station.”

The only onsite cooking done by the operators is some finishing off in front of guests at the station.

Currently, three food truck concepts are on board. Flik requires each to have insurance and health/sanitation certificates, and the truck operation has to be vetted by Flik parent Compass Group before it can participate in the program. The trucks selected are those with food concepts that offer a change from what’s already being served in the café. They are also the ones observed to have the longest lines, Salem adds.

The program has been in place since January and Salem says there has been a definite uptick in participation—about 20 percent on average—on the days the truck concepts are in the café. That’s on top of the fairly impressive 50 percent the café gets from the building population on normal days, he adds.

“I don’t want to do it every day because it would get tired,” Salem says. Currently, truck concepts are in the café 3 times a week.

The idea came up in a meeting to talk about the competition the trucks were giving the café “and the thought was to try to build an alliance that could be beneficial for everybody,” Salem recalls. “Rather than try to get the city or county to remove 15 food trucks—they’re not going to do that and I don’t want to fight that battle—I’d rather build an alliance.”

In fact, he says he’s looking to build on the program and is looking at two other locations at the moment, including one in the District of Columbia. “If they’re lined up near one of our units, it’s a natural thing to consider. They’re not going to go away anytime soon.”

Even though food trucks become busier with the advent of warmer weather, Salem wants to keep up the program after spring arrives.

“Why give [customers] a reason to go out?” he says.

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]