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But you had paying clients, too, right?Really, from the beginning I had one or two clients.
And you're still getting clients?
Yeah and no. I'm more doing consulting for existing clients still. I've worked with Kung Fu Tacos, Liba [Falafel], Hapa SF. I'm helping Curtis [Kimball, aka Crème Brûlée Man] get his cart legal.
How does the consulting work?
If a client was, "I want to open this truck" ― what I used to do, and still do, is offer a turnkey solution to mobile vending operations. That means business planning, I do a feasibility study, everything from truck design, food and menu costing, pricing out different quotes for different trucks. Once the truck is built, I help with permitting, and then after that I do ongoing consulting.
Do you support yourself from it?
I do accounting also.
You mean for non-food-vendor clients?
Yes. But basically starting ― I don't know, right about spring of last year, Tabe was my main source of income. Am I getting rich doing this? No. Off the Grid is a new business, and right now, it's more about trying to break even and spread the word about street food. And trying to make the other markets a success. It takes a huge amount of time. I wake up about 6 every morning, and go to bed late every night, and spend most of my day working on this.
When did you start to map the vendors on SF Cart Project?
I basically started keeping track for myself, becuase I needed to track down my clients. I started keeping track of where they were and then retweeting it. And then I thought other people might have an interest in the information. People find value in it. I like the interaction, encouraging people to go out and try street food.
Where are things at with the expansion of Off the Grid into city parks?
Honestly I have no idea. I'm waiting on the Parks Department to get back to me with final operations information. I'd like to roll them out as fast as possible, in a way that's respectful of the neighborhood.
Will you roll out all three at once?
I'm not going to roll them out all at once, just for the sake of getting them out there. I want each to have an identity of their own.
