March 29, 2024

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‘Dogfather’ vendor opens foods-truck kitchen area in Boylston

BOYLSTON – The Dogfather is making an supply that he hopes fellow food items-truck vendors can’t refuse.



a man standing in front of a truck: BOYLSTON - Mark Gallant, owner of WooTrucks, a division of Dogfather Vending, LLC., is renting out a new food truck center and commercial kitchen for food trucks, located at 67 Main Street in Boylston.


© T&G Personnel/Ashley Environmentally friendly
BOYLSTON – Mark Gallant, owner of WooTrucks, a division of Dogfather Vending, LLC., is renting out a new meals truck centre and professional kitchen for food stuff vehicles, found at 67 Primary Road in Boylston.

Mark Gallant, proprietor of WooTrucks, a division of Dogfather Vending LLC (and yes, The Dogfather), has opened a new meals-truck middle and professional kitchen.

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The new facility has protected storage for solutions, two 3 bay sinks, parking and storage for food items trucks, pumping and clean drinking water for their tanks, truck washing, meals storage, and a 1,300-square-foot incubator kitchen/prep place.

Located at 67 Key St. on Route 70, Gallant moved his food items-truck business enterprise from Harrison Street in Worcester’s Canal District for the reason that they outgrew it. And he hopes that fellow food stuff-truck suppliers observe him to his new headquarters.

“For just The Dogfather it was fantastic. But then all these other vans reported, ‘Oh, you have a business kitchen. Oh, we have to have to cook this or we want to cook that. We need to have support having our permit.’ Ahead of you understood we had 16 vehicles very last yrs,” Gallant claimed of the previous location. “You can not push a scooter down there, never intellect a 25-foot foodstuff truck. So we uncovered it was becoming untenable.”



a large commercial kitchen: The 1,300-square-foot incubator kitchen/prep area of WooTrucks in Boylston.


© T&G Staff members/Ashley Eco-friendly
The 1,300-sq.-foot incubator kitchen area/prep place of WooTrucks in Boylston.

Gallant estimates his new spot is four periods the dimension of his aged 1.

“The kitchen area we had down there (on Harrison Street), I constructed it just for me, just for The Dogfather. And all I make in the kitchen is my chili. It was 12-by-12,” Gallant stated. “This 1 listed here (in Boylston), I could in good shape 5 of them in the kitchen I have now. I have 48 feet of counter room. I had 4.”

Foodstuff-truck sellers can hire his kitchen area by the hour, Gallant stated.

“If they come in with five or six persons, in an hour, they could prep for a whole two times or a total weekend, depending on what they’re creating,” he reported. “A meals truck can prepare dinner every little thing on their truck, since they are a complete-blown, totally permitted kitchen area on wheels. But if somebody heading to do a food-truck competition or the Spencer Reasonable or anything, they are going to blow out of $5,000 to $6,000 worth of product or service of a working day. You simply cannot prep that in an 8-by-10 truck. You just cannot.”

Specializing in Cuban fusion delicacies, Veronica Crespo, proprietor of Sabor Latino, is also stationed at the new WooTrucks facility, as properly as two other food items-truck vendors who have deposits on room and whose businesses are closed for the winter season.

Crespo stated the WooTrucks facility is a “godsend” since now she would not have to park outside and get worried about the components.

“1 of my worries when I initially began this business enterprise was in which am I likely to set my truck,” Crespo said. “Initially in the first year, I experienced to deal with snow on the truck, my drinking water lines freezing and my h2o heater blew mainly because the traces froze no subject how tricky I tried to preserve it heat. Now because I can park my vehicle indoors, I really don’t have to fret about the water freezing anymore or the snow on prime. My truck is 10 ft superior. So receiving snow off the roof is not simple.”

Crespo also said the professional kitchen area is “really brilliant,” For an event such as Start on the Avenue, which ordinarily operates in September, she prepares about 200 pounds of meals that take a couple of hours to prepare, she stated.

“Having that kitchen area there is outstanding simply because I can cook dinner in huge volume,” Crespo said. “I will not have to get worried about selling out, which has transpired to me way far too often just before the finish of an function.”



a train is parked on the side of a building: The parking and storage area at WooTrucks in Boylston.


© T&G Team/Ashley Inexperienced
The parking and storage location at WooTrucks in Boylston.

Gallant mentioned he expects to get as several as 30 foodstuff vehicles renting room.

“I’ve experienced a whole lot of men and women appear crawling out of the woodwork in the previous couple of times. ‘I want to make cookies. I want to make this,’ that kind of point,” Gallant stated. “We’ve been undertaking that with food items vehicles for eight years now. ‘I want to individual a food stuff truck. What do I do?’ Arrive. We’ll help you, that variety of thing.”

Hesitant to shift out of Worcester to Boylston, Gallant jokes that a real estate agent talked him into it.

“I didn’t want to come in this article (to Boylston). I wanted to keep in Worcester. I seriously, definitely did. I was born and raised in Worcester and I’m outdated,” Gallant mentioned. “I mentioned (to the agent). ‘OK, I’ll meet up with your at 2 o’clock or whatever. And he said, ‘Well, if I’m not there, the door’s unlocked.’ If you did that in Worcester, the location would be vacant. So I fell in enjoy. All the parking I could at any time want. Our vacation hinges on 290. Every little thing we do. We have to get to 290. It has under no circumstances taken me lengthier than 4 minutes to get to 290 from listed here.”

Final 12 months, Gallant, who has four Dogfather foodstuff trucks, said Worcester, and only Worcester, had 62 permitted foodstuff vans. He mentioned 2020 was awful with the pandemic but they survived it.

“My truck has been out all along simply because we have a standard website but you don’t make a year’s pay back off that. You got to have your events, your food items-truck festivals. And, God, jeeze, not a single of them happened, not 1.”

Out of requirement, Gallant, Crespo and some of their fellow foods-truck suppliers obtained together and opened a internet site at Austin Liquors for a little bit last year and also environment up at some of the nearby breweries.

“We have to abide by the new 25-particular person out of doors gathering. if I place a meals truck someplace and I hit far more than 25 folks, I’m in difficulty,”  Gallant said. “Other than that, we’re previously held to a greater standard anyhow. I have to pull out a permit in each and every single town I go to for every solitary party. Myself, I operate eight food-truck festivals. So that’s eight permits there, additionally the 4 in Worcester, plus now Boylston. I pull about 30 to 40 permits a 12 months.”

In the course of the pandemic, Gallant reported he lost four food stuff-truck festivals (Worcester, Marlboro, Spencer and Sturbridge) in 10 days. The previous time he had an party was a “pandemic foodstuff-truck run” again in April in two diverse places in Worcester.

Gallant said he predicts he won’t see a “normal” food truck competition until eventually 2022.

“2020 was the worst 12 months. Most of us saved going. There were a several vans that never reopened simply because some of them shut for the winter anyhow and some other folks that attempted to reopen and had enough,” Gallant reported. “The Foodstuff Truck Throwdown, which we do in May possibly, 5,000 folks come to that. Okay, May well is not likely to happen. Let us face it. So we require arrive up with Program B. What are we heading to do? How are we heading to get these vans likely once again? I got some suggestions, most of them outrageous.”

This posting originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: ‘Dogfather’ seller opens food-truck kitchen in Boylston

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