PLANNING FOOD CART MENUS

For long term success, planning your food cart menu is critical

Buying a food cart is only the first step. Planning food cart menus is equally important. Even if you have the best food cart on the market, healthy sales depend on having a menu that appeals to your customers.

Street hawkers of food items are not just ordinary sellers who sell bags of chips and candy. At a reliable food cart on a busy street, one can easily find a menu that offers mouth-watering and delicious, even international, cuisine.

Planning an effective and delicious food cart menu and serving the best fare can be challenging for vendors. If you own a food cart business, or plan on starting one, you can surprise your regular customers with a wide variety of cuisine. To do so, you will have to ask yourself some genuine questions before stocking your cart.

Considerations when planning a cart menu

Your knowledge on cooking different food items
Popular food items within the area where you will sell
Ingredients easily available at the nearest retail as well as wholesale markets
Foods that can be easily transported from one place to another
Foods that you can cook easily, about foods that are cost effective to sell, foods that are not being sold by other mobile food carts and trucks; and
The timing of business to open – morning or evening or noon or night or late night.

Additionally, below given is a list of different food items that you can add to your menu:

Basic eatables: Sandwiches, wraps, salads, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza and tacos.

Gourmet delights: Lamb and beef specialties, designer potatoes, duck delights, designer creeps, escargot, crème brulee, lobster rolls and shrimp sandwiches

Ethnic favorites: Falafels, empanadas, egg rolls, sushi, souvlaki, quesadillas, steamed, dumplings and kebabs.

Desserts: Ice cream, cupcakes, donuts, brownies and cookies

Beverages: Soda, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, bottled water, juices and lemonade.

Apart from the menu mentioned above, it will be good for food sellers if they can enrich their menu with popular and dainty recipes from different parts of the world. Make sure, you are the master of the recipe that you serve through your cart - otherwise, things can go against you! When you have a rich and healthy menu to be served, you get a genuine reason to make customers feel happy and get your sales rolling.