This week, the Orient spoke with owners of Campus Food Trucks, Steve Borukhin ’14 and Monty Barker ’16, about changes within the company this fall.
Are you the new owners this year?
SB: No, I’m one of the original founders, and then we bought out one of the three original guys who graduated last year and sold the shares to two sophomores.
MB: I’m one of them and Ben Citrin [’16] is the other.
SB: So there are four owners: me, Eric Edelman [’13] who stayed on, and the two sophomores. We’re trying to keep the truck here for as long as they’ll have us. Just pass it along, you know.
Who was the senior who graduated?
SB: Isaac Brower [’13].
How many hours do you guys work personally?
MB: It depends, honestly. On big weekends, it’s hard to find workers. You can work two nights a weekend consistently. We try to get employees, try to get people trained and passionate about the truck.
How long is a shift?
MB: We start around 9 p.m. There’s a lot of prep that goes in, about an hour of prep. We’re open from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. and then clean up. By the time I’m in bed, it’s 3:45 a.m. or 4 a.m.
What’s your busiest time during the night?
SB: Depends on what’s going on on campus. On Thursdays, it’s usually when the pub gets out, but generally, around 1 a.m. when the party on campus closes. People going to after-parties off campus will get something along the way. And then some nights, where the majority of people are doing other stuff off campus, there’s less of a rush.
Super Snack ends at 1 a.m., right? There’s a window from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m.
SB: Yeah, it’s definitely a rush then.
MB: I think it’s good we’re around during that rush. Clearly, it shows there’s still a demand for food, and it cuts down on drunk driving.
Do you have any new menu items coming out?
SB: We did a healthier option—a grilled chicken Asian glazed snack wrap—for Faculty Appreciation Day, because the faculty aren’t drunk when they come to the truck. At least we hope not. Monty also created a new menu.
MB: I created fried ice cream, which turns some people off and other people really like. I love it, honestly. What it is is chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in crushed up Cinnamon Toast Crunch that’s then fried. You sprinkle it with confectioner’s sugar. It’s hot and cooked on the outside, while on the inside it’s still cold like ice cream. It’s a really unique thing. You have to try it...it’s honestly my favorite thing at the truck right now.
Why’d you get involved in the truck?
MB: I needed a job, to be quite honest. I like working in food service. I went to a school on an organic farm. I’m very passionate about where food comes from. [The truck] is a cool opportunity, and it seemed like a lot more fun than [Bowdoin’s] Dining Service.
SB: Food is a passion. I’ve always wanted to open restaurants when I’m older, and this is obviously a good first step...I came up with the idea when I was a freshman and then it took about a year to get the school on board. It opened my sophomore spring. I haven’t looked back since.
Do you have any future plans or any directions you want to take it?
SB: No, I think we’re pretty happy with the way it’s going. We constantly try to develop one or two new menu items per year, or even a semester. Originally, part of the plan was to spread food trucks to other campuses, but there’s a huge liability in entrusting students with a truck. Obviously we’ve created an excellent relationship with the campus at Bowdoin, but it’s hard to convince other campuses. For the immediate future, I’d think that it’ll be just Bowdoin and continuing as we are.
How much stuff do you sell a weekend?
SB: We sell about 200 burgers a weekend, around 75 to 100 CFTs [a grilled cheese stuffed with chicken tenders and bacon] and about 200 snack wraps. We go through a lot of fries, a lot of chicken tender basket orders. Quesadillas have been doing well.
How much money is that?
SB: At the end of the weekend, we’re pretty much always profiting. Let’s just say we’re happy with how we do.
So do the four of you split the profit?
SB: Eric and I reinvest, and they choose to be paid.
MB: It’s actually more expensive to open up after being closed than you’d think—whatever repairs that need to be done to the truck, etc. There’s not much money that actually gets taken out. But regular employees get paid by the hour.
How many employees do you have?
SB: We have an email list of about fifteen or twenty. I’d say on a constant basis, we’re looking at about ten.
There are two people on duty at a time, right?
SB: Three.
MB: One person takes the order. There’s one person that does snack wraps and the majority of the frying. And the other person’s on the grill. Often, we’ll help each other out depending on what’s happening during the night.