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The Great

Gulf Eat Out

“W e were the first, really,” says Nathen Furlong, co-founder of Desert Chill, widely regarded as the UAE’s first food truck. He is fondly recalling the

halcyon days of 2008, when he and his brother Dan introduced their mobile ice cream concept to the sweltering streets of Dubai.

The converted Mercedes trucks—a rather more sophisticated vehicle, it must be said, than the British ice cream vans of the Furlongs’ childhood memories—attended events like the Dubai Rugby Sevens, and delivered Magnums, Twisters and Cornet-tos door-to-door. They belted out Greensleeves from a tinny PA system as they went cheerfully on their way through the desert heat, uniting communities in cool refreshment.

As business ideas go, it’s hard to imagine why nobody had thought of it before. “We tried to pioneer the space and the market as a whole,” says Furlong. “It was a bit challenging because we were a little ahead of the curve.”

But now the curve is catching up. This month, the Desert Chill team will join a convoy of food trucks distributing their wares to an eager public as part of the Dubai Food Festival. A variety of food trucks will be pitching up at various locations across the city, serving a range of tasty treats, from gourmet burgers (BurgerFuel and She Burger) and frozen yoghurt (Melt), to Pak-istani soul food (Moti Roti) and organic coffee (Raw Coffee).

Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Food Festival has shipped in 10 food trucks from the UK to join its Street Feast event, where side-walk snackers can indulge in some of London’s finest gourmet cheese toasties (The Cheese Truck), or choice cuts of British offal (The Roadery). Naturally, you’ll find Desert Chill there too, serving “Arabian Dates” and “Saffron Cheesecake”.

The first events of their kind in the UAE, they reflect the growing global interest in food truck fare. But could they also signal a watershed moment for mobile street food SMEs in the region?

The food truck phenomenon is officially in overdrive. All over the world, from New York City to New South Wales, food

trucks are taking to highways and byways to offer all manner of

gourmet delights. Fancy some Taiwanese dumplings or French-Canadian poutine (chips, cheese and gravy)? There’s a truck for that. How about Japanese gyoza from a 1940s Ford Pickup? Step this way. Wherever there’s a roadside and people, it seems there’s a food truck ready to pull up and start serving.

But mobile food is nothing new. Like many a global cultur-al craze, the story of food trucks starts in the USA. It goes right back to just after the American Civil War, when “Chuckwagons” pioneered by Charles Goodnight would follow and feed hungry cattle herders. Back in the late 1860s, the contemporary food truck was an old US Army wagon fitted with shelves and tables, peddling preservable foodstuffs like cornmeal and coffee.

American city-dwellers acquired a taste for mobile food after 1872, when Walter Scott parked his converted wagon outside a newspaper office in Providence, Rhode Island; journalists being inveterate late-night munchers, it was an instant success. But it wasn’t until 1888 that the first custom-made mobile food wagons appeared. They were built by TH Buckley, the self-styled “Origi-nal Lunch Wagon King” of Worcester, Connecticut, to promote his famous oyster stew. According to Richard JS Gutman’s Amer-ican Diner Then and Now, Buckley’s first wagon, “The Owl”, was so well received he decided to ditch the stew altogether and con-centrate on building wagons.

It’s at this stage that the food truck story meets a fork in the road. Some of those early vendors decided business was so good there was no need to move. So the wagons’ wheels came off, quite literally, and the classic American roadside diner was born. It wasn’t until the years following World War II, when a boom in construction took thousands of workers to out-of-town build-ing sites where restaurateurs feared to tread, that the modern food truck was born. Those hungry workers needed feeding, and it was the mobile food vendors who satisfied the demand.

Today’s gourmet food truck is a far cry from the typical “Roach Coach” of yore. Forget greasy cardboard-burgers with soggy onions on parched buns, unceremoniously slapped out by a roll-up smoking mope. Instead, think post-ironic “dirty burgers” on toasted Krispy Kreme donuts, with locally-sourced

The global food truck craze is rolling into town

for the UAE’s annual food festivals. But can

the mobile eateries find a permanent home on

the streets of the Gulf? By James Brennan

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Mobile MenusBurger Fuel

Hamburger with cheese AED30

Chook Royale (chicken burger) AED30

Motobites (crumbed pumpkin, carrot, chick-

pea and ginger bites) AED25

Spud fries AED15

Desert ChillMagnum AED12

Nogger Sandwich AED10Twister AED8

Cornetto AED11

Raw Coffee CompanyEspresso - single AED12

Cappucino AED14Latte AED15

Iced Latte AED20

MeylasChabab bread with

cheese and honey AED15Luqaimat (doughnut

balls) AED20Fendal (sweet potato

fries) AED20Batheetha (crumbled

local dates with roasted wheat flour) AED20

SaltX2 Hook slider (2oz

wagyu beef hamburger with cheese) AED35

X2 Cheetos chicken slider (deep fried chicken,

melted cheese, butter bun) AED40

Cheese fries AED17Original lemonade

AED20

Desert Chill is the UAE’s first ice-cream truck

Restaurant chains like BurgerFuel have got in on the act

Jake’s by The Food Truck serves up bagel burgers

Melt’s dessert menu includes frozen yoghurt

“Using social media was like adding gasoline to the food truck fire. For customers, the game of finding mobile food and having the latest information became almost as important as the meal itself ”

organic double-smoked bacon, doused in maple syrup, and served by a lumberjack shirt-wearing hipster with a Rasputin beard. By any industry’s standards, that’s quite a transformation.

The turning point came after the global financial crisis. Large-scale blue-collar redundancy meant many traditional food trucks went out of business. But a good many chefs were laid off at the same time. And if there’s one thing that really excites a chef, it’s the opportunity to be in charge of a kitchen — even if it’s a kitchen on wheels.

“Food trucks have existed for over a century, but it really came to prominence after the recent recession in 2008,” says Lawrence Assadourian, who runs Eat Street, an incubation plat-form for culinary entrepreneurs in the UAE. “You suddenly had two types of operator. One where the vast majority were ex-chefs who had been let go from their jobs at the height of the reces-sion, and they wanted to be their own boss. They thought food trucks were a good launching pad to potentially open a restau-rant. And then there was the second type of individual who had absolutely no drive to become a multi-gazillionaire, but food trucks offered enough of an income to live a comfortable life.”

Mark Manguera and chef Roy Choi are definitely in the former category. Their Los Angeles food truck Kogi Korean BBQ struck fusion street-food gold when it put Korean barbecue inside a Mexican taco. They used Twitter to market their invention, which created the kind of community buzz for which many an estab-lished brand would kill. The trucks became meeting places for like-minded people keen to be part of something independent, alternative and cool. The tacos tasted great, too. In its first year, Kogi grossed around $2 million.

Kogi’s special recipe of high-quality fusion food with a healthy sprinkle of community spirit sparked a food truck revolution that spread like wildfire across America and beyond. Mobile food vendors are now a common sight on the streets of London, Paris and Sydney. The Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race is into its fifth season, and the 2014 film Chef, starring and directed by John Favreau, was an international hit. Favreau plays a chef who quits his job in a restaurant to set up a food truck. The film is funny and uplifting; as quirky and comforting as a kimchi que-sadilla. Chef also stars Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey, Jr., leaving little doubt that food truck culture has roared into the mainstream.

A recent study by Emergent Research expects US annual food truck revenue to more than quadruple from 2012’s $650

million to $2.7 billion by 2017. It’s hardly surprising, then, that cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi want a taste of the action.

Natalia Gorzawski is a research analyst at Euromonitor Inter-national. She believes an increasing influx of expatriates, a young population and a broad consumer base with high and growing disposable incomes is good news for the mobile food indus-try in the UAE. She also points to the willingness of UAE con-sumers to try new things, especially when it comes to food. “The novelty factor of food trucks, as well as their current overall set-up as a new, modern and trendy option, is ex-pected to guarantee a decent success,” she says.

But when the first Desert Chill trucks rolled out in Dubai almost seven years ago, they were motoring through virgin territory. There was nobody to ask about the unique challenges of mobile food vending in the UAE; nobody to advise on sourcing and converting a truck; and nobody to ask about paperwork. Yet, while licensing and legislation proved tricky at the outset, Desert Chill’s pop-ularity was never in doubt.

“One thing that’s always been positive is that the communities have really enjoyed it,” says Furlong.

“They’ve actually interacted around the trucks, bringing neighbourhoods and communities together. That’s never really been an issue. It’s just the rules and regulations, which are slowly coming into place.”

Assadourian’s Eat Street exists to guide mobile food vending entrepreneurs through the rigours of setting up their food trucks in the UAE. Part of his remit is to advise on licensing and regulation issues. “The costs are quite minimal and reasonable,” he says. “It’s just that at the moment there is no such thing in Dubai as a food truck licence, in any shape or form.”

“The way it currently operates, it is event and site specific, so a food truck operator has to identify the event he wishes to attend. He’ll approach the event organiser; he’ll sign an agreement with the festival. That agree-ment is then taken to Dubai Municipality who will look at the Dubai Economic Department licence of the operator. If the operator has a catering licence then the municipality will give him a permit to cater that specific event.”

Assadourian believes Dubai Tourism and their counterparts in Abu Dhabi are key to encouraging a formal and effective governmental response to the needs of a burgeoning market. “Through the Dubai Food Festival and the food truck

convoy, they are looking to build a case study for the govern-ment to show that trucks can move around from area to area and they haven’t had a negative impact on communities.”

But things are already beginning to change, as Euromonitor’s Gorzawski explains. “While in the past, food trucks only obtained event-based licences, in 2014 we witnessed the first company to receive a licence that allows its trucks to roam.” The Food Truck

Co., more commonly known as Jake’s, can now sell its gourmet bagel burgers at various lo-cations around the city. Using social media as a communications platform, and with a mobile application in development, it aims

to keep customers informed as to where it will appear next.

A clever social media campaign can dramat-ically reduce marketing and advertising costs. It’s a strategy that helped project LA’s Kogi into the big time, which in turn inspired another of the UAE’s big food truck players: Salt. Using its robust Instagram presence and the Twitter hashtag #findsalt, Salt’s gourmet burger crew were able to announce to followers where the retro-style silver Airstream trailer would be at any given time. “Using social media was like adding gasoline to the food truck fire,” says As-sadourian. “For customers, the game of finding mobile food and having the latest information became almost as important as the meal itself.”

As food trucks go, both Salt and Jake’s by The Food Truck are lavish affairs with signifi-cant financial backing. Whereas many US and UK vendors are able to operate on a tight budget, the UAE market appears to have more than its fair share of high rollers. Established restaurant chains and hotels have got in on the act.

BurgerFuel is a New Zealand burger chain with branches in Australia and several GCC coun-tries, including 13 outlets in the UAE. Its food truck serves up 100 per cent pure grass-fed beef as well as vegetarian patties, but does the expe-rience embody the original indie spirit that fired the food truck revolution? “For BurgerFuel, it’s about making sure we are always adding to the event by providing a great experience, which is ultimately what people want,” says Farah George, general manager of BurgerFuel. “People want to eat amazing food made by passionate people and enjoy themselves while they’re doing it—so it’s not hard for us to identify with that sort of ethos.”

Meanwhile, in the shadow of Burj Khalifa in Downtown Dubai, Vida is a four-star hotel with its very own food truck. Known as the Portable Gourmet Station, the restored Airstream trailer serves mac ‘n’ cheese and smoked brisket buns on the street outside the hotel. Owned by the Emaar Group, it’s rumoured to be the first of

a fleet of food trucks ready to be rolled out in the near future.According to journalist and communications consultant

Samantha Wood, founder of the impartial restaurant review website www.foodiva.net, many of Dubai’s food trucks miss the point entirely. “The whole purpose of food trucks is that they should offer an entry level into the food business, with the idea that the good ones go on to open their own restaurant rather than high-profile hotels launching their own food trucks,” she says. “It’s a shame that investment is not channelled to amateur cooks here by subsidising a food truck rental scheme perhaps.”

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Despite the emergence of some big players, there are attractive opportunities here for SMEs

looking to gain a foothold in Dubai’s lucrative foodservice industry. Ghaf Kitchen is a boutique events and party cater-ing service which, according to Samantha Wood, “serves up excellent British-inspired dishes”. It doesn’t have a bricks-and-mortar outlet yet; but with the support of a production kitchen, its vintage 1962 Citroën H van—considered Dubai’s first gourmet food truck—gives it a recognisable presence at festivals and events. Then there’s Raw Coffee Company, a boutique roast-ery that until recently had focused on supplying beans to food outlets and businesses from their custom-built roast-ery in Al-Quoz. Co-creator Kim Thompson sees Raw’s foray into the world of food trucks as a shrewd market-ing move ahead of opening bricks-and-mortar outlets.

“We’re still a small business and events is the only marketing we do,” says Thompson. “We paid 11,000 dirhams ($2,995) in co-parts for the truck. We spent 90,000 dirhams to ship it down here, and we’ve bud-geted 550,000 dirhams to fit it out. It’s a significant investment, but we go to events where we can make a lot of coffee. We believe within 18 months we’ll have paid for it.”

Like any successful food truck, Raw’s business model is geared towards simplicity. “Just coffee,” as Thompson puts it. Keeping menu items to a minimum makes sense when time and space are limited. Raw’s 28-foot Chevrolet can shift more than 2,000 coffees per event, which at an average of around 16 dirhams per cup represents a healthy return. “Obviously the margins on selling a cup of coffee are more attractive than selling a bag of coffee,” adds Thompson.

“The success of the food truck—outside of elements like brand personality, experience and quality of food—is how many items can you sell per hour,” says Assadou-rian. “Real estate has location, location, location. With food trucks it’s volume, volume, volume.”

Another factor is the weather. Euromonitor’s Gorzawski believes the UAE’s hot summers could restrict growth in the food truck market. “Extreme weather conditions, with tem-peratures up to 50 degrees, make it difficult to work with this concept in a way it is used in other countries,” she says. Thompson agrees: “We probably won’t be using the truck from May to August. It’s very hot, but we also do cold coffee—a lot of natural frappuccino type things with date syrup.”

However hot it might get, the weather holds little fear for Mohamad Bitar, founder and managing director of JF Street Food (formerly Just Falafel). The bricks-and-mortar SME started with a limited falafel menu in Abu Dhabi, and has branched out into eight countries since its launch in 2007. But as part of a rebranding ex-ercise, it’s looking to grab a slice of the food truck action.

“When people want to take a break and eat, they want a place that is easy to find,” says Bitar. “I like the food truck concept as it enables you to go where your customers are. It is also used to test areas before you invest in real estate. Our menu makes it easy to be everywhere, as falafel is the original street food. The food truck should have smaller menus which require less over

heads. Our food trucks will be outfitted to deliver on our new experience, so stay tuned.”

Falafel might be the original street food of the Middle East, but not the UAE. For many expatriates and visitors to the country, Emirati food is something of an enigma, notable only by its invisibility. Few restaurants offer the national cuisine, but one Emirati businesswoman aims to change that—and food trucks are integral to her plans.

Shaikha Al-Kaabi set up Meylas, initially as a refreshment kiosk in Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium. After a positive

response the concept has now hit the road, with appearanc-es at events like the Abu Dhabi Food Festival. Meylas puts a

street food spin on traditional Emirati delicacies like luqaimat doughnuts and crispy riggag bread, which is stuffed with meat or chicken and turned into a wrap. “In a permanent location, not a lot of people will get the chance to try Emirati food,” says Al-Kaabi. “I decided to go for a mobile restaurant because I wanted to reach as many people as possible, for them to get to know my country’s story through our local food.” Al-Kaabi says the average outlay on a food truck in the UAE is around 600-800,000 dirhams, and that it might take around seven to eight months to see a return on that investment.

In the UK, it’s a different story. Gourmet offal specialist Dan Shearman is the owner of The Roadery, one of the London food trucks appearing at the Abu Dhabi Food Festival. “[In London] you could feasibly get up and running with around £2,000 [$3,058] for a basic gazebo, second hand equipment, and in-surance all in. With a van it was about £15,000 for me to get on the road with a decent kitchen fit-out and all insurance needed,” he says. “A nice van certainly gets you noticed, but in my view

if you have a great product and passion, you could trade from a skip—although you might have trouble passing your

hygiene inspections.”Dan counts the massive sense of community among

fellow food truckers and customers in London among the most rewarding aspects of owning a

food truck. “I got into street food for the adven-ture, not the money,” he says. “Hence jumping on the opportunity to trade in Abu Dhabi. It’s an unknown, and who knows, I may come back with just empty pockets and a sun tan, but I’ll

still be a happy man.” <BW>