Troy Salazar is getting ready to celebrate one year of being in business.
Unfortunately, the anniversary date may be overshadowed as it’s very close to another, more sombre milestone.
Salazar, owner of the Barrie food truck Around the World in 80 Tacos, spoke with BarrieToday to discuss starting a business during a pandemic, the ebbs and flows of 2020, what makes an excellent taco and why he’s chosen to start a GoFundMe campaign to help keep his business afloat.
“The truck officially opened March 14, 2020. It was the day before (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau shut the country down,” Salazar said with a laugh.
“We didn’t know what to do at the beginning. We also shut down for 14 days. Then, we were deemed essential, because we’re take-out only,” he said. “It was a slow start to get our name out there and get a customer base.”
Salazar said it was a stressful time, as he had already invested money into the business and information from the provincial and federal governments was changing week to week.
“For the first few months, we weren’t paying our bills. Once the word got out and the restrictions were lifted a bit, word spread,” he said.
Salazar says he decided four years ago he wanted to start a mobile food business.
“It has lower overhead and less labour (costs). I’ve been in the food business for more than 20 years. I wanted a small little operation where I could maximize my sales,” he said.
Tacos jumped out to Salazar as he hadn’t seen any taco trucks locally.
“I didn’t really even know what a taco was until I went to Mexico. All I knew was the ‘Canadian’ version, like Old El Paso kits,” he said. “I thought, what if I could pick a country? (For example), the Italian has meatballs, sausage, marinara and mozzarella cheese, thrown on a taco.”
The food truck’s menu includes 10 regular featured tacos, as well as special tacos that are swapped out week to week. Flavours are inspired by Caribbean, Greek, English, Chinese and U.S. cuisine, to name a few.
“You think you know what a taco is, but I wanted to give something people had never had before or seen,” he said.
Over the summer, Salazar parked his truck near a business on Vespra Street. When the city amended bylaws through the Patios Everywhere program to waive fees for food trucks for the summer season, he says that did help his business.
He was also given permission to park his truck at Centennial Beach for short increments, and made arrangements with local businesses — such as the Sandbox Centre, Allandale Veterinary Clinic and Zenetec — to swing by upon occasion at lunchtime.
He also thought outside the box and started offering to drive-by service to small parties and gatherings through bookings. He served special tacos at a wedding in October.
“Our catering is where we added to it. For a food truck to cater; that’s not normal. It worked great,” he said.
His hard work paid off. Salazar said he managed to make a small amount of profit in a year that has seen other small businesses shutter.
Currently, Salazar rents his truck from March until October. With COVID-19 restrictions forcing him to think outside the box when it comes to his business model, he’d like to be able to operate year-round. He recently started a GoFundMe campaign – accessible through his business’s Facebook page – to help purchase the truck outright so he can make that happen while he starts to gear up to reopen for the season.
“We need a down payment on the truck and new equipment,” he said. “I’m a small business. I’m not Walmart or McDonald’s. I’m just trying to make a life for my family.”
Possible future revenue streams Salazar is considering is circulating the festival circuit – once festivals start running again – and operating year-round depending on weather. When he looks back over his unusual first year in business, he does so with optimism.
“Right off the bat, it discouraged me, but I was already all-in at that point. If you can persevere and push through a pandemic and come out in the black, I believe that... you can push through anything,” said Salazar.
