Students "Grub Tough" at food truck fundraiser

Alice KorsStaff WriterThe aroma of braised beef and cheese fries overpowered the main quad as the four food trucks parked in Barnum Circle fired up their grills and opened for business. Throngs of students from all corners of campus wandered toward the enticing smells, joining crowds of others waiting to indulge in the delight of a fried mid-afternoon snack.With the ever-rising popularity of food truck dining, it is no wonder that when four of the tastiness food trucks in Los Angeles pulled into Barnum circle on Friday March 18 for "Grub Tough Truck Day," bands of hungry students eagerly waited in line to dine. Seniors Aidan Nathanson and Sean Robins brought forth the idea of a Grub Tough Truck Day fundraiser for the ROP’s Virtual Enterprise program and put their plan to create their own food truck into action.Grub Tough’s food truck started as the Virtual Enterprise class’s yearly mock business, but soon grew and expanded into an idea for a real business proposition. The mock truck was called “Chi-Chivitos” with a main menu item being a mouthwatering Uruguayan steak sandwich with bacon, fried eggs and all other expected sandwich toppings on ciabatta bread. However, the name was soon revamped to “Stacked” in order to stand out more against other food trucks.“Chi-Chivitos was a cute sounding name but it sounded like just another Latin food truck — too regular,” ROP teacher Terry Jones said. “So Aidan and Sean came up with Stacked, which was the truck’s original name. And then we made the business plans real. In the meantime, while they were already working on this project with the name Stacked, another company applied for a food license and opened a restaurant in February with the same name.”It was back to the drawing board for a new name for their budding business.“So once again, Aidan and Sean got thinking. Because the chivito sandwich is big, and stacked with so much meat, they came up with the name Stacked. But then, they thought of ‘Grub Tough.’ It was a big sounding name, and still showed that it was a guy’s kind of food,” Jones said.With the new name in mind, Nathanson and Robins began to work on the project outside of school, going to various food truck events and starting the Grub Tough blog, which received about 4,000 hits within the first nine days of publishing.In order to really begin making their dream of opening their own food truck Grub Tough a reality, Nathanson and Robins, already experts on the makings of a good meal, began finding ways to learn more about the business side of owning a food truck. They started by planning Samo’s first Food Truck Day, which served both as a learning opportunity for the two entrepreneurs and a fundraiser for their Virtual Enterprise class.“We wanted to use the skills that we learned in our business class and put them to use. What better way to do that than by throwing a fundraiser to help our class, while learning more about the business to help Grub Tough take a step in the right direction,” Robins said.The two took command of the fundraiser, seeking out various trucks and choosing the ones they thought would appeal most to students.“We contacted [the food trucks] though the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association, and they helped us to organize the event,” Nathanson said.“We got responses from about 30 trucks, and from there we chose the best four,” Robins added.During the event, Nathanson and Robins were able to go into the trucks, meet the workers and learn how each truck operated. One truck, MeSoHungry, even offered to let the two work for them for a week, so they could really get a sense of how the trucks work.According to Nathanson, they sold 600 tickets at $1 each for the event.Having nurtured Grub Tough in its growth from a class project to an infant business, Nathanson and Robins are almost ready to put the final touches on the plan and set it in motion. However, the date for Grub Tough’s first appearance as an operating truck is still up in the air.“We are hoping to open during summer, but as of right now it’s a bit unrealistic. We need to be smart about how we spend our money and see who invests in the company,” Robbins said.Nathanson agreed. “We would be fine opening it in a year, but we’re going to different colleges and money is a big thing. We can’t just open up and let the business fail,” he said.akors@thesamohi.com