The weather forecast for Grand Rapids, Michigan is a balmy 38°F with snow flurries. Yet even Midwestern winters haven’t slowed down Lauren D’Angelo and her clan from rolling out Patty Matters, the burger truck, to events all around Western Michigan.
Lauren recalls some of the biggest challenges she’s had to overcome including “figuring out how to operate during the winter. We live in Michigan, which can get a little cold in the winter. Figuring out how to keep everything running in the freezing cold was definitely a learning curve for us. But we seemed to keep everything going, we had a couple of freeze ups along the way but nothing broke or exploded so we are making it.”
All About Family
As with many small foodservice businesses, the story of Patty Matters is a story of family. “My family is big on cooking and we have all worked in restaurants. I started my first job as a hostess at a restaurant and continued working in them since. It was always a fun environment and everyone you worked with seemed like family.”
Take It On the Road
Owning a food truck, it’s no surprise that one of the things Lauren loves about her business is “that we are mobile. Being a food truck, we can go lots of different venues. Everyone is excited to see a food truck and we are always asked questions about our business. We always have something to look forward to, going to all the different places and events. There seems to be this culture that surrounds food trucks, and it awesome to be a part of that.”
Being mobile also has made for some interesting memories for the truck including “everything from people getting patted down and arrested on our generator, to fights breaking out. Getting to celebrate someone’s big day with them to seeing an awesome concert or show. It seems that every day has something interesting to offer!”
Challenges
“We have had a lot of struggles starting our business. But I would say that one of our biggest struggles has been figuring out how to operate during the winter. We live in Michigan, which can get a little cold in the winter. Figuring out how to keep everything running in the freezing cold was definitely a learning curve for us. But we seemed to keep everything going, we had a couple of freeze ups along the way but nothing broke or exploded so we are making it. It is awesome that everyone is still excited to see us open in the winter and we are having fun doing it.”
Cambro Helps
And Lauren also uses Cambro products to help her business. ‘We literally store everything in containers. Cambro products help keep us organized. We use the containers to store our food prep, other containers, utensils and numerous other items. Because we are constantly loading and unloading our truck we need everything to stack and fit well so we can optimize our space.”
We wish Lauren and the Patty Matters truck continued success regardless of the weather! As the Cambro Business of the Week selection, Lauren will receive a storage prize pack. To nominate your business, click here.
Links for Patty Matters
