Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven D’s.
Hi Steven, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I retired from Xcel Energy after 38 years of working in a power plant. Kim has worked in many restaurants, a nursing home, data entry, and even a pickle factory. Kim and I have a small commercial cleaning company together.
Our largest client was McNally Smith College of Music. We both loved the people we met there and watching their musical journeys from freshman year through graduation. In 2016, Kim started worrying that something was not quite right with the college and that they were “going under”. She decided she wanted a food truck. I hesitated at first and she finally convinced me that this was something we could do.
I was pretty scared at first. I was worried about failing or being told that our food wasn’t good enough. Kim, on the other hand, acted as if it was a foregone conclusion that we would succeed. We did a lot of arguing, debating, and compromising to come up with our menu, type of meat, seasonings, and even fresh mushrooms or canned. Fresh mushrooms won out.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I am so glad that I did not know what I didn’t know when I asked Steve to start a food truck with me. I would have been scared away from it. Everything seemed to tell us to stop. We first looked for a food truck or trailer around the twin cities and had no luck in our price range. We started looking on eBay and found one in Texas. We sent a nonrefundable deposit to the seller via Paypal and set up the date to pick it up. I told him that we would be in Oklahoma the following day and arrive in Texas the next. This is when he informed us the trailer was actually in Florida. We decided to head that way.
Upon arriving we discovered that the food trailer belonged to his mother and the pictures he had posted were much older when more equipment was in place. We took it and headed back to Minnesota. In Indiana all of the equipment tipped over. Back home in Minnesota we found that the sink and plumbing were not code, then found that the equipment was not able to be secured in a moving trailer, the window that had no glass had to be held open with a cane, and there was not a stitch of insulation. After a rebuild and new used equipment, we were ready to go. Day one: we pull into a lot where we had seen other trucks. We poured oil into the fryer and lit the flat top. We warmed the soup and cut the potatoes. The oil warmed and expanded.
We realized we had too much oil in, so we ladled the excess back into the PLASTIC jug that we had poured it from.
While cleaning the floor a customer arrived. We apologized and gave her two bowls of free soup and a couple of packs of cookies. We finished cleaning the oil and decided to make ourselves a burger to share. We are still so glad that we did not serve a burger that day as it was nice on the outside and cold raw on the inside. We did not venture out again for two months until I booked an event. One that was rained out.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We are an old-fashioned burger truck. We start with fresh Angus beef that we patty out to exactly 6 ounces. Our menu is simple. You never have to ask “What is on that?” All of our individual items are $7.00.
It doesn’t matter if you order a hamburger, cheeseburger, bacon cheeseburger, mushroom Swiss burger, crispy chicken sandwich, chicken tenders, waffle fries, onion rings, or cheese curds you will only pay $7.00. Our baskets are an entree and side for $12.00.
We take pride in the fact that people tell us that we give too much in a basket. We feel that our customers work hard for their money so they should feel they get their money’s worth.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Instagram.com/stevendsmn
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StevenDsmn
- Twitter: Twitter.com/stevendsmn
Image Credits
Bradley Reid Myron (JB) and Loveland III
