Food industry veterans Krystian Catala and Terry Nicolaou are setting their sights on Toronto's exploding food truck culture with Gourmet Gringos – a Latin American themed mobile eatery.
Although the food truck scene in Toronto is growing quickly, we're still scratching the surface when it comes to flaunting our multiculturalism. Enter Gourmet Gringos, a new food truck to launch in Toronto where the focus is authentic Latin American food.
Recently, David Ort and I had the chance to sit down with the Gourmet Gringos principals; Krystian Catala, Bree Catala, Terry Nicolaou, and Chef Arturo Gress and chat about their new truck over lunch. A plate of empanadas set the tone, paired with a variety of dips.
Suresh Doss: So Krystian and Terry, this is your baby? You're business partners?
Terry Nicolaou: We're best friends, we've known each other all our lives. Our goal was to do something together. I ran my restaurants, Krystian and his family have their operations, but we never had anything together.
SD: Which restaurants?
TN: I owned a number of Wild Wing operations, and recently just sold them.
Krystian Catala: My family owns and operates La Esquina in Woodbridge, an Argentinian restaurant, and another restaurant in Toronto.
SD: You're Argentinian?
KC: I'm Argentinian, Terry is Greek. Arturo (chef) is Mexican.
TN: We wanted to collaborate, we were thinking restaurant, something.
KC: Yeah, I was done school, and I hated the corporate world, and I love food so I wanted do something food related. We didn't know what but we wanted to work together in food.
SD: So between wanting to do something and today, what happened? I noticed that you have a food truck parked outside?
KC: Yeah well my wife Bree and I do a lot of catering gigs for clubs and corporate clients. And we were thinking it would be
good to have a mobile kitchen to faciliate some of the orders we get. So I called Terry and I said, "Well, what about a food truck?"
TN: I said yes right away. We looked for a truck right away, we bought one like 2-3 days later. It moved really fast.
SD: When was this?
TN: May.
SD: May? You did move fast.
KC: The entire truck and equipment was sourced by us, part by part, and we really wanted to move quickly.
SD: Obviously you scoped out the cost and everything. There is this misconception about food trucks, people think it's a cash cow and you can open one for cheap.
TN: Well we have the experience, we knew the drill. It wasn't a shortcut for us, we knew what was involved, and that it's a pretty big investment. We don't want just tacos, we want to have good food and to try something different.
SD: So your goal is part an extension of the catering services and part having a mobile kitchen and do good food.
KC: Yeah good food, no short cuts and authentic stuff.
SD: Okay so you're Argentinian Krystian, and you're Greek Terry, and Arturo is Mexican. Where does he fit in?
KC: Arturo worked at Lasquina with my family, he has experience all around the world. You know, he trained in Spain, worked at
a Michelin star restaurant. He's a very creative guy, so we wanted to give him something where he could really stretch his wings.
TN: This all came together in 10 weeks; we asked him to get involed and he was all over it.
SD: So what is the focus of the truck from the culinary side?
KC: Latin, authentic Latin American. Like the empanadas in front of you, it's my mom's recipe, very simple but very tasty.
SD: So the entire menu is Latin focused.
TN: Yeah. We want to focus on something and not just loosely try different cuisines.
SD: I completely agree, I think focus is important with food trucks. I think by virtue that food trucks are mobile, I think sometimes operators can be a little too loose with the focus and try to do a little bit of evertything. It can sometimes backfire because the public can't grasp it.
David Ort: The problem is also that sometimes you're following trends instead of setting them.
SD: Exactly.
KC: With our food truck, you'll pick from one of the vessels: Arepa, Burrito, Taco, Quesadilla. Then you pick your protein: you have chicken, two types of pork, skirt steak, and mole-braised short rib. Everything will be made from scratch.
SD: That's a pretty extensive menu if you think about it. The problem with food truck culture in Toronto is that we get hit pretty hard with our attendance. A lot of people show up to food truck events, in the thousands, and this creates long lineups and long waits. The existing trucks have adapted to this by having a limited menu of 2-4 items, tops, and this way they can focus on those items and get it out quickly to move the line. It's something you will notice right away. You may be happy with the fact that your line is really long, but think about the guy at the end of the line, he's one unhappy camper when he has to line up for 1 hour for food. When the trucks are not doing events, they have bigger menus.
KC: That's fine, for events we will definitely have a limited menu.
SD: So, who built the menu and who has control of the menu?
KC: Arturo. He created the menu – it's his. It's his say. We have some influence with family recipes, but it's his.
AG: I trained in Mexico, then went to culinary school in Spain, worked there for four years, then France, then Germany. I came to Toronto and worked at Le Select, Malena, and One. I'm going to change the menu based on season. I want to do Latin American food, not just Mexican, I wanna do food from El Salvador. I believe that people think Spanish food is just rice and beans, and that's not true. There's great Spanish food. I want to show some of that. So that's the goal, but as authentic as possible. We'll do specials every week, probably on Fridays.
SD: This empanada is really tasty. Ground beef, some olives and an egg too. It's really tasty.
TN: Yeah, it's Krys' mom's recipe.
KC: We actually have some Ecuadorian style emapanadas for dessert.
DO: Oh you guys are doing dessert as well on the truck? What kind?
KC: They are cheese empanadas, fried, with some sprinkled sugar on them.
SD: What are the price points?
BC: Everything is under $10.
KC: The Empanadas are $3 each.
DO: What about vegetarians?
TN: We'll have good vegetarian options.
BC: We're thinking of a grilled cactus dish, too.
DO: I think that's an under recognized part of food truck culture. If someone is waiting in line for 20 minutes or longer, if I was running a truck, I would like to fully capture that audience with desserts.
SD: Guess the most financially successful food truck concept.
BC: Is it cupcakes?
SD: Nope. Most financially successful and arguaby with the least headaches.
KC: Waffles?
SD: Nope. It's in the U.S.
TN: Crepes?
DO: Dougnuts?
SD: Nope. You're close. Creme Brulee. The creme brulee truck in Arizona. He goes through something like 400 creme brulees a day, 3 flavours a day, simple. Sells out within a couple of hours.
BC: No way.
KC: That's a great idea.
Arturo brings out a plate of tacos, including cochinita tacos, pork confit carnita tacos, and the braised short rib barbacoa.
TN: So we're going to have tacos on the truck but very authentic tacos. No fusion, and tacos won't be the main focus.
SD: So tell me this. You're opening a food truck in a city that doesn't have a food truck plan yet. Licensing hasn't been updated, probably not until next year. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, the city doesn't
change its rules, and there aren't a lot of spaces in Toronto where you can operate. So what is your game plan to overcome these hurdles?
TN: We knew it will be difficult. We're okay with that. Eventually somethings gotta give. You can't have 30, 40 food trucks without the city doing something.
KC: Somethings gotta give. We just want to get our licenses so we're in the qualifying pool. In the meantime we work it…
TN: Work it at festivals, events, catering gigs.
KC: Every city that is a world class city has food trucks. Look at Vancouver, look at all the big cities in the States. I mean even the mayor in Calgary is behind it. I mean even Montreal, with Grumman 78. But you have Toronto, the mecca, still behind. But somethings gotta give.
TN: It will crack.
KC: Options are a right. You can go to a restaurant, or you can eat at trucks. The options should be there.
DO: The other opportunity for leadership that we're seeing is for places outside of Toronto to lead the way. Hamilton, St. Catharines.
KC: Kitchener.
TN: York Region.
SD: What do you think about restaurants and the issue of competition with brick and mortar establishments?
KC: It's a choice. If you want barbecue, you get barbecue, or if you want to go for fine dining you'll go there.
BC: Some people want to just pay seven or eight dollars for a meal, and that's fine too. Options are good.
TN: It's also based on convenience. Sometimes we'll choose a restaurant or a food truck depending on our mood. I get it that restaurateurs feel threatened. I totally understand that, I've been there, but this is a big metropolitan city and there should be options.
SD: In an ideal world, if the city and the bylaws were in the right place, what would you like to do?
KC: We want to share food with everyone. Mondays we'd be in the east end of the city, Tuesday we'd be in the west end. Wednesday we'd go north.
TN: Like a circuit where trucks are moving from place to place and we're bringing food to different parts of the city.
SD: So you're going to be launching in the next few weeks.
KC: Yup, we're going to be on the road hopefully in the next few weeks.
SD: So where can people find out about the truck and locations when you launch?
KC: Facebook, Twitter, the website.
gourmetgringos on twitter.
