via facebook.com

Starting a business is never easy, but a local man knew he had to make his family’s dream come true.

Roel Olivares Jr. and his wife, Nancy, always wanted to have a food truck business. When Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer, the plans were put on hold. After she passed away, he wanted to finish what they started together.

“Our biggest thing, of course, is our chicken mole. It seems to go very well here,” said Olivares, who owns and operates Orale’ Mole,’ a food truck serving Mexican food.

Olivares is hoping his business not only fills empty stomachs, but feeds the soul.

“She was my inspiration for this truck,” he said.

Nancy is the real engine that keeps the truck running, said Olivares. But right when they were just getting the business started, she lost her long battle with breast cancer.

“I kept my head shaved for five years while she was battling breast cancer,” said Olivares.

Roel Olivares. (credit: CBS13)

Even though Nancy is gone, Olivares is refusing to let their dream die. He finally finished the truck and says it has a dual purpose: to serve his customers excellent Mexican food and raise money and awareness to support cancer survivors.

“This is the launching pad for the ultimate thing which is the Nancy L Foundation. It’s for supportive services for breast cancer survivors and for their spouses,” he said.

Olivares says business is good.

“Elk grove, I love Elk Grove; and the Sacramento-area has been welcoming me with open arms,” he said.

Obviously, he wishes Nancy were still here to share the fulfillment of the dream.

“It’s one day at a time. It’s a struggle emotionally, but you have to move forward and move on,” he said.

Click here to see where his truck will be next.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/03/03/local-chef-honors-wife-by-carrying-out-food-truck-dream/

SactoMoFo shared the following Elk Grove food truck event on their Facebook wall Wednesday:

“You like food trucks? How about monthly food truck events every first Wednesday? We are coming your way [Wednesday], courtesy of Mayor Gary Davis, with a great lineup of food trucks, music, your friends & neighbors and YOU!”

For those interested, the trucks will gather at Elk Grove Blvd and Railroad St., as you can see on the attached flier.

http://elkgrove.patch.com/articles/food-trucks-gathering-at-elk-grove-blvd-railroad-today-8bbdadd9#photo-13280284

Council eyes cuts in general business license fees

The Elk Grove City Council on Aug. 22 will again discuss proposed changes to city food truck laws.

The city’s current ordinance allows food truck operators to sell at one location for 15 minutes between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m.

However, the Elk Grove Planning Commission has recommended the council expand the operating period to two hours in one spot between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Commissioners also agreed that food truck operators should have to conduct business at least 350 feet away from a “building-enclosed restaurant” when operating on public property. The exception is if a business owner grants special approval for a food truck to provide food at an event.

Council members discussed the item on July 11 but delayed action to give organizations and the public more time to provide input and feedback.

Officials with the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce, the California Restaurant Association (CRA), the recently formed California Mobile Food Association, SactoMoFo, and Brick House restaurant owner Franco Casella support the commission’s recommendation.

Angi Perry, the chamber’s executive director, said the organization’s Board of Directors met with representatives of both Elk Grove’s restaurant industry and the local food truck organizations.

“While both groups agree that this does not currently appear to be a problem and the mobile food vendors are generally respectful of the existing restaurant locations, we feel that this is a necessary protective requirement for the future,” Perry wrote in an Aug. 15 letter to the council.

City staff noted in the council staff report that Daniel Conway, legislative and public affairs director for the CRA, which represents both physical and mobile restaurants, believes every city should have food truck laws reflecting that particular community.

“The CRA strongly believes that distance requirements, such as the 350-foot distance requirement, are essential to crafting a fair and sustainable food truck policy because it allows mobile and stationary restaurants to compete without cannibalizing each other,” staff wrote in its report.

However, city staff recommended in its report to the council that the elected officials consider an ordinance that does not contain wording regarding a specific distance from a restaurant. They noted that the more conservative approach could decrease the city’s exposure to litigation.

Council members will also discuss adopting a resolution to set the fee for business owners to receive and renew their general business licenses.

The fee is currently $110 for a new general business license and $75 for a renewal. However, Brad Koehn, the city’s director of finance and administrative services, noted in his staff report for the council that separating the regulatory process from the business registry activity could result in business owners paying less for a license.

Koehn said the $12 cost includes staff time for questions, managing and processing data, and producing and mailing a license.

If the council approves the change, the annual revenue for general business license fees is projected to decrease from $180,000 to $24,000.

Other agenda items include a public hearing on the fee schedule for planning and building development processing services and a review of a citywide temporary roadside memorial policy.

The Aug. 22 council meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the council chambers, 8400 Laguna Palms Way.

http://www.egcitizen.com/our_newspaper/contact_us/

By Jane Gassner | Patch.com

Drewski's Food Truck

Social media has come to Elk Grove.  At last.  We had our first-ever Elk Grove Tweetup last week, and two Sacramento food trucks journeyed here on Saturday.  We are now fully part of the Web 2.0—and all the wonders it can offer.

Why is that important?   Web 2.0 is an umbrella term for all the elements of the Internet that enable and facilitate collaboration, communication and dialogue between and among all of us no matter where or how we live. Web 2.0 is what makes our world truly a global community.  Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Yelp, Patch—the list seems endless because it grows daily.  Web 2.0 is what gives us—we, the people—our voice.

Thursday was the Tweetup.  That’s a made-up word: a mashup of Twitter, the now-ubiquitous social network that enables real-time on-line communication in 140 letters or less, and Meetup, the equally-ubiquitous social networking portal that facilitates off-line group meetings among aficionados of any and every topic imaginable.  The Tweetup, then, is a Meetup of people who use Twitter.

Tweetups are a regular part of communities all over the world; I’ve been going to the Sacramento Tweetups since they started several years ago.  They are, as their organizer—and former Elk Grovian—Alejandro Reyes bills them, “two thirds social and one third business.”  For me the emphasis is on the social—and a chance to try Sac’s ever-growing restaurant and lounge scene. For others, it’s a business networking opportunity where the demographic is broad, yet specifically geared to contemporary concerns.

Rodney Blackwell, another regular at the Sac Tweetups, decided Elk Grove needed its own.  “I’m interested in bringing community together and getting to know my neighbors better,” he says, “and Twitter is good at lessening the 99-engendered East Elk Grove/West Elk Grove split.”

Rodney, working with Krista Guerrero of Elk Grove Online, organized the entire event.  They found the sponsoring site—Coaches, the restaurant inside Strikes—and got other sponsors (Sacramento Zoo and Sinful Treats Desserts) onboard to provide the door prizes.  Then they let loose the callout to their Twitter followers with a link to the Eventbrite invitation.

When I arrived at Coaches, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Perhaps it’s that I don’t have kids in school or belong to a local church, but my experience of Elk Grove is that there is limited opportunity for casual socializing.  I travel to Midtown in Sacramento for all my social forays, which doesn’t exactly make me happy.  If this Elk Grove Tweetup works, I thought as I walked into Strikes, then maybe I don’t have to go so far afield to feel part of contemporary culture.

It was, I’m happy to report, a resounding success and, as the saying goes, a good time was had by all.  Prizes were won, drinks were had, food was eaten, contacts— both social and business—were made.  Rodney tells me they are planning the next one, so keep an eye out for it.  You don’t have to be on Twitter to go, although  you’re missing out on a lot of information, fun and friendship if you’re not.

And if you’re not on Twitter, you won’t be getting the Tweets from the two mobile food trucks in Sacramento alerting you to where you can find them.  News10’s Suzanne Phan did a story on the nascent mobile food movement in Sacramento.  While these rolling restaurants are all the rage in other cities, Sacramento is far behind because of an ordinance requiring mobile food trucks to move every thirty minutes, something that precludes the complicated food experience they offer.  But there are at least two—Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen and the Miniburger Truck—and last Saturday, they were, miracle of miracles, both in Elk Grove.  I missed the Miniburger Truck (some grinches made them leave their site early) but I was just in time to join the crowd at Drewski’s Hot Rod, which was at one of our playgrounds just off Bilby. Their pumped-up grilled cheese sandwiches are, as they say on some TV show, to die for.

So, yeah, I ate at a food truck; what’s the big deal?  Think back to one of the first columns I wrote, lamenting the dearth of foodie experiences in Elk Grove.  The food trucks are a way to solve that problem.  There will be about fifteen of them from around Northern California this coming Saturday at the SactoMoFo (Sacramento Mobile Food) Festival, from noon to 6 p.m. at Fremont Park on 16th and Q.  Take your appetite and your urge for face-to-face social networking; maybe the next MoFo Fest will be in Elk Grove.

http://elkgrove.patch.com/articles/social-media-comes-to-elk-grove#c