Co-owners of Red Solo Cup, Anthony O’Gorman, front, and JoJo Gomez work on the grill inside their food truck in Flora Vista on Friday, June 7, 2013. (Jon Austria/The Daily Times)

FARMINGTON — Jacqueline Klock of Dip N Chicken food truck is particularly proud of her most popular creation, “The Ripper.”

It’s a quarter-pound beef hot dog lying on a bed of fries, smothered in nacho cheese.

Jacqueline Klock and her husband, Randy, park their renovated motor home in Orchard Plaza on east Main Street on weekdays, selling steak fingers, chicken fingers and other deep-fried dishes. They’re part of a growing number of food trucks in San Juan County, joining a nationwide trend of mobile restaurants that promise cheap, tasty food with a minimum hassle.

JoJo Gomez serves her husband Joseph Gomez and daughter Bob Gomez at the Red Solo Cup in Flora Vista on Friday, June 7, 2013. (Jon Austria/The Daily Times)

“It’s the hottest thing going right now,” said Randy Klock, who spent three months tearing apart the motor home and installing equipment, including a 40-pound deep fryer.

Jacqueline and Randy Klock, owners of the Dip N Chicken food truck, have been in business for three weeks. (Augusta Liddic/The Daily Times)

In Flora Vista, former construction equipment rental salespeople Anthony O’Gorman and JoJo Gomez reopened Red Solo Cup food truck in March after closing for the winter. O’Gorman and Gomez jumped into the food truck business after the equipment rental firm they worked for was bought by a larger company.

“I saw that as a go-ahead signal to go ahead and pursue my midlife crisis,” O’Gorman said. “We hope it’ll be a long-term thing. Ideally, if it works — and we believe it will — we would probably expand our hours. I’ve got all sorts of ideas — I’d like to have music there and just make it a destination for people.”

Food trucks have boomed in cities such as Los Angeles, Denver and Portland, Ore. O’Gorman was inspired by food trucks on trips to Austin, Texas; Miami and Los Angeles.

“What we’re trying to do, really, is emulate the food truck movement across the country,” he said.

Red Solo Cup, 800 N.M. Highway 516, focuses on burgers, using beef from Sunnyside Meats of Durango, Colo., and potatoes from Navajo Agricultural Products Industry near Farmington.

“We’re looking for a higher quality of food,” O’Gorman said. “We’re trying to do all that local kind of stuff.”

Food trucks promise low overhead costs paired with immediate revenue. Many are operated only by the owners, with no additional employees necessary.

“You’re independent, working for yourself,” said Jacqueline Klock. “You have total freedom.”

Randy Klock chimed in, “And you do make a dollar.”

In Aztec, Kathy’s Place offers Mexican food from a truck in a gravel lot alongside U.S. Highway 550. Workers there were too busy serving food to talk on Friday.

Regulating food trucks is a responsibility split by several governmental agencies.

Food trucks must pass restaurant inspections conducted by the New Mexico Environment Department.

The Dip N Chicken food truck is seen parked in Orchard Plaza on east Main Street on Friday, June 7, 2013. (Augusta Liddic/The Daily Times)

Dip N Chicken, because it operates within Farmington city limits, also obtained a city of Farmington food catering/vending wagon and truck license.San Juan County CEO Kim Carpenter said the county has some ordinances that could be interpreted to apply to food trucks, but regulating the mobile businesses isn’t a priority for code compliance officers.

“Right now, our guys probably really wouldn’t mess with that,” he said. “A lot of people out there are trying to make a go at things, and more power to them.”

Food truck entrepreneurs must also work with property owners. Dip N Chicken is welcomed by Orchard Plaza’s Los Angeles-based owner, who is supportive of food trucks, the Klocks said. They said food trucks attract people to eat who stay and patronize neighboring brick-and-mortar businesses.

Food trucks are using social media — primarily Twitter and Facebook — to attract customers and keep them abreast of the truck’s changing locations.

“That is how the promotion is done in the food truck business,” O’Gorman said. “Twitter and Facebook is where you would get people to follow you. You would post different ideas for menu items, and try and get feedback. We do have a lot of conversation on Facebook.”

Cities that embrace food carts often concentrate them in pods. That’s the next step, O’Gorman said.

“Farmington may not be quite ready for it yet, if you compare to Austin or some place like that, but it’s got potential,” he said.

O’Gorman was glad to hear of other food trucks in the area.

“The more, the merrier, because it gets people out to try the trucks,” he said.

Customers seem to like the food truck concept, he said. That’s reflected in the Red Solo Cup name, a nod to the Toby Keith song that celebrates the disposable party paraphernalia.

“There’s a good vibe off of food trucks,” he said. “It’s kind of a fun thing.”

http://www.daily-times.com/four_corners-news/ci_23425072/looking-at-food-carts-farmington-and-out-county

Farmington Town Plan and Zoning Commission Credit Kaitlin McCallum

A Farmington woman named Ann Parker was before the Town Plan and Zoning Commission Tuesday night asking for permission to run a food truck at the shuttered gas station at the corner of Plainville Avenue and Burlington Road.

Parker, who said she has been operating her food truck in Bristol for a dozen years prior, presented a fairly diverse menu to the commission and described an organized operation with business hours between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

But it wasn’t her methods, hours or business that caused the commission to unanimously reject Parker’s application with some harsh words – it was the location.

“I don’t think this is the right location. This is an already disturbing location to the residents of our town,” commissioner Barbara Brenneman explained to the seemingly bewildered Parker, who had searched the town for a location. “There is still [environmental] remediation there and it’s just been a handicap to our town. I’m afraid we’ll just be adding to an issue that’s not solved.”

Brenneman was the first but not the only commissioner to express that sentiment about the lot, which contains a white abandoned gas station and is home to several trucks and cars. The lot is bordered by woods on two sides, with the two facing the street blocked off with metal chains.

The chains would remain up on the Plainville Avenue side and cars would enter by Burlington Road, Parker explained.

“I’m not against you putting up a food vendor car in town but the place you’re putting it needs a lot of work,” said Jack Matava, a commissioner from Unionville. “The chain that’s up – somebody that’s not familiar with it could see your cart and try to pull in.

“You give us a letter from Bruce [authorizing use of the property] but he’s not the owner of the property and he’s the one that keeps it looking like a dump. I really need to hear from the neighbors before I can support it,” Matava said.

And the neighbors were on hand to share their frustration with the lot.

“Traffic on that corner is unbearable, the building is unbearable and you don’t know what walks around there at night but I do,” said Jo-Ann Riley, who lives across from the garage. “If you have a food truck parked out there at night you’re going to get vermin and if you have a propane truck out there someone could come in and steal it. … There used to be a gas station there that was open and there were accidents numerous times…. It’s not a safe corner.”

Sal Morabito called it “the corner from hell. We’ve all lived with it for a long time… I’m not going to get into some of the stuff that happens there but it’s disturbing.”

Parker stood at the podium, watching her plans fall apart. What if the owner cleaned up the property, she asked.

“He’s not going to clean up that property, ma’am,” Peter Mastrobattista told her. “That property’s been a disaster for years.”

http://farmington.patch.com/articles/food-truck-proposal-on-plainville-ave-corner-from-hell-rejected#photo-8924702