Serving up success: The food truck serving hundreds of $4 meals a night

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from Dunedin News

A pair behind a food truck offering $4 takeaway meals were surprised on their opening night to see a queue stretching down the street.

The Dunedin Bowling Club officially opened for business in South Dunedin on Matariki, June 24, and since then have regularly sold out of food – and even won an award for best sustainable business.

“It was a very steep learning curve,” said Liam Arthur of the opening night where he and co-owner Jackie Bannon served 300 meals. Many of those were free to customers who had shared their Facebook post.

“It was pretty stressful, I don’t like to think about it,” Bannon said.

The food truck, which offers $4 meals to those who bring their own bowl, was now even busier, but the work was getting easier for the pair.

They regularly sold out, serving between 300 and 350 meals a night.

It was pleasing to see how many donations the social enterprise business had received so others could enjoy free meals, Bannon said.

“We don’t ask any questions, we assume that people aren’t going to abuse the system.”

A charity had already been in contact wanting to distribute some free food vouchers, which had been purchased by others.

“We trust our community members to know who really needs it, as opposed to us,” Arthur said.

The menu at The Bowling Club, so named because of the bowls people bring, varied depending on what day it was, but Friday was “curry night”.

The business operated in the car park of the South Dunedin Community Network on King Edward St between 3.30pm to 8pm every Monday and Friday.

Originally the truck started with four main meals on rotation, but after conducting a poll, Bannon and Arthur decided to cut one of the meals.

Instead, they introduced a new system where a new menu item was added on Monday.

This week featured BBQ beans and grits in homage to Bannon, who came from the United States.

One eye-opening part of the business was seeing the type of bowls or containers people would bring. They ranged from former margarine tubs to a cut-down Just Juice plastic bottle.

Bannon said the only major issue they had encountered was capacity.

“We don’t have any more physical space to make any more food than what we are doing,” she said.

A physical space, rather than the food truck, was one possible idea to remedy the problem, but the pair preferred to remain in South Dunedin.

Arthur said they were able to keep costs down by buying wholesale, and decided early on to move away from chicken and pork on the menu to vegetarian options.

Bannon said the business, which earlier this month won the best sustainable award from Keep Dunedin Beautiful, were hoping to expand and employ others to work at the food truck.

“We are really stoked with how it has gone, we are excited with how much people have got behind it... It feels great to serve really nice food which is mainly plant-based, and is really cheap and delicious,” Arthur said.