Do you ever get those late night cravings after a night out on the town, but the normal greasy fries or drive-thru Taco Bell just isn’t appealing?
UA grads Craig Williams and Jordon Warren hope to fix that with Brothers Street Eats, a new mobile food unit offering a cooked-to-order southern creole style menu that has recently opened in the downtown area.
“We wanted to be mobile but still serve people with a high quality product,” Williams said. “We weren’t comfortable with having another hamburger and hot dog stand. We have gumbo, fried green tomato BLTs, beignets – fresh ingredients, we’re not ordering anything from food distributors.”
Williams and Warren, who both graduated with degrees in restaurant and hospitality management, have a combined 15 years of experience as restaurant managers, having started in the industry as teens.
“We’ve always wanted to go into business together, and decided this opportunity would be great,” Warren said. “The food truck industry is really big right now, especially in big cities.”
According to NPR, hundreds of food trucks roam Los Angeles’ street specializing in everything from tacos to grilled cheeses. New York Magazine calls food trucks “the next step up the evolutionary ladder from the traditional sidewalk food cart,” and lists a falafel truck and whoopee pie truck among their favorites in the Big Apple.
“They’re doing everything from sushi to cupcakes in the big cities,” Williams said. “This is something that Tuscaloosa doesn’t have.”
Williams and Warren bought their bright yellow truck in March. The idea of a mobile food unit in Tuscaloosa was so new that it became a bit troublesome to get the proper licenses and permits.
“This was something new to us,” Williams said, “but it was entirely new to the city. It took a while to get all the legislation and permits worked out. Now we have a franchise with the City of Tuscaloosa that allows us to operate on city streets. We have to get permission from the Department of Transportation to park in a new place to make sure we’re not blocking traffic or a fire hazard.”
For now, Brothers Street Eats can be found in the Temerson Square area downtown, at the corner of 4th and 23rd. They operate from Thursday through Saturday, 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., except on Friday nights when they stay open till 4 a.m.
While they’ve only been in operation at their current location for four weekends, both men say they enjoy the atmosphere every night.
“We have a good relationship with the bar owners down there, and they like having us there,” Williams said.
“It’s a fun atmosphere,” Warren said. “Everyone down there is always having a lot of fun.”
The franchise is currently on the waiting list for a vendor spot on the Quad on game days, and is also looking into other location options for the truck.
“Our overall goal is to be open seven days a week, for lunch and dinner,” Warren said. “But we figured we’d take these weeks to work the kinks out. We’re trying to ease in being open more hours, more days.”
Williams said they could be interested in acquiring several additional trucks in the future, with a different menu and style for each truck. But for now, the Brothers Street Eats can be found downtown, serving up some late night home cooking.
“We’re just trying to serve college students,” Williams said. “It’s not greasy bar food – we’re trying to put out a quality product.”
You can follow Brothers Street Eats on Twitter @ttownstreeteats.
