On wheels: Smart car as world's smallest food truck

When it comes to gastronomic brilliance, Germany is hardly a country that pops into one’s head right away. But a pair of German entrepreneurs is hard at work trying to put a German sandwich on the food map of Austin, Texas, and what’s even ore brilliant is that the part is operating literally out the back of a Smart car! Dubbed the world’s smallest food truck, the novelty custom food truck is the brainchild of Michael Heyne and Dominek Stein, two exchange students from Germany who landed in Texas a couple of years ago. The duo set up shop out the back of a Smart car selling Doener Kebaps, and is fast becoming a hip mobile food joint in the area.

On wheels

Though the idea of selling food out of a small mechanized vehicle is hardly new, we have never seen a food truck being fashioned out of a car this small. What really works for the Doener-sellers is that the vehicle serves as a fully-functional food truck without occupying significant space on the kerb. With the mobile food retail industry being dominated by big stationary trailers, the Doener mobile is a real breath of fresh air. The vehicle has been designed for super-fast food business, and comes with custom-created interiors to suit the purpose. To start selling sandwiches, the operator pops the hatch up and slides out the food container assemble. A frame employed by tailgaters at football games holds a canopy on top of a metal top table that comes with four screw-in metal legs. The passenger seat has been transformed into a central power unit that powers the food warmer at the back as well as the refrigerator with ease as it’s hooked to two truck batteries that keep the appliances running for short bursts of retailing. The tiny little Smart Car that serves as the Verts Kebap trailer also comes retrofitted with sinks to ensure proper hygiene on the kerb.

The highs

Verts, the restaurant that owns the operation has lent its branding, as well as its ingredients, to the joint. The sellers take enough meat shavings from the restaurant’s spit and bread from their bakery to be able to assemble around 50 sandwiches in one round. After the joint has sold 50 sandwiches, they return to the restaurant to load up on fresh supplies before heading out to a different location. A German company, Frenzel (who build custom-made coaches for soccer teams as well as luxury buses for wealthier client)

specially designed the interiors of the smart car for Heyne and Stein and Verts Kebap restaurant has lent the food truck with its branding materials to cover the exteriors of the petite food car. Being small, the car is super easy to maneuver into even the most cramped parking lots which opens the business up with the most food selling locations around the city. The small body also allows the retailers to sell their food at a higher profit margin since they don’t have to spend much on running the vehicle itself.

The lows

The Smart Food Truck is currently is a single vehicle operation which gets its supplies from a larger restaurant. Though the food truck serves its modest purpose perfectly, it currently has a very limited menu and a limited range of operation which might work against the growth of the business in the long run. However, the small start-up is a very promising prospect indeed and could provide a very interesting model for other food retailers looking to shrink the size of their mobile food joints.

Price and availability

The cheap and flexible Smart food truck is perfect for the small business owners allow customer to have a food truck drive in to a location near them rather than having to use their cars to get to a drive-through just to get a sandwich. The Verts Doener Smart Food Truck is a one-off custom-made food truck that was created specially for Michael Heyne and Dominek Stein, and is not available for sale at the moment.