When Katherine Aguilar-Juarez's hobby of cooking collided with her husband's love of building cars, the result was the Rolling Wagon - a new food truck students often see parked outside the Sciences Library on Thayer Street. The North Providence couple created and now operate the Oregon Trail-esque wagon that serves a variety of American and Mexican food.
Hever Juarez saw a market for his idea, said his wife Katherine. "He just thought of it at the beginning, thinking that something in this world that everyone wants is food," she said. He designed and built the unusual food truck with a fellow auto enthusiast. "He's very unique so he likes everything different," Aguilar-Juarez said.
Still in its first month of operation, the Rolling Wagon serves burgers, sandwiches, quesadillas and hot dogs, among other food items, all priced at $4 or less. Deliberately parked in front of the SciLi, the couple targets college students and also "people who are fast on-the-go." The operators of the truck - the Juarez couple and hired help - aim to serve their customers within five minutes.
The couple put a lot of effort into their new scheme and are beginning to see their hard work pay off. "We're getting there, slowly but surely," Aguilar-Juarez said. "We're still on a trial basis, seeing what works, what doesn't work, where should we go."
Creating the Rolling Wagon involved a lot of paperwork and licenses, Aguilar-Juarez said. "You need a food license, you need to be certified with the Board of Health, there's a little bit of classes to take - food classes," she said. The truck's pioneering design also needed to balance safety with creativity - she said the truck had to pass inspection by both the health department and fire department.
After the paperwork and inspections, the couple faced the dilemma of naming their unique food truck. They wanted a name that conveyed both the truck's looks and what it served inside, and they ultimately went for something simple. "We figured with the wheels, it's a rolling wagon," she said.
Some challenges the couple now face are finding adequate parking for their large vehicle - something Aguilar-Juarez said is "very, very tough" - and trying to ensure a constant demand for their product. "It's good because we have all the Brown University students, but when school's over, we're back to a slump down this way ... so we have to try and target somewhere else," she said.
The Rolling Wagon rolled out on Thayer four weeks ago, but it had to take a week off because of the recent nor'easter, and it is still building a consumer base. "A lot of people, they come by and they've just eaten, so they didn't know we were here," Aguilar-Juarez said. But she added that she and her husband are planning a publicity campaign that they think will boost the Rolling Wagon's popularity.
"Hopefully once we do get established, we'll have the posters and the phone numbers up if (customers) really do want to get a hold of us," she said, adding that customers will be able to call in their orders for pick-up or to simply locate the truck once it begins settling on alternate sites.
The owners are also trying to sell their food in different places and at different events, "We've been on Broad Street and we're also trying to get into festivals and events," Aguilar-Juarez said. She has also been talking to Providence officials to see if the couple can bring the Rolling Wagon to WaterFire.
Though the couple is busy trying to increase the demand for their services, they aren't worried about competitors such as the Chinese Food Truck, which has been a staple in front of MacMillan Hall for the past few years.
The Chinese Food Truck "is small enough that (it) can come here at lunch time and park," Aguilar-Juarez said. In contrast, the Rolling Wagon usually spends the whole day in one place because of the difficulty in finding a big enough parking space. She also noted that the two trucks serve markedly different yet popular cuisines.
Even though it has been challenging, the couple are happy to be rolling around Providence doing something they enjoy. "I love to cook," Aguilar-Juarez said, and her husband, who drives the Rolling Wagon, is already planning to build another food truck, but this time "a smaller one," she added.
