Apr. 25—The most popular time of year for food trucks is fast approaching. Although winter has stuck around Southeast Minnesota slightly longer than normal, food truck owners in and around Rochester still make their way to the streets for business.

Not all food trucks are limited to seasonal operations due to the weather. As breweries have popped up over Rochester with limited food options, food trucks have come in to offer their menus to customers at these establishments.

Two food trucks often at breweries in Rochester, the Duck Truck of Blue Duck Restaurant and Firebrick Bread and Pizza, have been able to keep their business running year around thanks to these opportunities. Blue Duck co-owner Jennifer Lester and Firebrick owner Stephan Jennebach are still preparing for a much busier spring and summer season as outdoor events and catering demands pick up.

"Well, we are doing a lot more corporate lunches," said Jennebach. "We're booking a lot of that where business has come in. I think especially after COVID there are a lot of companies that are wanting to show appreciation to their employees, and they give us a call and we come out with our pizza truck and serve them lunch for a couple of hours."

Lester added, "We're usually at breweries in town, Little Thistle, Thesis and LTS Brewing. We're booked for a lot of private parties. We do rehearsal dinners, weddings, we try to keep that hour, hour and a half distance for driving but we're anywhere anybody wants to book us within that realm."

Food trucks around Rochester often find themselves bouncing from one location to another to pick up new business. One food truck that will opt to stay in one spot regularly this season is Taco Barajas. Owner Becky Barajas shared that her customers had a harder time finding her food truck last year from moving around town too often.

"Last year we were jumping around because we didn't have a permanent spot. And to have a food truck and trailer you need the water and all this stuff to get connected. So this year we found our location, and we can hook up with electricity and get water," she said, adding that the food truck's permanent spot is 1704 Third Avenue SE. "We won't be moving around unless there's a big event or catering."

Though many businesses in this last year have been hit by the supply chain crisis. Lester, Jennebach and Barajas have all said that their business operations have not been hit hard by the lack of supplies available.

"That's the glory of having a menu that we're not married to," Lester said. "So if we can't get things which all restaurants are going through supply chain issues, that's a no brainer. But if we can't get something, we take it off, and we start looking at something else that we can't get."

"We don't have any issues. Some costs have gone up, pizza boxes have gone up significantly in pricing, but other than that my overall toppings and ingredients have only gone up a little. Not really to a point where I can say I can't sell this anymore, or I have to raise my prices," said Jennebach.

"We don't have a specific supplier. We buy the supplies for a week, and we don't like to store stuff, we'd like to keep it fresh. We haven't struggled on that side because we go up to the cities and buy our own ingredients fresh and look for suppliers there," said Barajas.

Even with planned events and locations for the warm weather season, all three food truck owners are always looking for more business catering for businesses and upcoming graduation season. Lester, Jennebach and Barajas all encourage customers interested in catering for graduations, businesses and parties to reach out to them over phone, email or social media.

For upcoming large events, the Duck Truck and Firebrick plan to be at Midwest Music Fest in Winona April 29-30. Taco Barajas planned an Easter themed event with an egg hunt at their location for the holiday.