A look at the Chi’Lantro food truck in Austin

I’m new to this whole food truck thing. The Boston idiot in me always ignorantly associated food trucks with low-quality, 2 AM sausage carts one accidentally staggered upon amidst a night of heavy drinking. Since moving to Austin, I stand corrected.

I now associate food trucks with magical, utopian dreams filled with unicorns and happiness. Seriously though, I’d approximate that food trucks now represent over 90% of my diet. Where have they been all my life?

As if I couldn’t be more captivated by the enchanted universe of street food, I recently sat down with Jae Kim and Eric Silverstein, founders/owners of Austin’s Chi’Lantro and The Peached Tortilla, respectively. Now with brick and mortar locations as well as food trucks, both Jae and Eric offered an insightful behind-the-scenes take on what it’s like to grow a successful business, through a long road of early struggles in a relentlessly dense market.

More insightful than the business side of things, however, was the story of their friendship, and how the competition between one another was perhaps the most critical ingredient to their shared success. [Read more…]