Popular in hip and happening cities like Los Angeles or Austin, food trucks may not be the first thing people expect when they think of the Chicago suburbs. However, Chicago Food Truck Finder actually lists 79 Chicagoland trucks, with many based right here in the western suburbs. Whether meeting fans at the Plainfield library, catering a special event or perhaps serving patrons at your local brewery, food trucks – and the people who run them – are always around nowadays, serving great food with an extra side of passion.

Grumpy Gaucho

Nestor and Jennifer Fortini, of the Naperville based Grumpy Gaucho food truck serve up warm, flaky Argentine empanadas to loyal fans every month at the Plainfield Public Library. Finding their start by selling traditional Argentine sauces at farmer’s markets, Nestor and Jennifer began their food truck adventure three years ago and have followed a love of food ever since, despite the hard work. Operating in four counties in the local area: Will, Kane, DuPage and Kendall, the Fortinis are in the area selling empanadas most days of the week, and that means a lot of paperwork.

As food trucks are mobile, Jennifer says, they don’t enjoy the luxuries of being a brick-and-mortar restaurant – which is one of the reasons they are hoping to open a storefront in the near future. Depending on where they are, they need to make sure they have the correct permits. “As a mobile vendor we have many (permits). We have county, we have local, we have all sorts of permits… event permits, individual event permits, we have a lot, a lot of paperwork that needs to be done in order to keep ourselves on the road.”

“It’s not only a lot of work – you know, paperwork – it’s very, very expensive financially for a mobile vendor,” Jennifer says. “Each time we do a farmer’s market we have to pay to be there; each time we do an event, mostly we have to pay to be there; there’s a whole lot of money involved if you were to compare to a brick-and-mortar vendor.”  Jennifer says the couple is extremely happy to be in the “food truck world” and a mutual love between them and their fans make it all worth it to Grumpy Gaucho.

Despite all of the hard work, and that’s not even mentioning the fact that all of their food must be prepared in a rented commercial kitchen, the Fortinis wouldn’t change things for the world. On top of a love for food, Jennifer says another perk of the job is working with local breweries, whose willingness to collaborate with one another she finds impressive.

 

Toasty Cheese Mobile Eatery

While, clearly, not exclusively a savior to the hungered masses at your local brewery, Illinois food trucks and breweries have formed quite the symbiotic relationship. “It’s definitely like the food truck and the breweries and stuff, it’s all more new, so everything is close knit… it’s like a little community with all the food trucks,” says Dane Barnhart, son of Toasty Cheese Restaurant Group founder, Greg Barnhart. “When we do a brewery, they’ll advertise for us, we’ll advertise for them. It just gets more customers in for both of us really.”

The Schaumburg-based Toasty Cheese Restaurant Group was also born by a love for food, a son and his friends’ love for grilled cheese to be precise. But with most menu items on the group’s flagship truck – the Toasty Cheese Mobile Eatery – named after someone, it isn’t just a love for food, but a love for people that shines through at Toasty Cheese. Dane trained in all parts of operating the truck before working on social media for the company for a year. “I couldn’t do the office work anymore so I hopped back on the truck… definitely more of a hands on worker.”

Between Dane and coworkers Samuel “Sonny” Brown III and Quentin Therman, a dedication to and love for people was very evident, and there was certainly no lack of banter in the truck while catching up with the trio at Werk Force Brewing Co. in Plainfield. Dead time between rushes was filled with Dave Chapelle impersonations, conversations about ’80s McDonald’s advertising (yes, I mean Mac Tonight) and lowbrow humor.

Fry-guy extraordinaire Sonny Brown was sure to close off the night’s shift with a shoutout to not just his coworkers, but to the entire Toasty Cheese family. “I love Toasty Cheese, Toasty Cheese is the greatest restaurant ever. I love Greg, Greg is the greatest boss ever, and we have the greatest staff ever.”

Blee’s Smokin’ Delicious

With Brian Lee, of Blee’s Smokin’ Delicious, more of the same love for people and food is obvious. A drug and alcohol counselor for 10 years, Brian decided to escape the stress of the job and instead counsel people with one of life’s simplest pleasures: smoked meats. After a slow start working with the local Health Department, Lee finally got to smoking meats in the Naperville area in August of 2017 and has seen business pick up ever since.

Brian currently works with what he calls a “10-by-10 footprint,” or whatever he can fit underneath a portable canopy, but is working on getting his food truck out to the Dupage county area in the Spring of 2018, which will come with new specials and menu items. A new face on the scene of the burgeoning Chicagoland food truck scene, Lee does say he’s found it much more difficult to get in touch with other food trucks in Illinois than it is in Ohio.

“In Ohio they actually have a mobile food truck conference. It’s where everybody gets together for a weekend, and that’s all we talk about: how to make the industry better. I wish Illinois had something like that, they don’t, they’re very strict.” On the stringent regulations, Lee does say that they are there to make sure mobile vendors are serving quality food.

Despite his own fair share of struggles and annoyances along the way, Lee is still fully committed to serving his food and getting his name out there and offers some advice for anyone thinking about getting a start in the industry. “Just go down to the health department, talk to them face to face. That way you don’t get too much of the runaround. Trying to do things through email and the phone, it gets lost in translation. I got set back six months in 2017 because of that.”

While perhaps still akin to a hotdog cart or a pretzel stand to some, these local trucks are proving that no matter if it’s coming from an oven in a portable empanada warming trailer, a full service rolling kitchen, or a meat smoker underneath a portable canopy, great food with warm and friendly service doesn’t always mean a restaurant these days.

*Editor’s note: all photos and videos by Tom Miller