Endings and Beginnings

What an amazing 4 years we have had. GourMelt has changed our lives in so many ways. We have been blessed to have such a fantastic business and to have met so many great people along the way. We loved every minute of it. There was never a dull moment. We felt every emotion: happiness, sadness, stress, anticipation, excitement, drama, fear, exhilaration, the full gamut. Jessie and I will certainly have stories to tell our grandchildren about the time we ran a food truck. But nothing lasts forever. The intention of the truck was always to get a foot in the door to the restaurant industry, to learn and to grow. We are extremely proud of what we accomplished with GourMelt. We feel that our years with the truck have given us so much valuable experience but it is time to move on. For a while, we thought about running Two Chicks and the GourMelt truck at the same time, but in reality it just wouldn't be good for either business. We are the type of women want to focus on putting everything we have into our projects. We put our hearts and souls into GourMelt for almost 4 years. It became the center of our worlds. Now we want to put that same effort into Two Chicks. There are some selfish reasons behind it as well (such as air conditioning, space, hours and restrooms). We feel that it's time to retire the food truck and graduate to the brick and mortar world. We hope you will support us in this decision and come on in to the restaurant, where we will be everyday just like before with the GourMelt menu and more. The Two Chicks from GourMelt: still slinging cheese, still making delicious comfort food, just in a larger, permanent space.

Thank you so much for the years of support and encouragement. We are lucky to have such wonderful and loyal customers. We love you, Reno. Come see us at Two Chicks, open daily from 6:00am - 2:00 pm.

Reno Food Truck Events 2014

As you may or may not know, Jessie and I were the organizers of Reno Food Truck Fridays over the last two seasons. Reno Food Truck Fridays was the original food truck event held at Citicenter in downtown Reno. We did it to promote food truck culture and to bring folks back downtown for a fun Friday night event and we are proud of what we accomplished. We really enjoyed running RFTF, it was a lot of fun. Local food trucks were able to gain exposure and sell lots of food on those summer nights downtown. People ate delicious culinary delights and listened to great local music at a free, local, grassroots event. I'm sure we will look back at those nights at Citicenter with fondness in the years to come. We hope you got a chance to enjoy a night with us at least once or twice. With the opening of our restaurant, Two Chicks coming up in the beginning of summer, we've decided that running the truck, the restaurant and the event would be too much for the two of us. But don't worry! There are more food trucks like Mellow Yellow Food and Battle Born Food Truck who are bringing more food truck EVENTS than ever before in Reno and Sparks! Go out and support all of our wonderful mobile eateries this season.

Friday nights - South Reno Food Truck Fest (bi-monthly)  through May 30, 5-9 pm. Damonte Family Event Center at Sage Hill 7370 Desert Way, Reno. Food trucks, music, full bar, indoor seating

Wednesday nights-  Feed the Camel- at McKinley Arts Center (weekly) 5-8 pm May 7th until Wednesday, October 29th. Food trucks, local crafters and artisans, beer and wine.

Friday nights- Reno Street Food at Idlewild Park- (weekly) 5-9 pm May- October

Saturday nights- Sparks Food Truck Drive-In  at Victorian Square (bi-monthly) 5- 9 pm May- October 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month. Food trucks, and a movie at the Victorian Square amphitheater. 

Enjoy!
~Haley

Onward and Upward

We are coming to the close of Reno Food Truck Fridays 2013. The last event of the season is October 18. Jessie and I are so very proud of the event we created in Reno and what it has done for the food truck culture. Organizing and running a food truck event has been a very emotional journey. Only when you care so much about something does it affect you so deeply. Every week we hold an event we are full of anxiety and worry. Will all the trucks show up? Will the band be there? Will there be enough people? Will the trucks be happy? Will the guests be happy? At the end of the night, we are both usually emotionally spent and raw. Some would say we are too sensitive, but you can't change that about yourself (although many times we both wish we had thicker skins or simply cared less). But the whole reason we started this event was because we care and because we wanted our local food trucks to have a platform to showcase their talents and for our beloved Reno to have a fun, free event to enjoy. In the end we are very satisfied and feel that our mission was accomplished. We hope you all enjoyed the event as much as we did and that you were able to try some new delicious mobile culinary creations. We would like to give a great big THANK YOU to everyone that attended and supported Reno Food Truck Fridays. Please join us for the grand finale of the event.

Now the question is: What about Reno Food Truck Fridays next season?
And the answer: GourMelt will not continue to host Reno Food Truck Fridays.

It remains up in the air if another Food Truck owner or other organization will take it on for 2014. The simple answer is that Jessie and I are going to have our hands full by Spring. We will not have the time to run the event another year.

Now for the big announcement: We are working toward a new endeavor! We will be opening a brand new restaurant in MidTown Reno called Two Chicks. It will be traditional American breakfast with a little twist and a limited lunch menu. The space will be located in the Sticks development on Virginia Street, we are hoping it will be finished being built in the beginning of the new year. Many people share the news with are very concerned for the future of GourMelt. Don't worry! GourMelt will continue to run for as long as there is demand. Although, we will scale back our schedule a bit and only run 2-3 times a week for lunch and big local events. Also, the Two Chicks menu will feature some of our best selling Melts for lunch. Please follow along with us as we dive into our new venture! We hope you are as excited as we are. Thank you for all of your love and support.

Haley
GourMelt
Two Chicks

Reno Food Truck Fridays Back for 2nd Season

We are very pleased to bring back Reno Food Truck Fridays for the 2013 season. Reno's first and only all food truck event is held the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month, April - October at Citicenter downtown from 5-9 pm. Please join us for an evening of delicious food, music and fun!

Food Trucks have been a growing trend over the last few years here in the Reno area and there is no doubt they are here to stay. Everyday a growing number of mobile delicacies can be found around town, posting their locations on social media much to the delight of folks nearby. There are many different food truck options available from burgers to tacos, ribs to grits, shave ice to homemade ice cream sandwiches. We are proud to promote these small business owners and showcase their culinary creations.

Alongside area food trucks, we are excited to present local musicians at each event. Bring your dancing shoes and prepare to groove to local talent in the center of Citicenter. Once again, Great Basin Brewing Co. will host the beer garden. Reno's own Tumblebus, a full-sized school bus is converted into a safe and fun gymnasium, will be on site for the kids to expend some energy. The event is fun for all and a great way to support small business and get to know the best food trucks in Reno!


10 Tips for #RFTF.

1. Be early: The early bird gets the rice plate. Don't be let down by showing up too late.

2. Don't be afraid to try something new. There are a lot of new trucks this season, support new businesses!

3. Divide and conquer: Hit up a few different trucks with friends, then share the goodies.

4. Prepare for the weather. Reno is known for rapidly changing temperatures, our event starts in Spring and ends in Fall, a jacket might be nice for the cooler months.

5. Utilize Reno's many downtown parking garages and street parking.

6. Make a night of it: Enjoy the community atmosphere while waiting in line, enjoying a beer and listening to music.

7. Bring I.D. if you would like to enjoy an adult beverage. Please remember that open containers are not allowed beyond the event parameters.

8. Tell your friends: The Twitter hashtag is #RFTF,  @FoodTrucksReno, share the Facebook page www.facebook.com/RenoFoodTruckFridays. Spread the word that Reno Food Truck Fridays is the 1st and 3rd Friday, April- October.

9. Throw trash in the trash cans and keep our city clean. Clearly marked cans and bins will be all along the line, making it easy to keep the park as clean as it was when you arrived.

10. Most of all, have fun! This is an event where some of the city’s most driven (no pun intended) culinary minds come together. Explore and enjoy our city, the food, the music and each other!

Here's some of the trucks we have signed up for the season so far, truck line-ups vary each date:

GourMelt Grilled Cheese Truck
Kenji's Food Truck
Sauce Wagon
Red Truck Tahoe
Traffic Jam
Mellow Yellow Food
Lazy Sundae
Battle Born Food Truck
Waffle Wagon
St. Lawrence Pizza Co.
Island Ice
Mount MoGrit Gourmet
Taster's Paradise

Business Women of Reno Calendar 2012

The Business Women of Reno calendar is a project my partner Jessie and I thought of as a way to promote local business women and help local charities. When we first opened GourMelt, we found a lot of fellow business women who were very forthcoming with helpful advice and support. I love to see the strong women of our community doing well and helping others. We got together with a friend of ours, Jason Spencer, who did all the photography for free. Most of the hair and makeup was also donated by Tyler DePetro of Society Salon who is also featured in the calendar.

We approached people we have become close with through business and asked them to be a part of the project. We know there are so many other female business owners who deserve recognition, this was just a small sample of what our area has to offer! The calendars are for sale at each of the businesses featured, all proceeds go to the charity chosen by the business owner.

The business women are:
Kristin Reagan -Tumblebus /Charity- Girls on the Run
Mary Allstead- Mix Cupcake Company / Charity- Children's Cancer Foundation
Kasey Christensen- Sup / Charity- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada
Haley Wood & Jessie Watnes- GourMelt/ Charity- Step2
Abbi Whitaker- The Abbi Agency/ Charity- Susan G. Komen
Jessica Schneider- Junkee/ Charity- Washoe County School District
Kristen Gil- Midtown Development Group/ Charity- Moms on the Run
Tyler DePetro- Society Salon/ Charity- Nevada Youth Empowerment Project
Camie Cragg- Camie Cragg Fitness/ Charity- Committee to Aid Abused Women
Angela Watson- Black Hole Body Piercing/ Charity- Build Our Center
Cynthia Lewis- Dressed Like That/ Charity- Brain Injury Alliance Nevada
Angela Swindells- LoKa Tile Group/ Charity- LoKa Cares

Please support these female entrepreneurs and their great charities!

The Cheese Truck

A local film maker named Jason Spencer approached us last summer. He asked if he could spend some time in the truck with us to film for a documentary he was making. We said yes, having no idea what to expect but hoping for the best. What he made went well beyond our expectations. We are so proud of have been a part of this experience! Please watch the short film below and share with your friends.

www.stormfrontreno.com

Food Trucks for Your Event

Food trucks are a wonderful food option to have at your event. They require no set up or tear down, there are many different types of cuisine to choose from, they already have health permits, and they feed a lot of people easily. If you are planning a party or event, a food truck is a fun and feasible option to feed your guests. Here are some things to consider when booking one or more food trucks:

How many people will attend? This is the biggest question to consider in the success of your event. Too many food trucks at your event can really hurt the operators of these small business and the success of your affair. Behind every food truck service of 2-4 hours is many more hours of preparation, stocking, and cleaning. Your local food truck operator will do their very best to provide you with an estimate of how many people they can feed in an allotted amount of time. On the other hand, not having enough food trucks will make the wait longer and you may run the risk of the truck running out of food. Please remember that there is limited storage in a food truck and if the operators run out of something, that's it, they can't run to the store or into the walk-in to restock. If you have a specific truck or two in mind, chat with the owners to see what they recommend for you specifically. Please give the operators the courtesy of letting them know if you plan on having more than one food option at your party, this will help them plan for the amount of food they need to buy and prep.

How long is this event? A food truck may be able to handle quite a few people for a few hours. But as stated before, there is limited room for food storage on a food truck. After a while, resources will begin to get depleted. If you are planning a very long event, it is better to have several food options to take the stress off of each other, and to keep your guests fed and happy.

Have I promoted my event enough? Please do not rely on the fan base of a food truck to create attendance at your event. Although many loyal followers will come to visit their favorite truck just about anywhere, the food truck's social media cannot be the only advertisement. Do your best to help everyone succeed by promoting and marketing your event yourself. There are may ways of getting attention to your event such as sending press releases, creating Facebook pages and event pages, email invitations, or using marketing agencies.

How do I get in touch with a food truck? Food trucks are very easy to get in touch with! Most of them have a Facebook page with contact info or at the very least, a telephone number. If you have a specific truck in mind, call or email them directly with questions. Be cautious of using third party "food truck handlers". The best person to contact about a business is the business owner themselves, they will be able to provide you with details about pricing and scheduling. If the truck you wanted has prior commitments, they will be able to give you with contact information or names of other food trucks. We have almost all worked together and know each other in this little city! There are also various websites that list food trucks:

renotahoefoodtrucks.com
renofoodtrucks.com
roaminghunger.com

Have fun planning your event and enjoying the great food Reno's great food trucks have to offer!!

One Year

Here we are after a year of business. What a year it has been! We are so happy with all the love and support that we have received from the community. We never expected such a warm reception and we could not be happier.

We have had some struggles along the way and not a day passes that we don't learn a new lesson. Learning from mistakes is the best way to grow. We aren't perfect, but we always strive to be the best we can be. We try not to compare ourselves to others because we are unique, with a unique product. There was no business model to follow in our area. We just jumped in the truck and went for it.  When we first opened, no one else was doing what we are doing, serving lunch to local businesses. We had no one to learn from. Just two women with a dream (and a small budget). We said yes to every request, every event. We worked 12-14 hour days, 7 days a week, for the first 6 months. During the winter we finally had a few weekends to rest. We run our business with love and devotion to our customers, and passion for quality and service. We want to make people happy and deliver a wonderful product. Over the year we have built some great relationships with other business owners and have met some great people, (some that have become friends) along the way. We are eternally grateful to those who invited us to come to their office or building and serve lunch, it's the only way we can run our business.

A huge enormous THANK YOU goes out to our families and friends to have helped us so much over the last year!!! Being away from our significant others, kids and pets was not the easiest thing to do but it was what needed to be done to make this work. Thank you for bringing us supplies, working on the truck, and stopping by events for "quality time". We love you all so much.

And last, but certainly not least, thank you to our fans and followers who never cease to amaze us. People will drive across town, from out of town, cut across traffic, wait in a line 50 people deep and smile while doing it, all for a GourMelt sandwich. Your loyalty and support is what keeps us going. The compliments and enthusiasm are the best motivation and make it all worth it. You are the reason we do what we do!


Here's to the years to come!
Love,
Haley & Jessie

Reno Food Truck Fridays

We are just days away from the coolest new downtown event, Reno Food Truck Fridays. It's happening the First Friday of each month from April-October! This will be held in the heart of downtown Reno, at the former Citicenter on Fourth and Center Streets. The city has spent the last few weeks cleaning up the area, repairing things and hanging lights. It is the perfect spot to have the trucks park and serve with plenty of seating and shade! We have the all of the best food trucks from the Truckee Meadows ready to serve some really great grub. There will be live music each month, featuring quite a diverse lineup. The Tumblebus will be there for the kids to play on. Great Basin Brewing Co. will host a beer garden. It's the perfect Friday night event to bring your friends and family and have a great time. Have everyone in your group grab a different type of food, meet in the middle and share some fabulous offerings! IndieReno will have several craft booths as well! We hope to see you there!

Nominated!

We are beyond thrilled to have been nominated for Rookie Food Truck of the Year in a national poll on Mobile-Cuisine.com! We are up against 15 other trucks across the country. It's been quite a year, full of hurdles and growth but we couldn't be happier with the support Reno has shown for us! Let's put Reno on the food truck map! Let's win this thing! Go ahead and vote, tell your friends to vote too! We appreciate it and we thank you!

VOTE HERE

Room for more!

We are pleased to see more gourmet food trucks opening in Reno! The difference between a gourmet truck and lunch wagon or "roach coach" is that gourmet trucks are serving high quality, restaurant style meals as opposed to a microwave burrito, a frozen burger or something sitting in a warming oven. We are using quality ingredients, we are making food to order. We don't have a daily route, we change locations often and we use social networking to broadcast where we are. We are trying to bring the restaurant to you. You don't have to drive across town, we are right in your office parking lot!

Food trucks are a big trend in other cities. There are lots of them! We at GourMelt are hoping the trend comes to Reno in a big way. We look forward to the day we can have a Food Truck Festival, where we can all park together and people can sample all different types of delicious food. Being a couple of foodies ourselves, the idea of a lot of different types of trucks is very exciting!

We want to take a minute to acknowledge our new friends at Calvin's Sausages,  Kenji's , and Sauce Wagon! We look forward to working with you more in the future. We believe we can only help each other by introducing people to wonderful mobile food options. Bon appetit!

About the 5 Melt Limit

Yesterday was very interesting. We were busy, which is good. We had a line, which is good. But we had a ton of people who ordered 5 melts each, which makes things a little crazy. This is what happened:

Three checks of 5 melts come in back to back after several single orders. Our grill can handle about 7 melts at the very most, (you have to get creative about spacing sometimes). So I was cooking and down the line, I see some big tickets. I have to start thinking ahead but there is only so much you can do about this situation. I have to fit 5 sandwiches on and sell them together. Then another 5 and another 5. Each group takes about 7 minutes to cook. So for three people's order it to about 25 minutes once they were cut and plated. The people behind them do not understand why it is taking so long. If we had three single orders, they would all come out very quickly. We always hope that they look around and see a bunch of sandwiches being handed out and get what's happening. That is almost never the case. We sold 115 sandwiches, that's a sandwich every 1.2 minutes. Sure enough, we got complaints about the wait.

The business model of a melt truck is not to serve a lot of people at the exact same time. that is why we park at the same place for 3 hours. Cheese has to melt and the bread has to get toasty, that takes a few minutes. We can do several single orders at a time but the big tickets slow the line way down. This is true for most kitchens large or small. We wish we could make it go faster somehow, and I do think we have got it down to a science at this point but this is the nature of a melt truck. It's fresh food made to order, it's not sitting in a steam table or under a heat lamp. We have watched the trucks in the big cities who have been around for years and they have the same issues. People wait at melt trucks in L.A. for 45 minutes to an hour or more on a regular basis.

Please come have a grilled cheese at GourMelt. While you are waiting, enjoy the fresh air and the sun on your face. Talk to the folks around you and make a friend. Make a fun lunch out of it. But if you are in a big hurry, take a look at the line and see if you have the time to do it first. We want you to be happy and well fed. If you can face the occasional wait, we think you will be both.

Burrrr....

Winter approaches! It's a whole new ballgame for us, new challenges, new mindset. Food truckin' (in Reno) involves things you don't really have to think about in a brick and mortar, such as snow chains. We got a lesson in chaining up earlier in the week from a friend who used to be a chain monkey in the Donner Summit. Doesn't seem too tough, we can handle it. Now our concerns have switched from things getting too hot and melting to things getting too cold and freezing. We need to keep the water pipes from cracking, we need to be able to feel our fingers as we prep in the morning, you know...little things. Things that the SoCal trucks never have to think about. But this is our life now, we don't close for the winter. I personally can't think of anything better on a snowy day than a grilled cheese and tomato soup! I'm looking forward to warming people up with good food. We will definitely be out there, ready to face winter head-on! Hope to see you soon.

Truck Etiquette

Just a few guidelines to help things flow better, this is mainly to be considerate of other Melters, we want the line to move just as quickly as you do:


Firstly, this is NOT fast food. We prepare everything TO ORDER. We make grilled cheese sandwiches, that means the bread needs to grill and the cheese has to melt. This takes about 5 or 6 minutes per sandwich and we can do 5-7 sandwiches at a time. Please consider these factors, have a little patience. Enjoy the fresh air and meet some of the folks around you. It will be worth it.

We do take cards but CASH IS PREFERRED. Cards slow the line quite a bit.

If you would like your order bagged, please say so in advance.

Please no huge to-go orders. Let's limit it to 5 melts at a time please. We LOVE that your whole office wants food but we have a small grill and your order of 15 makes the folks behind you wait a really long time.

Don't cut in line with your friends.

Please speak up! It's loud inside the truck with all the fans running.

Don't smoke around the truck, same rules as a restaurant folks.

We post our schedule well in advance in several locations. Here's one: http://alturl.com/nncsz

We thank you all for your patronage!! Hope to see you soon.

Newbies

We were just two chicks with a little dream. We never claimed to be anything more than what we are, foodies, service industry veterans, and hard workers. We didn't brag about what we have our make claims to things that haven't happened yet. We never wanted to knock down anyone else in the industry. We got a tiny loan and found an older but decent food truck. We begged, borrowed and bargained for help from friends and family to fix it up and make it into our vision. We didn't have a name in town to back us, or some fancy title. We didn't have anything but our truck, some great recipes and a lot of hope. We tested our recipes again and again. Our families worked their butts off on the truck for months. We scoured the internet hoping to see how other food trucks do it in other towns. We barely knew how our truck worked when we opened, there is no manual on these things.

And then we opened. What an amazing reception we received! People were so excited about out little grilled cheese truck. We worked our butts off in the summer heat for three months straight, never saying no to an opportunity. Figuring things out day by day, what works and what fails. Finding out that we need thicker skins, that most people are very kind but some can be so harsh. Becoming aware that when you put your complete heart & soul into something, it hurts deeply when someone complains about it. Also realizing that we cannot possibly please everyone, that some people will never get it, and we just have to do our best and move ahead.

We learned from our mistakes on a daily basis and still are. Our first menu was way too big for our little truck and we would run out of things often. The prep for that big menu was taking more time than the service. We had 4 different sauces, 3 different dressings and 2 dips. That alone took hours a week. We roasted and sliced a turkey and a beef roast twice a week. We don't have a brick and mortar restaurant to work out of, we have a kitchen in the truck. Food suppliers won't deliver to us. we run around shopping about 8-10 hours a week. We start our day at 7:30 and end at 4 or 5 or 6, or even later (11 or 12) when we do night events.This is a two person operation, no employees. If one of us is sick, we can't run (unless a friend or family member steps in but they have jobs of their own).

But we love it. We honestly both love it. We work harder than we ever have before in a 120 degree truck. We are joyfully amazed every time there is a 20 person deep line for 3 straight hours. We have gotten smarter and faster. We love how loyal our customers are and how pleased they are. We are bracing ourselves for the winter and the challenges that may hold. But we are optimistic. We are happy to see other trucks opening in the city and can only hope to maintain a good relationship with them. We feel that it will help all of us, to get people used to the idea of eating good food off of a truck. There is still a bit of a stigma from the old "roach coach" mentality and we are thrilled to see that change. We are so blessed to have the success we have and grateful. Thank you Reno, for all the support.