In 2010, Jim Masiella had a stroke and was looking for a new gig. He decided to get out of the brick-and-mortar restaurant business and bought a food truck in 2012 after seeing an ad online for a truck in Nebraska. Today, Masiella and Elaine Essary co-own California Smothered Burrito, which offers a variety of Southwest favorites.
“There weren’t many trucks out there then, and I flew up there and fell in love with it. It wasn’t just a van – I wanted something unique,” he says. “It was a peanut truck and had a sign on the back that said, ‘Nuts.’ I drove it back thinking how appropriate that was.”
One of the first food truck operators in Chattanooga, Masiella dealt with a different environment then than what he faces today. Then, people tended to equate all food trucks with the vehicles that travel from business to business selling simple premade sandwiches and bags of chips. He had to convince eaters that the quality of his food rivaled that of finer restaurants, just served out of a mobile kitchen.
It has taken time, but now he only takes the truck to private-owned locations that have asked him to come and have guaranteed at least $500 in sales, which at $10 a burrito means at least 50 orders.
“Now, people call us to come to them,” Masiella says.