Jack’s Burger Shack is taking its unique burgers to the streets with the new Mobile Shack.
After nearly three years of serving St. Albertans exclusively from inside the restaurant, Jack’s is branching out with a food truck.
Jack’s had not been considering purchasing a truck for very long before it actually happened in the winter. Co-owner of the restaurant, Tu Le referred to it as an “impulse buy.”
Le said he has always been very vocal about his negative feelings towards food trucks in St. Albert but, since the Mobile Shack is simply an extension of the restaurant, he thinks they have found a way to use the truck that makes sense for the business.
“I just don’t think St. Albert downtown is ready for it, but for our business, because we’re not parking it downtown or usually not really in St. Albert, it works.”
The Mobile Shack hit the road for its first outing on May 4. Its primary purpose is to give Jack’s more flexibility. It allows the business to offer services they couldn’t from within the confines of the restaurant.
“We thought we would expand our business into catering and move it into special events that happen in Edmonton,” said Le.
As the Mobile Shack had its launch only a few weeks ago, Le said they are still trying to learn the business.
So far, the truck has been hired to cater events at schools in St. Albert and has parked at a variety of other locations in the city and in Edmonton.
The Jack’s truck does not face all of the same difficulties that many other food trucks do. Le said that because the truck is not the business’s primary focus, they are not as worried about finding places to park. The truck functions as an extra service. Since the restaurant is still the main source of revenue, they are not concerned if the truck doesn’t run every day.
The Mobile Shack offers items straight from the regular menu. The food has the same fresh quality as it does in the restaurant but there are fewer choices in the truck.
“Our restaurant is small as it is but the truck is actually, obviously, smaller than the restaurant, so we just picked our top selling items off of the restaurant and serve them on the truck,” said Le.
At the moment, Jack’s has only planned to keep the truck running for the warmer months but they are open to catering events in the winter as well, said Le.
Even in its early stages, the truck has bookings all the way into October.
For more information on the Mobile Shack, visit http://www.jacksburgershack.ca/truck/.
