My Experience Building And Running A Specialty Coffee Trailer, The Wee Bee Beanery

The first time I saw a food truck, I was in love. It was a gypsy food wagon, the coolest job ever. It combined food and travel. Somehow it was the edgiest way to do both.

It was my dream for many years to have a food truck of my own. I imagined rocking out at festivals, slinging organic eats with the beats.

When I sold my schooner sailboat I had lived on for three years I felt it was time to explore this dream. I quickly realized that the startup costs to begin a food truck were out of my budget. Also, the laws are weird and seem to generally hate on little nomadic restaurants.

It was then that I found a tiny coffee trailer. It had everything you could ever want in it, you could even prepare food. It had a place to be Monday to Friday outside of a microbrewery, a great location. That was key, the trailer was the only coffee shop in a two-mile radius. It was awesome and in the budget.

When I went to see it, I hit it off right away with the owner Cassie. You need a commissary kitchen attached to your food truck or trailer. The one attached to the coffee cart was a block away. Everything seemed perfect. I bought it that day.

The main problem was, it was poorly branded. It was white with little henna designs in beige. It blended into anything it was in front of. No one ever saw it. This was the first thing I tackled. I bought a huge, ridiculous open flag that was way too big for the trailer and ripped off the old wrap.

There were several wraps under the new one. It had always been a little coffee shop, looked like a drive through at one time.

I repainted it a bright turquoise with yellow trim. It popped out and was not going to blend into anything ever again.

Creating The Wee Bee Beanery.

I reworked the entire brand. The menu I created was all organic specialty coffee. All superfood drink options I freshly made daily in the kitchen. Homemade caramel, mocha, and a golden milk drink. I wrote a mission statement around saving the Bees. That is why I named it The Wee Bee Beanery. I talked to people about saving bees and composting. As sweetener for all my drinks I used local honey.

The location was quite unique. For the most part it had been an office building area, right on the outskirts of town with a beautiful park. There was no food except for Costco and the brewery I was in front of. A large number of my customers were from a homeless center a block away. People where grateful I was there and treated me well. I became a neighborhood stop, to get a cup and hang out for a chat.

I love being a Barista. It was always my favorite temp job when moving to a new place. It is the perfect first job when integrating into a new town. You see a large variety of different local people. They are happy to see you in the morning with their morning coffee (aka drug). This way you become a local pretty fast. Same with the coffee trailer. I started to know everyone's story. Coffee bartender.

I dove into the world of coffee, devouring every bit of information I could find. I could not believe how much there was to making coffee.

I started timing my shots.

I fixed my burr grinder when a loose screw fell into it. After that I could fix anything on it.

I had weekly Tip Duels.

After selling the Wee Bee I traveled halfway across the planet to attend Steemfest. I'm getting ready to try to live off Steem only. I quit my jobs and started blogging for Steemit and homesteading full time. It has already created more adventure in my life.

Big Love.
Ren