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Back when I was between jobs, I worked at a pig slaughterhouse in Utica. A close friend’s father was partners in the business. My job was to cut kidneys off carcasses in a freezing cooler for 12 hours a day.
At break, religiously, Dandy Dan's Catering, the food truck, would pull up and workers in white butcher coats would line up. I remember one day buying a day-old (yes, day-old) Burger King whopper that Dandy Dan was selling. As you might expect, it was not very good. The meat was mushy. The bun was a little crunchy.
Well, suffice to say, now of days, food trucks are better known for top-quality food. In Detroit, there’s the Mac Shack, which serves great mac and cheese and awesome fries. And there’s plenty others that deserve a shout out.
So it was with some excitement that I mentioned in a story the opening in June of the Food Truck Cafe on Woodward in Berkley. It was novel idea: Some food truck facades inside the store. There were three: One served Mexican food, another sandwiches and another primarily illy coffee, a popular brand. I spoke to the two owners, who were very nice folks.
After writing about it, I stopped in one day and ordered a bean burrito. It was lunchtime. The place wasn’t very busy. When I got home and opened the bag, they had given me a vegetarian nacho instead. I sampled it. Unfortunately it was not any better than anything you’d get at Taco Bell. I was disappointed. I tossed it in the trash.
At that point I said to myself: “They will be going out of business.”
I was right. The other day I went by and saw it had closed. It had just opened on June 24. It had apparently closed over Labor Day weekend.
On Thursday, I spoke to one of the owners, Kerry Johnson, who lives in northern Oakland County.
What happened?
“Just kind of a bad partnership," he said. "I decided to close the restaurant.”
He said he was looking to sell the business, but he said another restaurant may move into the spot.
He said he’s owned a lot of businesses over the years, and as always, each is a lesson learned.
He said he’s not sure what he’ll do next.
“I’m sure I’ll be coming up with something.”
