GRAND OPENING!

Today was the official first day of business at Drew!! It was insanely successful and simultaneously overwhelming. The students seemed to flock to the tent with excited curiosity. I was so happy that people were interested in my project!!

The day began with a lot of unloading. We had so much supplies shoved into the trunk of my SUV that it took at least 5 or 6 people to unload it. Thankfully, two seniors (Avalon and Shanelle) offered to help me out! Initially, I had planned (and wanted) to run this whole operation on my own. Yet as people offered their help, I realized that I would probably benefit from an extra hand or two....*or four*. 
So I decided to run it just as we had back in Naked Chorizo. I had Avalon taking the orders, I cooked the food, and Shanelle called out and distributed the orders. It felt reminiscent of the organized system we had going in Naked Chorizo. It genuinely felt like I was running my own food truck! 
About 5 minutes in, our services began to come to a crawl. The problem that I had thought about a lot, but not exactly anticipated, had arrived. We had only two hobo pie makers, which was creating a huge back-up in the kitchen. About 10 minutes later we were only two orders in, and the orders were building up quickly. Luckily, nobody was asking for refunds or complaining about how "you shouldn't be taking orders if you can't even serve them" ....cinco de mayo flashbacks. Students were generally very polite and patient with the time it was taking for their lunch!! Yet, 45 minutes later, lunch was coming to an end and we were still only halfway through the lunch orders. We came up with the idea to hand deliver the rest of the pies to the students in class!! So I continued to cook and Shanelle and Avalon were running all over the school, bringing the pies to hungry students. It was actually a great system in the end. 

Some difficulties arose from the wind though, and the propane levels. Wind was constantly blowing our tent and supplies all over the place, which was not fun. Another issue was the propane on the stove ran very low multiple times. We had to change it twice. A third problem was the total MESS of a workspace I had! Maybe it was just me, but there was sauce, various spoons, chards, napkins, etc lying around everywhere and it just about drove me nuts. 
A SURPRISE I had though, was how much leftover food there was. I am actually so happy, because that increases my profits! I was afraid of running out of food today, but I got home with a ton of extra stuff. 

All in all, it was a successful day. With tips, we made $264!!!!! That's more than I could've ever hoped for!! I'm aiming for just as much, or even more tomorrow. :)