THE FOOD PIT
Austin - (937) 580-6889
Justin - (937)409-5241
thepitt.social@gmail.com

OUR JOURNEY 
If you've been to the truck odds are you've heard a short version of it. Austin's pov, "I, me, myself" is referred to Austin. 
Here we go. I've been around cooking and in the restaurant business my whole life pretty much, but I've always wanted to do something myself and not have a boss tell me what to do. I want a legacy. I quit my job with about $15,000 saved up and bet on myself.
I started with the idea of a stand and saving for a food truck. Created logos myself, bought banners, and even got some broken equipment, and Justin and I got it working again with the help of some family. Then I came across a "BEAUTIFUL" 1967 Ford P350 Grumman Olsen box truck on Facebook marketplace. Not really beautiful but to me it was. 
We pulled the money and went to check out the truck. It ran and drove fine until the CLUTCH went straight to the floor right after we gave the guy the money! It's okay though the guy was very friendly and toed it for us. We got it to my house and got to WORK! This was February...
Initially, we started with the engine and clutch problems. Luckily it was just something small, took us about a week to get it all figured out. We got it but that was the easy part. We had to move on to the next step which was either the polishing of the outside or designing and creating the inside. 
POLISHING, this part was TERRIBLE. We agreed to work it like it was a full-time job since we did not have a full-time job. We worked every day for about 4 months and took a week off here and there for rest. We never polished a car before, especially not from badly oxidized aluminum to SHINY. We had to learn from our mistakes and after a lot of YouTube videos and a lot of restarting the process, we did it! Then moved to paint, which wasn't that bad. We loved to see that slick chalkboard black go with the shiny aluminum.
The next step was to build the inside. That took a lot of brain power. Luckily we have some great NORTHRIDGE MATH on our side. No, we needed it, A LOT. But before we started building we needed to get a grasp of how a food truck is set up, and how it works in a tight area, so we went to work with a family-owned food truck and they gave us some much-needed guidance. We began to build. We drew a map in the garage with chalk on the ground and moved things around until we got everything close to how we liked. Now everything had to be smaller than normal restaurant equipment and we were also running out of money so we had to get creative. We cut and welded shelves to size OURSELVES, we BUILT our own sinks, we ran our own plumbing, we created our own ventilation, and if we didn't have it we WORKED for it or got it for a deal on Facebook marketplace. At this point it was July, and we did NOT have a grill yet! 
We wanted to be ready to serve by summer but that wasn't happening for us as we liked. Thankfully my mom and dad were ready to help! My mom bought us a grill from marketplace for my birthday, so that was a SCORE for us, but it wasn't set up for our propane on the truck. That is where my dad helped us out, even though he was already very busy with his work, he still made time to work on our project. The process took longer than expected but it turned out better than expected.
We then had to run electricity and put the finishing touches on the truck before we planned out a menu. We had our "old" tennis coach/pretty much family help us with electrical as my dad helped map out guidelines to cut out the window. It Twas a fun time but we were not finished. 
I then planned out a menu that would work with how we built the truck. We sourced places to get food from and made sure everything was FRESH, even if it meant having a smaller menu. First, we cooked a meal for the family. Tested every version of lettuce, tomato, burger, onion, FRESH MADE cheese sauce. We made our decision and began to plan a small event. The plan was to give FREE food to see if people would like the food and give feedback, but we needed to recuperate some money so we accepted donations ONLY. 
We hosted the event at our mother's house, it was FINALLY the day to cook and we were nervous. We invited a lot of people and they showed... ALL AT ONCE! It was a rush! Our sister taking orders Justin building the sandwiches and I was on the grill. This was the middle of August and it was hot! Things were going fast, and we were cookin'! But things went bad, OUR EXHAUST VENT WENT OUT mid-service! If we thought it was hot before, it was horrible after that! Finally, it was over, and now dark outside. We learned from that experience, got some honest feedback and it was time to improve!
From there we revamped the chicken sandwich, added slaw, upgraded the mac sauce, fixed the exhaust vent, and NEEDED to get new buns. The original ones were too soft and became soggy fast! YUCK! We scoured stores and businesses and spent a lot of money taste-testing bread. Finally, we landed on a local baker RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET, under our noses the whole time. BAKER BENJIS! We went through many versions but landed on the best potato bun we could get! That was it, it was time to plan another test day, free food. 
This was the end of August, at our cousin Luke's house. Again the rush came all at once, it was chaos, but controlled chaos. The line was to the other side of the house, kids were everywhere, oh and Luke got trapped in the garage somehow, haha, but we pushed it out! WE EVEN SOLD OUT OF FOOD! It was great, we got WAY better feedback this time. I'll admit it we definitely cried when it was all said and done.
THIS WAS OUR JOURNEY.LITERAL BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS
I skipped so much of this story just to get to the point sometimes but there were some real hardships. Outside of the truck I had to balance being a tennis coach and upkeep on my house. JJ and I never argued but we struggled with motivation sometimes, especially since we weren't making money yet. But the STRUGGLES of the weather, hot or cold, it was so terrible. The cold made your hands and feet numb, the heat fatigued you and made your skin dry. Every day COVERED in aluminum dust, paint, or metal shavings. Not only that but we both suffered so many injuries busting our hands, burning ourselves. WORST INJURY I left out was JJ, during the process of sanding, SLIPPED and sanded his FACE and now has a scar from it, STILL HANDSOME DOEEE
We both have our battle scars, physically and mentally, but we worked our BUTTS off and it paid off in the end. We did not set up a "gofundme" We do not beg for free money, we work for our money. This is why we ASK for you to SUPPORT us, WE ASK people to get merch WE created ourselves, we ASK you to buy food!
I have BIG PLANS for the future. I want to build "The Pitt" name into something HUGE. I want to set up the business to help everyone do something they love, just like I did. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! 
This shows my love for dogs, my love for cooking, MY LOVE FOR FAMILY. 
DeMarco Tellis on recording and making the beat
Thank you to everyone for helping, you know who you are.
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