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Food truck owners hope SXSW music week brings more business after slow opening weekend

SXSW makes up a huge slice of annual business for food trucks. Some owners say the opening weekend has been a slow start compared to years past.

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin has a food truck culture. South by Southwest marks big business for these small vendors. With the event back in-person this year, some food truck owners say it's been slow going so far.

"We were hoping to see lines," Candice Naidoo, owner of South African Food Affair, said. "I think that's what every food truck owner wants: just lines and sell out and make people happy.

Naidoo's food truck is new to the Austin mobile culinary scene. She started the business with her family in 2015 in Washington, but brought it to Austin about six months ago. SXSW is one of her first public events. Previously, South African Food Affair was available for private events and catering.

"We're new, so that's what we do, introduce people [to South African cuisine]," Naidoo said.

She started the food truck with her favorite dishes and sources all the ingredients from South Africa. She's hoping to use SXSW to expose people to the cross-cultural cuisine that the country offers. However, this first weekend of SXSW was slow.

"We're, you know, a little disappointed that it's been a little slow, but we're anticipating the crowds in the next couple of days," Naidoo said.

Next door to Naidoo's business, Gohar Tareen and his family run Kababeque. This year would have been their 10th SXSW festival had the past two years not been canceled and virtual.

"That's 20%, 30% of your yearly business," Tareen said. "You expect a lot from this. It's a lot of hard work, but we believe in it like, you know, you get to see people get to know people get your name out and feed as many people as good quality food as you can."

Tareen went a step farther than Naidoo's disappointment.

"This South By has been the worst, numbers-wise, especially this area. We are down at least 50% in sales so far," Tareen said. "Could have been the weather, but even today, being the Monday of the music week coming up, you can see there's not a lot of traffic like it used to be. There was no place to walk here back in the day."

Kababeque and South African Food Affair are both on Red River Street between Sixth and Seventh streets. At the food truck lot near the Austin Convention Center, foot traffic has been better.

"People are looking to get lunch and people are looking to get something different," Victor Cruzalta, who took over Downtown Burgers in 2019, said. "So that's why they're around here looking to try new stuff."

Cruzalta's business was all ready to celebrate SXSW in 2020 before it was canceled. SXSW 2022 is his first time as a business owner, and he says so far, so good.

"It's been great. It's nice to see people back in Austin, and it's nice to see businesses open, people running around the streets, people having fun," Cruzalta said.

Joey Mendoza, who owns Chivo's Tacos in McAllen, brought his food truck to Austin for SXSW for the first time this year. His taco truck is posted up in the same lot as Downtown Burgers.

"It's been OK. It's good. It's going a little bit better. People are starting to come by a little more. You start seeing more traffic around," Mendoza said.

SXSW brings in a lot of business, but also comes with a lot of costs. Food trucks have to pay $5,000 per permit in some cases to operate during the event downtown. On top of that, the owners need to prepare even more food than a typical week because of the anticipated additional customers.

"You have to really gear up for all the people coming through, which means increasing your purchasing by 10- to 20-fold," Bob Somsith, who opened SXSE Food Co. (pronounced "sexy") in 2018, said.

Somsith did not look to get a spot downtown for his food truck. He has a long-term partnership with 4th Tap Brewing Co-op in North Austin. Ideally, he hopes some of the traffic from SXSW overflows to where his food truck operates.

"A lot of locals that have lived here for years or even decades want a South By alternative, so they don't have to mess with downtown traffic and all the tourists coming through," Somsith said.

As SXSW continues, the food trucks downtown believe they'll get more foot traffic customers despite the slow start.

"People are going to be here starting tonight, tomorrow and I know by Wednesday we're going to be killing it," Naidoo said.

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