Making Money From Street Food

On Monday I had my final day of real work. I washed out my mug, sat through the uncomfortable if well-meant goodbye cake and went to the pub afterwards to demolish the three drinks required to make me verbose and smiley. The following day was then my first day off since half way through May. I am delighted to report that did nothing much at all, declared it an homage to the sofa and I am now feeling much better as a result.

It means that as of now the Jabberwocky is our sole source of income. We can no longer write off bad events as learning experiences. We will probably still have to, as there are always going to be bad events, but we need to be spotting and avoiding those events before they cost us money we might need for the mortgage or, y’know, food.

I’m being a little dramatic there. Making money from street food is certainly possible, and at the moment, with the BBC Good Food Show profits still mostly untouched in the Jabberwocky coffers, we are able to last for a few months at least. But the seasons change; or at any rate people’s attitude to being outdoors does, and this is very much a job in which you need to urgently make hay while the sun shines, so that in January, when no one wants to leave the house – much less eat anything outdoors, you can still make ends meet.

We have made plans, but as of now we are setting off into uncharted territory. We already know we can make money. We won’t be making our fortunes, but if we had wanted fortunes we would not have bought the van. What we need to know is whether you can make a living out of toasties. Delicious and cheesy though they may be, they are not a proven source of income. We only know of two or three other sellers nationwide, only one of which actually angles towards gourmet. And they call it a grilled cheese, which to my mind is a whole different thing.

The Club Toastie. Nothing like a grilled cheese.

This gap in the market means that we don’t have stats or figures for me to get excited about and over-analyse, and comparison with fellow traders can only give us limited data. There are folks in Birmingham who make a living out of street food, but none of them do it with a big green van, hundreds of loaves of bread and a passion for cheese.

This summer our goal is to going to prove, to ourselves and anyone else listening, that the magnificent, versatile and thigh-slappingly delicious toastie can make us a living. Admittedly this means we will need a new challenge for next year, but I’m sure something will present itself. So far the Jabberwocky has never proven short of challenges.