For Milwaukee food truck owners, opening permanent restaurants offers the best of both worlds

On any given day, Arielle Hawthorne could be filling in at the front counter at the Twisted Plants restaurant in Cudahy, or cooking at the store on E. Brady Street, or maybe even welcoming customers to their food truck parked somewhere in the area. Oh, and overseeing the buildout of their new shop in West Allis.

“I don’t think any of my days are average,” said Hawthorne, who co-owns Twisted Plants with her husband, Brandon. “I’m filling in where I’m needed, using my skills wherever they’re needed the most.”

Her Twisted Plants restaurant started out as a small food trailer in 2019 after she was diagnosed with cancer and decided to go vegan while her husband began eating vegetarian. The couple opened their first restaurant at 4905 S. Packard Ave. in Cudahy in 2020, then the second at 1233 E. Brady St. in 2022. Their third is in the works for 6202 W. Lincoln Ave., West Allis.

“We knew there was a need for more vegan options in Milwaukee, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise when it took off,” Hawthorne said.

When Hawthorne conceived Twisted Plants, she always imagined it would be in a brick-and-mortar space. In fact, she would have preferred to have a restaurant first, but the food truck was the only viable option with their budget at the time.

Hawthorne is now enjoying the perks of having a permanent space now that they have two restaurants. She said the restaurants are more convenient because she doesn't have to worry about moving food from the kitchen to the food truck. That means making more time for making food.

Even though Hawthorne achieved her dream of having her own restaurant, the couple held onto the food truck, mostly because Brandon still likes to run it, she said. And it still has its perks, including of being where their customers are, whether at a street festival or farmers market.

Twisted Plants isn't the only Milwaukee food truck that has gone brick-and-mortar in the past few years. As more trucks have opened in the city, so, too, have those trucks opened permanent spaces. And many, like Twisted Plants, have held on to their trucks to take advantage of the perks of having both.

Opening a restaurant offers more opportunities

To the north of Twisted Plants on Oakland Avenue, Immy's African Cuisine has also benefited from having a permanent restaurant space while still running a food truck.

Owner Immy Kaggwa said that since they opened at 2847 N. Oakland Ave. in April 2022, her food truck has remained a bigger income driver for her business. But the restaurant helps provide income in winter, when street festival season is slow.

“With being by UWM, we get a lot of students. When they’re gone in the summer, it gets too slow,” Kaggwa said. “In wintertime, we do without the food truck. In the summer we have to have it. It’s part of the marketing too —telling people you have a location.”

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This past summer the truck parked at Jazz in the Park and the Cedarburg and Shorewood farmers markets weekly.

Kaggwa, who started her catering business 15 years ago while raising her children, said she never had considered growing into a restaurant.

She opened her food cart two years ago. Shortly after, Michael Vitucci, who owns restaurants in Milwaukee and the building her restaurant is in, approached her about taking up a lease after he tried her food at the Shorewood Farmers Market.

“Before this I never wanted a restaurant, because I knew it was a lot of work,” she said. “I gave it a lot of thought, asked people around. Everyone gave me a green light, and I decided to just go for it. It has been good. The first year was really good. Now, it’s not bad. We’re still paying our bills. The profit is there, but is minimal.”

Still, she said a huge benefit of her new restaurant is having her own private kitchen to prep for street festivals. Previously she operated out of The Neighborhood Kitchen, 8103 W. Tower Ave.

“You’re sharing a kitchen with other people, and you’re trying to get enough storage,” she said. “Here I have space and can expand.”

One expansion opportunity that was made possible by her physical location is starting this fall, she will sell frozen East African cuisine that is hard to come by in Milwaukee.

“We’re adding something different where they can buy food or grab something frozen to take home,” Kaggwa said.

That includes her Somalian sambusas that she is known for.

The ability to expand her offerings and get more creative is what makes the brick-and-mortar space worth it in the end.

“It gives me opportunities to try new things,” she said. "It makes us able to offer something different for customers, that’s what seems to make them excited."

RELATED: 10 Milwaukee-area restaurants that started as food trucks

Achieving a dream of owning a restaurant

Alejandro Hernandez has embraced trying new things as he's opened Kalibres Restaurant & Bar, 4555 W. Forest Home Ave., Greenfield, after operating a taco truck for a few years.

"With the food truck you can change the spot, with the restaurant you can change the food," he said. "That's what we've done to attract customers."

In growing into a restaurant he added menu items like pork ribs with the green and red salsa, breaded chicken, enchilada plates, chimichanga plates, and steak dinners. He also added a bar program.

"All we've done is add more," Hernandez said. "That way we might have something for more people and grow business that way."

Hernandez started Kalibre’s Tacos food truck in 2020 and opened his restaurant in October 2022. The food truck was a big reason he could grow into a restaurant.

"I feel like we could have done restaurant first, but the food truck helped out a lot," he said, noting it gave them income while they were remodeling the restaurant space, which took about a year.

"We worked at the food truck while we were waiting on the restaurant," Hernandez said. "If we needed something for the restaurant, we were like, we have money for that now thanks to the food truck. It made processes a lot faster."

Once they opened the restaurant, they sold their food truck.

"We really wanted to just focus on the restaurant," Hernandez said. "I want to get a food truck again now that things are running here. It's good for catering, which we still do, and we can get our name out there more."

He said he wouldn't take it out during the winter or on hot days, though, since he thinks the lack of temperature control in the truck was its biggest downside.

His dream of owning a restaurant came from his father, who worked in kitchens after he immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. The son wanted to create a work environment where they could be owners.

"It gave us a lot of independence; working for someone is different than working for yourself. Being the owner you have to make sure that everything is there," Hernandez said. "With the food truck we had to remember what we're missing, making sure we have it for the day or the week.

"The food truck, and doing the restaurant now, it's something we're really proud of," he said.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee food trucks-turned- restaurants take advantage of both to grow