The Butcher’s Son – National Food Truck?

Dallas-based Two Trucks LLC will launch its food-truck brand, The Butcher’s Son, in October with two Dallas trucks, followed by five trucks in February, ten trucks in May, and, hopefully, a total of 200 trucks by 2014.

Two Trucks is led by CEO Jonathan Wagner, son of Johnsonville Sausage founder Ralph Stayer, and Dain Pool, son of Pool Restaurant Group’s CEO, Dan Pool. “I was scared at first because I know the food-truck culture is, I don’t want to say anti-corporate, but it’s along those lines,” Pool says, noting that major food corporations have launched promotional trucks that fizzled.

“We don’t want the food-truck community to go, ‘Oh my gosh, a corporate truck,’ because we’re really not.” Rather than rolling out a single truck, Pool helped Wagner build a food-truck brand separate from their father’s.

The business partners hope The Butcher’s Son can be the first major national food-truck brand. Pool compares the food-truck trend to the early years of the quick-service industry, noting its fast growth that shows no signs of slowing.

With so much attention on the mobile food industry currently, he believes now is the right time to debut The Butcher’s Son. The brand will primarily feature Johnsonville products, like sausages and brats, as well as an array of other options including breakfast and dessert items.

The Pool/Johnsonville relationship provides the truck the advantage of serving high-quality foods at affordable prices. Though The Butcher’s Son is debuting in Texas and will likely build out the markets there before branching out to others, “the economic climate does play a major role in the markets that we’re going to choose,” Pool says.

Two Trucks plans to eventually spread across the country, eventually introducing additional truck brands, like burrito, Asian or dessert trucks. The menu, Pool says, will also play a major role in the social media marketing efforts of The Butcher’s Son.

“We’re announcing two menu items every Monday and Friday until we open, to keep people’s interest up, and it’s worked very well so far,” he says. Each Butcher’s Son truck that rolls out will also run a social media promotion that lets customers choose the final two menu items.

Wagner and Pool will both speak on a panel at QSR’s Dine America conference, October 9-11 in Atlanta. The panel, “The Young Guns,” will discuss second-generation restaurant operators and how franchisors can appeal to younger franchisees. Congrats to Jonathan and Dain on the brand’s launch, and I’m looking forward to its growth and evolution in the coming years!