The goal of some food truck operators is to generate enough sales and popularity to open a brick-and-mortar location. Damon Cole and Mandy Ottesen see their Cousins Maine Lobster business hitting the road.
Theirs is the 75th Cousins Maine Lobster food truck in the U.S.
The black, 22-foot truck is detailed with red lobsters and a video screen showing off menu items and pictures of the founders and “Shark Tank” entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran, who invested $55,000 for 15% equity in the lobster roll company.
Cousins is the third-largest buyer of Maine lobster behind Carnival Cruise Lines and Costco, Ottesen said.
Cousins Sabin Lomac and Jim Tselikis founded the company in 2012 in Portland, Maine. According to CousinsMaineLobster.com “a franchise offering requires an initial investment of $194,000 to $644,700 for our food trucks and $266,700 to $968,900 for our restaurants.”
Cole and Ottesen declined to reveal their costs.
Maine lobster rolls may be delicious but they are not cheap. A basic roll starts at $20.
Ottesen, 48, and Cole, 46, initially wanted a Cousins store. Cole has been a fan of lobster since youth. His father was a marine engineer and often traveled to Maine. Before flying home, he would buy live lobsters to bring to Jacksonville.
“Back then you could fly them with as carry on,” Cole said.
“You didn’t have to check them and they would stay alive until they got to Jacksonville. We’d have a little party and invite everybody over. He did that once a month, and that’s how I knew about Maine lobster.”
Cole also worked 12-hour shifts as a marine engineer at Mayport for 17 years. He would frequently reward himself with a lobster roll at the Cousins Maine Lobster location at 630 Atlantic Blvd. in the Seminole Shoppes strip mall in Neptune Beach. The franchise is not affiliated with the Neptune Beach store.
He took Ottesen there and the Key West native experienced Maine lobster, which, unlike Florida lobster, includes claw and knuckle meat. She also enjoyed the Maine lobster roll.
Ottesen reached out to the company to inquire about franchise opportunities.
However, as they looked into starting a Cousins franchise they began to create the business plan.
They soon decided a better plan would be to bring the lobster rolls to the customers. They decided on four wheels instead of four walls.
“Our pricing is right in line, or probably even a little bit less than you would get on the Maine coast,” Ottesen said.
“The fact that we’re in a truck and we can come to people, they’ll get so excited when they see it. It kind of creates that excitement, right? ”
Their territory is all of Northeast Florida and even as far north as Savannah, Georgia. While they plan to work every day, the wide territory means that the truck may be in one neighborhood only a few times a year.
Their truck makes its debut Nov. 9 in front of Beer:30 at 1543 San Marco Blvd. The marketing plan is to partner with other similar drink businesses, as well as setting up shop at festivals and neighborhood gatherings. They also cater. They have hired 10 employees.
Cousins Maine Lobster has an app that shows when and where the truck will be. They also plan to use social media to tell customers when they are in their area.
The couple wanted to start a business together. It is a business that is much more than four hours at a festival or a planned gathering.
They have a nondescript office space off Philips Highway. There they receive the packaged lobster claw and knuckle meat. They also use the prep kitchen there to prepare the side orders.
After an event, they will clean the truck’s kitchen, and well as have a cleaning crew scour the truck at night.
The couple praised the Cousins training method. The company had them travel to Maine. They were on a lobster boat. They saw the packaging process. Later, they went to Nashville, Tennessee, to learn how to take an order and deliver it in less than four minutes. They even learned how to drive the truck.
Ottesen works the internet pitching places to partner with to set up the truck in front of their business. Without serving the first lobster roll, they are booked through the first of the year with just a few open dates.