Chef Trying To Find Best Way To Run Food Truck Under Denver's Changing COVID Restrictions
(CBS4) - Timothy Stroman, or "Chef Stro" as he's known, is living his dream of owning his own food truck. He has been a personal chef for years but recently he decided it was time to work for himself.
"And (I said) let's do hibachi because there's no hibachi food trucks in Denver," he said.
He opened Stroman's a little over a month ago and starting cooking up steak, chicken and lobster hibachi. He admits starting in the middle of the pandemic was a big risk, but it has so far paid off.
"I thought it was going to be a little tough on us but we've actually been doing a lot better than I thought we would," he says.
He attributes his success to the fact that it's easy for him to adhere to COVID guidelines because he doesn't have a dining room. However, that doesn't mean he is immune from all the restrictions put into place due to COVID-19. One of the biggest ways to make money is to serve outside of bars, but with the early last calls and limited capacity he has not even bothered serving past the dinner rush.
"If some of the bars were allowed to stay open then I feel like we would do a lot better," he says.
Now things could get even tougher. As of Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020, Denver's Home by 10 health order is in effect. It's an effort to bring COVID-19 cases under control. That means people in Denver should be home by 10 p.m. Essential businesses and their workers are exempt as is necessary travel, but if you are out for no reason or caught having a large gathering you could face a $1,000 fine.
Chef Stro sees how it is effecting his brethren in the food service industry.
"We were at a bar on Friday night from 2 to 9 p.m. and we saw maybe about 30 people," he says.
He is just grateful he has found enough work to be successful and figures he will use this time to upgrade his truck so he can come back to late nights with a bang when bars are allowed to stay open.
"Then we will be out 6 to 11," he says.
