I made the jump and opened a BBQ food truck in 2018. I did pretty well until Covid hit, and then my entire revenue dropped to $0 for many months on end. Food prices skyrocketed, and meat availability was super limited, so it was many nails in the coffin at the same time.
The first 2 years I really enjoyed it as people would come by 2-3 times a week for my BBQ. It was physically and mentally exhausting though. My wife worked a normal 9-5 type job, and I was essentially on the graveyard shift. I'd do my BBQ lunch service, get home at about 1pm, clean the dishes and food trailer, and then I'd be in bed by about 3pm. This way I could be rested enough to get back up at about 10-11pm to start cooking for the next days service. So I rarely saw my wife and I was working roughly 12-14 hours per day. It was hard work and long hours and especially so during the summer when you're doing 200Lbs of meat in the heat / humidity of July/August.
Next time someone says "Hey, you should open a BBQ restaurant" ask them if they want to invest $250K+ to get you up and running. Barriers to entry in restaurants are massive in both the costs and the fact that you're constantly dealing with the local government. Government is slow, inefficient, and corrupt in some aspects. Trying to get those clowns to do their job on any reasonable timeline was an impossible task. I also had a poor experience with getting my BBQ food trailer built in a timely manner. Initial quote was 6 weeks....6 weeks later they hadn't even started on the build. In the end it took over 3 months (IIRC), and that cost me money.
To be successful you have to have the passion and desire to make it work. If you're not 100% dead sure you want to do it then go ahead and dismiss the idea entirely.
