Destination Desserts: Sweet Wheels LA

This week's Destination Desserts featured food truck is Sweet Wheels in Los Angeles, CA.  Their slogan "strictly playful food" couldn't be more accurate.  Sweet Wheels is all about transporting its customers back to a nostalgic happy place through desserts.  With homemade creations, such as ricotta puffs with tangerine cream and various hand pies like pumpkin ginger, their treats are not only unique and delicious, but memorable as well.  Sweet Wheels excels at bringing out the inner child in each of us.  I'm so happy to share more information about the amazing owners Sharon and Michele and their popular mobile dessert business below. 

 

Photo courtesy of Sweet Wheels

1.  What sets your food truck apart?  
Right now, we are the only dessert truck in L.A. that is making gourmet desserts TO ORDER.  There are many cupcake and frozen dessert trucks but we do pastry-like items that are deep fried and come to you piping hot.  We haven't seen anyone doing this yet.

 

Photo courtesy of Sweet Wheels

2.  What kind of music do you play in your truck?  

Because we bootstrapped ourselves into business (REALLY bootstrapped), a way to play music was not in the budget.  We found a very, very old radio that one of us had, and when we can plug that into the generator, we listen to 88.5, KCSN.  It's the 50 year old radio station broadcast out of Cal State Northridge, and it absolutely ROCKS.

3.  What is the worst truck disaster you have encountered so far?   
We lease our truck (as our first venture, we thought this was wise) so she's (the truck) got some miles on her!  One night, after a food truck event about an hour from our home base, she started having engine problems.  It was well after midnight mind you, and we had to negotiate a full-fledged breakdown on the freeway.  The company from which we lease the truck was able to send a mechanic despite the late hour but we ended up sitting in the parking lot until about 4 am!  That was fun. 

 

Photo courtesy of Sweet Wheels

4.  What is the difference between a sweet food truck and a savory one - are there different audiences?  
As a dessert truck, we serve only sweets.  Sounds obvious but we have discovered that our best service times are AFTER peoples' main meal (usually the savory trucks!).  This brings a lot of things to mind regarding the "types" of people who come to our truck...  Generally, it seems we get the fun-loving, willing to treat themselves, playful people.  We think this is because our food is not about being hungry or trying to eat something that's good/nutritious.  It is about pure, smile on your face fun.  

5.  What is your best seller and why?  
Our best sellers are the Beignets.  We think it's because there really is nowhere to get them in our area and definitely no other food truck that's serving them...  We've discovered that many people are familiar with beignets from New Orleans so they are very curious about what we are doing.  

 

Photo courtesy of Sweet Wheels

To learn more about Sweet Wheels, visit them here