15-05-2025
Cooks explain why so many food trucks pop up in Siouxland
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Siouxlanders are lining up in parking lots to grab some grub from a variety of food trucks around Sioux City, but why are there so many people now serving food on the streets?
It seems like everywhere you go in Sioux City, there's a food truck parked and serving delicious food around every corner.
Kai Thai and The Corn Dog Company have both been serving food around Siouxland for roughly three years now, both getting into the business of food trucks for different reasons.
'Well, basically, my uncle, he has one in Omaha, and he kind of convinced us to open one here. And ever since then, we've been enjoying the food trucking business,' said Diego Ruiz, the co-owner of The Corn Dog Company.
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'My dad and his wife, they were both born in Laos. My dad's wife actually came here just a couple of years ago, so that's kind of a big part of why we wanted to start the truck, just for her and have something to do,' said Nickolas Saengthammavong, a co-owner of Kai Thai.
While a brick and mortar business was an idea that crossed both companies minds, the fact that they're able to travel anywhere proves to work better for the cooks.
'Having a food truck, it's cool just to be able to move around, go to different events, places, and also, . . . when we started, we [were] pretty new to the food industry, so if there would be a little easier start with a food truck than having the restaurant,' said Saengthammavong.
'We could go out and like go to like smaller towns like Le Mars, Onawa, like yesterday, we were over there in Cherokee. We just, would you like to go around too, so like more people know of us,' said Ruiz.
What makes, not just Sioux City, but the whole Siouxland area so inviting for food trucks? The Corn Dog Company and Kai Thai say it's the friendly atmosphere.
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'All the owners too; we're all cool with each other, so it kind of makes it better too, because we like to talk to each other and invite each other for like events. Like if I get invited to one, I'll tell Kai Thai if there if they got a spot open be like, oh, let's go too. I don't know, Siouxland is this the best over here for food trucks,' said Ruiz.
'I think for sure it's how friendly and just supportive all the customers and people around here are. Everyone likes to support small businesses. Everyone's always so nice to us, you know, it's cool we get to make connections with all the customers. Yeah, we really like that. We enjoy that,' said Saengthammavong.
Want to enjoy a meal from a food truck? On June 6, the 10th annual Food Truck Friday will kick off at Pearl Street Park.
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