Beloved Food Truck-Turned-Restaurant Closes Overnight
Food trucks are all the rage, but sometimes, it's just time to expand. It's not uncommon for a popular food truck to turn into a restaurant, especially if the demand is strong. It might even be the dream of a food truck owner to one day open a full-fledged restaurant.
There were 58,064 food trucks in U.S. business as of 2024, an increase of 10.3% from 2023, according to IBIS World. They add that "the number of food trucks in the US businesses has grown 10.3% per year on average over the five years between 2019 and 2024." It's possible that the popularity of food trucks increase during the pandemic, since people could grab food from them outside, but even if that's the case, it appears that popularity hasn't decreased.
Now, one very popular food truck that recently turned into a restaurant has already closed its doors.
Pronto Pup Grand Rapids, which is located in Grand Rapids, MI, has closed their storefront on Wealthy Street in the downtown area, only three weeks after opening. The owner shared the news in a social media post on May 30 and said that the restaurant's last day would be May 31.
According to the post, the business had a hard time making the saves they were hoping to see with a storefront. But, the good news is that Pronto Pup Grand Rapids' food trucks will remain in business for public and private events. A "Pronto Pup," by the way, is a carnival food that original in Oregon that's a "hot dog impaled on a stick and deep-fried after being dipped in a cornmeal-based batter," according to the Oregon Encyclopedia.
"We just aren't seeing the sales and value for having a B&M like for instance yesterday we did $13 all day," the social media post stated. "We can't operate at night without effecting our food truck operations and Francas' operations."
The post added, "When I started this venture just 5 years ago we've tried the whole B&M thing in several different ways, we tried to be creative and it's failed. It's not easy admitting your failures but this is one of them and we are sorry it didn't work out the way we had planned or thought. The food trucks are a way better option and when we are out doing public or private events we have a captured audience for us."