When Jordon Warren and Craig Williams graduated from The University of Alabama, they knew they wanted to be in the restaurant business, but they never thought they would end up opening a food truck.
Brothers Street Eats is the first food truck in Tuscaloosa, but one of many across the country. Food trucks have become the latest craze in the restaurant business in recent years. They even have their own show on the Food Network, “The Great Food Truck Race.”
Warren and Williams bought the trailer from someone in Miami who needed to sell it because he was moving out of the country. Having both worked in the industry since they were teens, they decided it was the right price and time to break into the industry on their own.
Co-owner Warren said, “It’s really a niche type of specialty, neither one of us had worked in a food truck before but it turned out that we both really loved it.” They bought the truck in late March, and they first set up shop was in Alberta City after the April 27 tornado.
“We wanted to give back with as big of a tragedy as the tornado was, but we wanted to stick to things we knew,” Warren said. “Neither one of us have a lot of experience with construction so why not use what we do best to help the community and try to give the people who were hurting a good hot meal from the gracious people who donated.”
Following their 10 days in Alberta City serving food, Brothers Street Eats played the waiting game most of the summer getting all the licenses they needed from the city. Just eight weeks ago, they began serving customers on the corner 4th street and 23rd avenue downtown, right outside of Coppertop.
The truck is serving an all Cajun and Creole menu, something Warren said Tuscaloosa did not have a lot of before them. Williams also knows the food well having grown up on the Gulf Coast in Fairhope, Alabama.
“We didn’t want to become another hamburger and hot dog place,” Warren said. “We’ve gotten a good response, we felt like it was a commodity that was really needed. With as much restaurant experience as we have, this is something we’ve put our hearts into and you can see it in the food.”
On the menu are items such as shrimp po’boys, which are Warren’s favorite, catfish po’boys, gumbo, shrimp and grits, beignets and fried green tomato BLTs. The food ranges from $4 to $6, which puts it in the same price range as other late-night places in Tuscaloosa. Brothers Street Eats is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. until just after the bars close, which is 2 a.m. Thursday and Saturday, and 3 a.m. on Friday. According to Warren around midnight and just after closing are their busiest times.
“The overall goal is to expand,” he said. “But we’re still in the early stages of the trailer. We’d like to expand to 7 days to see how the city responds to us.” In order to make that goal a reality, Warren and Williams are working closely with the city looking for the perfect places to open up for lunch and dinner before hitting the late-night crowds. They also hope to find a place on the Strip or the Quad next year to serve all the tailgaters who spend their Saturdays on campus.
As for plans to be on shows like “The Great Food Truck Race,” never say never to seeing Brothers Street Eats on the Food Network. “I’m always up for anything,” Warren said. “I’d love to do something like that, but there would be a lot of logistics to work out like the gas going across the country. We’d be more than happy to try something like that, it’d be a great experience to learn from and we’d be really excited about trying it.”
For now, Warren and Williams are proud of how the truck has done so far and are excited to keep serving Tuscaloosa high-quality foods at a low price. “We’d love for you to come see us if you’re out of the bars or even if you just want to come see us individually,” he said. “You’ll walk away with a smile on your face.”
The Basics:
Who: Brothers Street Eats
What: Tuscaloosa’s first food truck
Where: Corner of 4th street and 23rd avenue
When: 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday and Saturday, 9 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday