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Food truck booms in more stationary second season

Jenny Neyman/KDLL

 The Reindeer Hut is ending its second season tomorrow. For a food truck, that means winterizing the vehicle and parking it in storage until next spring.

The business’s first two seasons were very different from one another. Co-owners Aaron Conradt and Benjamin Peterson were more mobile last year and fed hungry event goers gyros and baked goodies from their orange-trimmed vehicle at events around town.

This year, the truck has been in mainly one spot since April, next to The Brew Coffee — another second-year business — on Kalifornsky Beach Road. Peterson thinks that might be the reason their business grew so much this year, even during the pandemic. 

“This year, being just stationary in one spot, really gave the community around us in our area the chance to get to know us and come to us on a more regular basis, knowing that we were going to be here,” he said.

The name recognition from last year also boosted their second season, Peterson added. 

Conradt said there were a lot of surprises this year.

“Oh my gosh, we learned so much,” he said. “People like the phone and online ordering, I think it makes it super convenient. People can order ahead or they can set a time. We got great feedback on that.”

This was the truck’s first time using online and phone ordering. In this [its] last week, as fans scrambled to get their last pumpkin cold brews and breakfast burritos of the season, Reindeer Hut had to shut off their website because there was such a high volume of people placing orders. Peterson and Conradt could hardly keep up with the demand.

The Reindeer Hut will be back next year with some changes that the owners wouldn’t disclose quite yet. All Peterson would say is that the truck is getting a new look.

“We will hopefully be able to then handle a higher volume of business, which I think will be good for the community, as well as good for us,” he said.

They said they’ll return to the events they missed this year but will also likely keep slinging food from their current spot on K-Beach.

Sabine Poux is a producer and reporter for the Brave Little State podcast of Vermont Public. She was formerly news director and evening news host at KDLL in Kenai.

Originally from New York, Sabine has lived and reported in Argentina and Vermont and Kenai.
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