Food trailers depend on the weather and their location in order to become successful businesses. Several food trailers had to relocate from the South Congress lot when the previous owner sold his lease.

Wurst Tex was one of these trailers and the owner, Sam Wafer, speaks about the change.

“A gentleman by the name of Bill Berseg owned it originally. When I saw he owned it, he had a 99-year lease from the church who technically still owns it. From what I heard, they have no intention of selling it Why would they? It’s a cash cow. It’s a tax-exempt land. Charitable organizations like St. Vincent’s and all churches are tax-exempt. Bill had plans to sell the lease to a hotel. Didn’t happen. So he sold the 99-year lease to Capital Sports and Entertainment, which is the same parent company that puts on ACL, Lollapalooza. They kept everyone’s lease the same, but it was only eight months before they finally said we had three months to vacate in May.”

Wafer’s business went through a gestation period and had to rebuild his customer base. His business’ speedy recovery is due to the food he serves.

“The smoked venison sausage is very popular at our other trailer in west campus on 26th and Rio Grande. It is by a lot of student housing at UT and by a lot of sorority and fraternity houses. It also popular here on Congress too,” Wafer said.

Wafer works with his wife making homemade chili. Both plan on bringing back their popular rattle snake and rabbit sausage.

Despite changes South Congress has seen, other food trailers have found their own respectable niches.

Ms. P’s Electric Cock: Fried Chicken was founded by Terry Ray when she noticed there was no good fried chicken in Austin.

She hired Tifika Clat a year ago to help her with brand building and customer service and works with Justin Napatali, both of whom run the trailer. Clat recommends their fried chicken, but the food trailer also has a variety of additional options.

“We run the Marty in the summer and spring months. Our Marty is our whole ear of corn. We grill it to order and we top it off with jalapeno aioli, fresh ground tortilla pepper, cheese and fresh lime. We put flavors on the corn that really encompass the summer time. Now, with the weather changing, we have taken the Marty off the menu and brought back out dirty black-eyed peas. They are cooked with peppered bacon, whole ham hocks, yellow onions, and chicken broth for hours and hours to let them get really sexy with a sashay of herbs. We skim all the fat off the top and once they are finally ready we scoop everything into a 16-ounce container and top it all off with fresh rice, green onions, fresh cooked bacon and a small dollop of sour cream.”

Clat states that Ms. P’s will be at the Trail of lights this year and the company plans to have a mobile food trailer available for catering events.

Finally Eric Ragan, the owner of the new, Hey are You Gonna Eat or What?, speaks about his newfound success in Truck by Truck West.

“Truck by Truck West had its inaugural year this year. It was organized to provide a vehicle for people to get out to the food trucks. We did the Monty Christo as our sampler for this event. People would buy badges and be given a road map to get different specials. It culminated in a vote, on the part of the all the people who had the badges, and we were voted the most popular one among the voters, and the prize for that was $10,000.”

The Monty Christo is made with Shiner Bock served with a cherry and fig jelly on the side as a dipping sauce for the sandwich and pairs well with the sandwich’s provolone.