SAN ANGELO, Texas — San Angelo's newest mobile food service is feeling fired up and ready to welcome customers, with menu options ranging from brisket to burgers.
"We're in tough times and everyone knows it, you know, everyone stretches their dollar as far as they can but one thing that continues, people still like to go out to eat," Fired Up West Texas owner Justin Saenz said.
For most of his time as a business owner, Saenz has been the head of Tribal Services catering company. What started as a passion quickly turned into a full-time operation of more than 25 years. Now, he is starting a new endeavor with his daughter, Allysa, by his side.
In fact, the pair were able to serve customers for the first time Sept. 30 at San Angelo's second annual Food Truck Festival alongside more than 20 other businesses.
"It was really neat, it was humbling to see customers in line, people waiting to get our food," Saenz said.
Throughout the evening, Saenz and his team had the chance to interact with customers face-to-face, which has become one of their favorite parts of the business.
On Oct. 6, the trailer will be parked at its new location, 802 N. Chadbourne St., just nearby Bee Gzzz Smoke & Brew convenience store with the goal of creating a "backyard barbecue" type of experience.
"Hopefully it'll be one of them nice chill and grill type of places," Saenz said, noting the cooler temperatures.
He plans to create a rotating menu offering new options each week including pulled pork sandwiches, chicken poppers and chicken bombs.
Of course, popular items like brisket - which typically requires 10-12 hours of preparation time- will remain on the menu weekly.
Saenz also hopes to use his food service background to better his new role.
"Because we've been catering so long, we have such a diverse and large menu that we can serve anything from spaghetti to traditional barbecue, you know, we've done everything in between," he said.
For now, he wishes to "Get the food out there, get the word out there" to a new horizon of customers.
Looking to the future, the ultimate goal is to expand the nearby turf area to include picnic tables and an outdoor hangout spot, one bite of barbecue at a time.
