Restaurant Owner Fears 'Empanada Guy's' Plan To Bring Truck To Toms River

(Carlos Serrano aka the Empanada Guy, center, speaks with a Toms River resident after Tuesday’s Township Council meeting. Credit: Karen Wall)

Carlos Serrano says he’s living the American Dream.

“I was bankrupt five years ago,” Serrano, better known as the ”Empanada Guy,” says. “I put everything into the business.” And his hard work, he says, is what has made his business -- selling empanadas from a truck -- successful.

Patty Caneda says all she’s looking for is the chance to do the same -- build a life and a future for herself and her two daughters.

Caneda, a single mother, opened her restaurant, Caneda’s, an empanada experience, on Fischer Boulevard last June. The daughter of Latin parents -- her mother is from Cuba, her father from Spain -- Caneda was looking for a way to rebuild after her divorce and give her family some security and ensure she can pay for her daughters’ education. Her oldest is two years away from college.

Caneda, who was diagnosed with the immune disorder lupus in August, had worked for a medical malpractice insurance company, but when the company was bought out, she said she realized her job was no longer secure. That’s when she decided to open the restaurant, making empanadas as a tribute to her Cuban roots. And despite an extremely limited marketing budget, It has gained a following, the 15-year resident of Toms River said.

Now she fears her fledgling restaurant, which combines her Cuban heritage with touches of an American gourmet palate, could be harmed by an attempt by Serrano to bring one of his food trucks to Toms River.

The Empanada Guy has become a national name thanks to Serrano’s appearances on shows like Lifetime’s ”Supermarket Superstar” and the Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay.” He just recently bought two more trucks, increasing his fleet to five, and has a restaurant in Freehold. The three current trucks operate in Central Jersey -- Morris Plains, Old Bridge and Port Reading. A fourth truck is targeted for Woodbridge.

The idea to put a truck in Toms River, he said, came about as a result of requests from residents.

“It’s been very surprising,” he said in a video he posted on the company’s Facebook page on Feb. 7, as he urged residents to attend the Tuesday night Toms River Township Council meeting. “I didn’t know I had that many people from that area coming here” to his Freehold restaurant.

Serrano attended the meeting to ask the council to revisit a 1973 ordinance that bans stationary food trucks within the township. Township Clerk J. Mark Mutter said that ordinance came about because small business owners asked the government of then-Dover Township to address the issue of itinerant food trucks, which were viewed as competing unfairly because they did not have the same overhead costs of a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

The ordinance states that food trucks must be moved every 30 minutes; Mutter said the township has had to actively enforce the ordinance as recently as last spring, when a vendor set up right across the street from Capone’s.

“We get complaints all the time,” Mutter said, with the problems occurring primarily during the more temperate months.

Monique Gradaille, a commercial insurance agent in Toms River, said she is concerned that Serrano’s attempt to change the ordinance will end up benefiting one person: him.

There are business owners who have been struggling to recover from the devastation wreaked first by Hurricane Sandy and then by the fire that destroyed a large piece of the Seaside Heights boardwalk, and some who would love to have the opportunity Serrano seeks.

“Why come down and take a permit from residents?” Gradaille asked of Serrano’s attempt to bring his truck to the town. “Why should he receive one before these people, who have been here for decades?”

Caneda, who is from the same neighborhood in Elizabeth where Serrano hails from and said they have mutual acquaintances, said in addition to paying taxes as a resident of town and rent on the restaurant space, her business puts money back into the local economy because she sources all of the ingredients for her menu from local suppliers -- her meat from a local butcher, her dessert ice cream from Mrs. Walker’s, a local ice cream shop, and her produce from local stores as well.

“I’m supporting the community,” she said.

Serrano said he hopes to lease space on a vacant property, so he would be be paying rent to a landlord who pays property taxes. His company has to pay for permits to operate -- town permits, Health Department, fire inspection and others -- and contributes to the economy by creating a buzz that will draw people to town. “We bring in jobs,” he said.

Moving the truck around is dangerous, he said. The truck contains a restaurant-quality kitchen, including a deep fryer filled with oil heated to fry the empanadas. The oil wouldn’t cool down enough to safely move every 30 minutes, he said.

Mutter said the permit to operate a food truck in town is $800. Fees for other inspections were not immediately available.

Serrano did not specify on the phone where in Toms River he was looking to park his truck. At the council meeting, he said the truck and his name will draw consumers.

“I will bring traffic into Toms River,” he told the council. “Fischer Boulevard needs it. Hooper Avenue needs it,” he said, apparently referring to the site at the corner of Fischer Boulevard and Hooper Avenue that has been vacant since Boston’s, an upscale sports bar and restaurant, closed abruptly last summer.

Caneda, whose restaurant is down the street from the old Boston’s site, said it’s not just her business that would be impacted if a food truck was allowed to set up shop at that site. ”There’s a Portuguese restaurant and delis, too,” she said.

Serrano said brick-and-mortar restaurants have nothing to fear from him.

“If there’s a restaurant that’s threatened by a little red food truck, then you shouldn’t be in business,” he said by phone Tuesday afternoon, a sentiment he echoed in a video posted Tuesday night on his Facebook page after the council meeting. “If you’re a restaurant and you’re threatened by a red food truck, you shouldn’t be in the industry.” He later deleted the video, as well as a post that was an open letter to the Toms River council, asking them to consider his request.

Serrano, who said his company produces 50,000 handmade empanadas a month, said his product has gained national attention, with requests from Florida, Texas and Chicago to bring it there. He’s also working on a possible deal to bring his product to supermarkets, he said.

“It’s a huge brand,” he said, built through marketing, and helped along by his appearances on national television shows. “I’m going to bring a lot of traffic to Toms River because of my face being on national television.”

Caneda, who said her restaurant offers primarily takeout and delivery but will be adding seating this spring, said as a startup, she doesn’t have the budget for mass marketing. She has put time and effort into marketing her restaurant through social media, as well as putting fliers on cars. She was able to take advantage of a marketing program that Coca-Cola offers, but for now, she has to rely primarily on word-of-mouth. And so far, the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.

“Everyone who comes in says they’ve been sent here by someone else,” Caneda said, which gives her pride in the food she is selling. “We take very special care of everything we serve in our restaurant.”

Serrano said any businesses who are concerned about the competition need to let the free market decide.

“I want another food truck to park next to me,” he said. “I want that competition. That other competitor should have the same attitude: May the best one win.”

“Success doesn’t come with entitlement,” Serrano said, “it comes with a lot of hard work. If they’re threatened by that they shouldn’t be in business. If they’re threatened by a little red food truck, that’s weak.”

As for the town council, Serrano said he hopes they will give thought to changing the ordinance, which he says is hurting landlords who could be receiving income by renting empty lots.

“If they can rent it out to someone who sells Christmas trees why not a a food truck?” Serrano said. “Why can’t we let the landlord decide who he wants to rent to? What if I buy the property? The ordinance says I can’t park the truck there.

“That’s un-American,” Serrano said.

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