When the owners of Lutz Mail Depot on Dale Mabry Highway found that customers enjoyed spending time at their business and socializing, they wanted to provide a small cafe so they could sit and eat.
While brainstorming that idea, they considered launching a traditional food truck. But then they got really creative.
(Michael Murillo/Staff Photo)
“We thought, let’s do something cool with this and let’s do something that’s kind of interesting and unique,” said Greg Skibbee, who owns Lutz Mail Depot with his business partner, Paul Fischer.
Make way for the trolley.
Skibbee and Fischer converted a working, 35-foot motorized trolley from Paris, Texas, into the Route 66 Kitchen & Dining Car, a mobile food service vehicle that will sit outside their business during the week serving food, and hit the road throughout Florida on weekends. It officially opened for business last week.
While converting a trolley into a food truck is an unusual concept on its own, Skibbee explained that there’s more to it than that. At more than twice the length of a typical 17-foot food truck, they can offer something missing from mobile food vehicles: inside seating.
Between eight and 10 patrons can eat inside the trolley, and awnings will provide shade for customers who use tables and chairs outside.
In addition to getting the trolley ready for inside customers and decorating it with Route 66-themed memorabilia, Skibbee and Fischer added a new, electric cooking system with induction heating. The equipment will allow for fast, clean cooking, while keeping temperatures under control, Skibbee said.
After adding air conditioning and getting everything up to code — the trolley has passed its health inspection and is road-ready — its owners will have spent around $125,000 making their idea a reality.
The transformation required a lot of effort in a short time, since they just purchased the trolley in late May. But according to Skibbee, the effort has been worth it.
“This is probably one of the things I’m most proud of because it took so much to do it,” he said.
The trolley made its public debut at the Lutz Independence Day parade, escorting outgoing Lutz Guv’na Suzin Carr along the parade route. But even when its owners take it to Home Depot for some upgrades, it attracts plenty of attention, Skibbee said.
While the Route 66 Kitchen & Dining Car will serve hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and even breakfast to patrons, they’ll be happy to serve the underprivileged in the community as well. Military veterans and the homeless will find themselves welcome wherever their wheels stop that day.
“You want to support your vets and you want to support your homeless,” Skibbee said.
If the community supports their Route 66-themed trolley, its owners will make sure it isn’t lonely on the road. They have preliminary plans to add two or three more to the fleet by the end of 2015.
The trolley already has made an impact inside their business as well, as benches have been converted into sitting areas. But outside, Skibbee believes the trolley will have a presence that fits in with the unique spirit of Lutz. And to make sure nobody forgets where it comes from as it travels around the state, the trolley has its home community proudly displayed on the back.
“That’s why we actually branded it as ‘Hometown: Lutz,’” Skibbee said. “It doesn’t say ‘Hometown: Tampa’ or ‘Orlando.’ It says ‘Lutz’ because Lutz is where we are.”
For more information about the Route 66 Kitchen & Dining Car, visit Route66.kitchen, or call (813) 949-5370.
Published July 23, 2014
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