One of the signs of a good food truck is the amount of repeat customers it gets, but an even better sign is if the people of the Health Department are part of their regular clientele. The Aloha Wagon has both of these and they have been so successful with their patrons that they don’t need to find another location to serve lunch from.

Since they don’t change locations, what the husband and wife team of Ben and Rebecca Romo do is change their menu daily. They do an e-mail blast of the day’s menu to their regular clients and the rest is word of mouth. Their food is a mix of Mexican, Filipino, and local cuisine prepared with fresh and local ingredients. They do delicious and eye-catching (as you can see below) grilled fish and chicken rice plates, tacos, burritos, quesadillas, Teriyaki burgers, and mouth watering desserts and pastries as well.

Baked chicken w/ mushroom wine sauce

Grilled mahi-mahi w/ mango salsa

Pork Lechon Tacos

Spinach Quesadilla

Burritos

Teriyaki Hamburgers

Cream Cheese Brownie

Chocoflan

You can say that their story has come full circle, since the pair met onboard the Pride of Aloha of Norwegian Cruise Lines. Rebecca was a pastry chef in the baking department and Ben was a chef. They then moved to Rebecca’s home state of Chicago, where she got a degree in Hospitality Management and an MBA. Later coming back to Hawaii to start the food truck business in warmer climate. They purchased the trailer via USEDvending.com in Georgia, custom wrapped it in Chicago and was shipped off to the islands from Seattle.

Rebecca shares, “We both had no experience in buying a food trailer or kitchen equipment, but the process became a lot easier than we thought because of USEDvending.com”.

They currently operate from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, Mondays to Saturdays at the cruise ship dock in Pier 2, 521 Ala Moana, Honolulu. This is on the ocean side of the boulevard at the corner of Punchbowl St, right in front of the Foreign-Trade Zone No 9 building. They get lots of traffic from the nearby offices and pier workers, especially when the cruise ships dock. They have been the longest standing truck in the area and attribute this first and foremost to good, fresh food and secondly to treating the clients as you would like to be treated yourself (read their Yelp reviews here).

But first of all, you need a good business plan advises Rebecca (see our Tips in Starting a Food Truck). Aside from being her own boss and meeting new people every day, Rebecca also enjoys running the business side of the operation. Being an entrepreneur means you have your fingers in everything from admin work, accounting, marketing, PR, product development, customer relations, and sales.

For event bookings you may call The Aloha Wagon at 410-HI-WAGON (410-449-2466) or visit their website at alohawagon.com.  Follow them as well #Alohawagon and @alohawagon808.

This is for Ben and Rebecca, may their love for food and each other ever grow.