From food trucks to storefronts: Maturing O.C. businesses transition to restaurants

Christian and Danielle Murcia decided about 10 years ago that they wanted to take the romanticized French street version of the crepe to Orange County.

“Our whole concept is re-creating the French crepe experience,” said Christian Murcia, 32, of Fullerton. “In France, crepes are typically street food. You can get them at cafes and restaurants, but when people return to their memory of eating crepes in France, it’s usually from some cart along the streets of Paris.”

Initially, the husband-and-wife duo ran a catering service, but in 2010 they took to the streets with a food truck.

As one of the few gourmet food trucks then in Orange County, the Murcias slowly grew their business over the years, opening their only brick-and-mortar restaurant in Fullerton in March.

Crepes Bonaparte’s evolution from food truck to restaurant is becoming a common progression in the food business. The maturing eateries that were a part of the food truck explosion in the latter parts of the 2000s are now transitioning into the more traditional terrains of food service.

In Orange County, the Cut, Burntzilla and the Lime Truck are a few others that have made the move.

“For a lot of business owners, getting into a food truck was the less expensive way of getting into the food business,” Christian Murcia said. “In 2010, getting into a food truck could have maybe been the only thing they could afford. Now that the businesses have an established product, they can afford to move into a restaurant space.”

Zaid Ayoub, CEO of SAJJ Mediterranean, said the food truck was a less risky way for businesses to test their product, especially after the financial hit of the recession.

“You come up with a concept and want to test it, but you don’t want to take too much of a risk, so food trucks are less capital-intensive,” said Ayoub, 50, of San Mateo. “Because it’s mobile, you can test the product on different locations and demographics. It was great for us to gain traction with the food trucks before we started scaling.”

SAJJ has six locations throughout California, including a recently opened restaurant in Rancho Santa Margarita. Ayoub said he will soon open a new restaurant in Irvine and introduce a food truck to Orange County.

The Cut started with a food truck in 2014 and quickly spawned a big following for its unique burgers. A restaurant opened nine months ago in Irvine.

“You don’t need a landlord,” said Andres Dangond, executive chef and co-owner of the Cut. “You just build your business on wheels and go with it.”

As aging eateries move into new storefronts, owners are being forced to adapt to a whole new set of principles.

Customers have different expectations when they walk into a restaurant than when they order on the street from a food truck. The Murcias have spent time at their new restaurant studying the clientele and smoothing operations.

Christian Murcia said one of the biggest differences he’s had to learn is that a restaurant has a more consistent flow of customers. In general, food trucks park at a spot, have an initial rush of customers and then the truck moves to a different location.

A restaurant customer also expects to stay for a while, unlike when ordering food on the street, so chefs don’t have to churn out crepes at blinding speeds like on the truck.

But, Christian Murcia said he’s learning a lot about the storefront and the business is evolving to suit new consumer demands and behaviors.

Conversely, for Dangond — who’s worked in kitchens around the world — moving from restaurants to food trucks was an alien venture. Being used to expansive kitchens, the Cut crew used to butcher and grind their meat in the truck before realizing that amount of labor was unsuitable in such a compact space.

Considering a move into the restaurant business was always the goal for Dangond, 32, of Los Angeles, and co-owner Steve Kim. Opening the Irvine location was a return to normalcy.

Dangond said the food truck business has become difficult to navigate due to increased regulations and accompanying fines. He said in order to bypass these issues, agreements have to be made with private businesses to park on their property, but it’s a time-consuming practice that becomes irrelevant with a fixed storefront.

Ayoub said food trucks pose other logistical problems.

“The issue with trucks — you are literally dealing with a lot of moving parts,” Ayoub said. “You have traffic, the weather, car accidents, breakage. So while it’s nice to have a few, I don’t know that it’s scalable.”

Dangond said the truck is still operating, but more as a kind of mobile advertisement and catering service. Rather, they’re focusing on expanding the restaurants, with the next one perhaps in Long Beach.

The Murcias, however, never aimed to build an expansive restaurant empire and their two food trucks continue in operation, ferrying the street crepe tradition from France to Orange County.

“I am receptive to opening up another restaurant in the future, but we don’t have firm plans and are not trying to aggressively expand,” Christian Murcia said. “We are just looking for the right opportunities to continue to execute the brand and recipes the way the consumer likes it.”

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter:@benbrazilpilot