Staff writer
Jake Schadel of Marion loves his family and hot dogs, so when the opportunity to buy a food truck presented itself, he jumped at the chance.
He, his wife Andrea, and their three children traveled 600 miles Feb. 22 to Chula, Mo., to pick up the box truck and returned home with a future hot dog truck.
“We had wanted to do this with the family for quite awhile,” Schadel said. “We had been saving our pennies and when I found this truck on Craigslist I thought this is the perfect truck and jumped at the chance.”
He hopes that in two or three weeks the truck is up and running. Several changes need to be made to the truck before it can become the dogmobile of Schadel’s dreams.
“We have to add a wall between the cab and the back of the truck,” he said. “We also need to redo the electrical wiring, and add a generator, an electric hot water heater, sinks, and countertops.”
The whole family is excited about their new business venture and have been creating drawings of what they want the truck to look like and ideas for the name.
“They’ve been sitting down in the evenings and drawing pictures of their ideas and ways they want the truck to look,” he said. “Truck color and decoration have been subjects of much debate but I think we’re going to keep the original yellow and white the truck is painted now.”
There are also plans to paint hot dogs on the sides.
The name of the truck is also the subject of much debate.
“My wife likes ‘Jake’s Dog House’ for obvious reasons,” he said. “That’s probably what we’ll end up going with.”
His goal is to create gourmet hot dogs like a “nacho” dog with cheese, chili, and chips and a “reuben” dog with sauerkraut, corn beef, and Thousand Island dressing, but more importantly it to spend time with his family.
“My kids are always asking if they can go to work with me, and they can’t,” Schadel said. “This way they can and we can just throw stuff together and go because hotdogs don’t require much prep.”
He hopes it teaches his children good work ethic and family values.
“It’ll be a great way to teach work ethic, get quality family time, make some money, and feed people,” he said.
His 10-year-old son, Ethan, will help the most and the 8-year-old daughter, Lauren, will do what she can.
“My four-year-old will be the taste tester,” he said.
Schadel doesn’t know yet where all he will sell hot dogs.
“I’m going to contact Margo with the chamber and see if we can set up at the park and at town and county events and maybe during parades setting up on a side street,” he said. “We’re also looking at traveling to different events to sell or maybe during lunch setting up at different places around town depending on what the city evolves. It would be very cool for the county to have a food truck.”