01: Growing a Food Truck Empire | Evan Kidera, Señor Sisig

Evan Kidera is the Founder and CEO of Señor Sisig, a Filipino Fusion food truck innovator and now growing restaurant chain in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this interview Evan shares how he got started in the food truck scene, grew his concept to multiple food trucks, then ultimately decided to focus on growing the business through brick-and-mortar restaurants.

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Where to find Señor Sisig:

• Website: https://www.senorsisig.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/senorsisig/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/senorsisig
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/senorsisig

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Where to find Evan:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evankidera/

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Where to find Bryan:

• Website: https://www.myfirstrestaurant.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-tublin-03548910/
• Twitter: @btublin 

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Where to find Kitava:

• Website: https://www.kitava.com/
• Instagram: @kitavakitchen

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Referenced:

• We Be Sushi
• Kogi
• Off The Grid
• La Cocina

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In this episode, we cover:

• (01:10) Evan’s background and early exposure to the restaurant industry
• (03:52) Evan’s early career, and decision to go back to school for an MBA
• (07:00) Street food inspiration, and where the idea for Filipino Fusion came from
• (12:20) Buying his first food truck, and turning the idea into reality 
• (18:12) The origin story of Off The Grid in San Francisco
• (22:10) Launching semi-legally at a Roller Derby in SF
• (24:50) How they funded the business
• (26:31) Learning by doing in the early days of running a food truck
• (30:30) What success looked like for Evan when he started the business
• (33:45) How Evan was eventually able to pull away from the day-to-day grind of running the trucks
• (39:08) How Evan and Gil paid themselves early on
• (43:32) The decision to open physical brick-and-mortar restaurants
• (46:30) How Señor Sisig funded its expansion into restaurants
• (49:42) The differences between operating food trucks vs. restaurants
• (51:15) The rationale behind producing food out of a central commissary kitchen
• (55:30) Why expand via restaurants vs. food trucks moving forward?
• (57:31) Advice Evan would give himself if he were starting over again
• (59:12) Evan’s “welcome to life as an owner” moment
• (01:04:28) What Evan does to unwind