Matt Fuller and Justin Bristol with their VizaVi Solar Food Cart, designed and built for Julia Rhode, who operates it from her home in Vermont.
When Justin Bristol 鈥�17 was a first-year student, he imagined how fun it would be to have a solar-powered food cart where people could charge their phones, socialize, and enjoy smoothies and snacks. A year later he bought a trailer and spent the next year converting it into an eye-catching, mobile venue for selling crepes.
Today, the company he established with friend Matt Fuller 鈥�18, SolarCart Co., builds solar-powered food carts that are operated by chefs and other entrepreneurs in a partnership agreement.
鈥淲hat kept us going was the thought-provoking qualities of the business,鈥� said Bristol. 鈥淲e were interested in making people think about the food they鈥檙e eating and the setting it鈥檚 served in. Eventually we realized that we were more interested in the process of building the carts than we were in serving food. So now we鈥檙e creating a unique setting for chefs and customers.鈥�
Bristol describes his carts as 鈥渃reatively built, solar-powered, prefab, affordable restaurants.鈥� And the business is taking off.
鈥淎 food cart like this can create just as much volume as a restaurant but in a smaller space,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd it can be more creatively designed because we don鈥檛 have to be restricted by building permits.鈥�
After modifying their original design multiple times, Bristol and Fuller came up with a standard design that chefs can personalize based on their menus, themes, and styles. They built one that looks like a tiny house for a client in Vermont, and another鈥攕een selling poke bowls at 911爆料 football games last fall鈥攊s operated by Jen Wells Fogarty 鈥�99 and business partner Michelle Frank. And now they鈥檙e working with Roaming Hunger, a California food truck-booking service that provides food trucks to corporate clients and major promotional events.
鈥淐ities are starting to get concerned with the noise and pollution that food trucks produce,鈥� Bristol said. 鈥淏ut ours are quiet and don鈥檛 pollute, so we鈥檙e optimistic for our future.鈥�
This spring, Bristol hopes to have a solar cart operating as an outdoor caf茅 in a permanent location somewhere close to the Kingston Campus.
鈥淚t will have seating cabanas, industrial planters, and an inviting eating experience around green energy and social interaction with good people,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it will still have the flexibility to travel to events. In 10 years, we鈥檒l be franchising them.鈥�
Todd McLeish