Local residents follow food passion to profession
By James Feichtner
It is often said that passion is the key to success in one’s occupation. For Geist resident Randal Klein, creating great food was his passion.
“I’ve always had a passion for food, always enjoyed serving people; making them happy, especially if I was able to do it with my food,” Randal said.
But Randal’s first runaround in the food industry didn’t instill much passion. In fact, it actually was giving him quite the rough ride. As a previous managing partner and employee at other food venues, long hours and strenuous workdays left him looking for other options.
“I just said, enough is enough,” Randal said. “I was working 80 hours a week for somebody else and having to cancel vacations.”
Randal explored other options such as trying his hand in his own insurance agency, but in the end his passion for food kept surfacing.
“My passion was always food,” Randal said. “It always came back to food. I would make enough food for twenty people every Sunday just because I enjoyed cooking.”
Within his circle of friends and family, Randal was complimented and praised by his cooking skills.
“We always heard, ‘You should have your own restaurant, you should start your own,’” Randal’s wife Rachel explained.
“And I would always say, ‘I don’t want to do it. Been there, done that,’” Randal said. “But once again it came back to my passion. Finally I said, ‘Let’s do this passion that I’ve got.’”
So with his wife’s help and family and friends’ encouragement, Randal decided to start his own food business, Indy Mobile Catering as well as his food truck, the $5 Buck Truck.
“We decided we were going to do a small food truck and a catering business,” Randal explained. “My goal when I first started out was I wanted to cater to businesses, because I only wanted to work Monday through Friday, banker hours, and be able to do what I wanted to do.”
Operating out of an office-turned-kitchen off of 96th Street, Randal is making quite a name for himself in the catering business. Relying on word of mouth through friends and family, news spread quickly about the quality of Randal’s culinary work. Soon he was serving events and office buildings around the Fishers and Geist area.
“They’ve heard great feedback about us from these events because we’re there, we’re on time and we don’t run out of food, which is huge for a lot of these events,” Rachel said.
What sets the $5 Buck Truck apart from the other trucks is its speed of service and low pricing without sacrificing quality of food.
“Our goal is home-style food fast,” Randal said. “The difference between our truck and a lot of other food trucks is they bring their food and they put it on their truck and they prepare it then and there. So you actually have a wait. We make almost all of our food from scratch at our shop, put it on the truck so that way I can just serve it.”
For the catering aspect, the Kleins take on the role of “catering caterers”, allowing them to cater to the needs of their customers while meeting customer budgets.
“We can do anything depending on our crowd,” Rachel said. “We can kind of maneuver our menu around, which is a nice feature. And people can hire us and put whatever they want on our menu.
Indy Mobile Catering is available to accommodate any event, from basic back yard get-togethers to higher end parties and weddings.
“We’ve done weddings where I’ve done filet mignon sliders and portabella mushrooms; higher end things where I smoke salmon,” Randall said.
To learn more about Indy Mobile Catering or the $5 Buck Truck, visit www.indymobilecatering.com or www.facebook.com/the5bucktruck?fref=ts
Indy Mobile Catering
Specialties: Slow smoked meats such as Cherry and Hickory smoked pork, smoked chicken salad over a croissant.
Box Lunch: Sandwiches, wet and leafy green salads, wraps.
Fried items: Breaded tenderloins, chicken fingers, corn dogs.
Higher end items: Bruschettas, pinwheels, stuffed cucumber bowls and canapés.
