As the owner of six food trucks, David Sevcik would love to see gasoline prices drop. But if that’s Food Truck Avenue’s biggest problem this year, the Englewood-based business will be all right, he said.

Sevcik, who began operating a macaroni and cheese food truck with his wife, Meghan Sevcik, six years ago, said every year has its challenges but the key to success is a little luck, a lot of hard work and the ability to adjust.

“Be flexible and adapting and constantly learning,” Sevcik told Colorado Community Media.

Rather than do the same thing year after year, Sevcik takes an annual look back at what worked well for the business and what didn’t and then determines what to change for the next year. 

That approach has transformed Sevcik’s single food truck into a “catering collective” with half a dozen trucks and 20 employees. In addition to macaroni and cheese dishes, Food Truck Avenue provides burgers, tacos, barbecue and cheesesteak sandwiches as well as charcuterie boards and buffets for public and private events like county fairs, neighborhood parties, corporate gatherings and weddings.

“Pretty much all the fun things you go to in the summer,” Sevcik said.

Sevcik originally wanted to own his own restaurant, but found that a truck was a less expensive and more forgiving way to get started in the food and beverage industry.

“You get your chances to recreate yourself and to learn from your mistakes,” Sevcik said.

Although his trucks attend events from Highlands Ranch to Westminster and everywhere in between, the business’s commissary is in Englewood. In addition to plenty of room to park trucks, the facility has a walk-in refrigerator, a walk-in freezer and a place to store dry goods. There’s a dishwasher but no cooking equipment, of course. 

“All the magic happens on the trucks,” Sevcik said. While the cooking always happens on the trucks, the food doesn’t have to be served from them. The company offers traditional drop-off catering for events where a food truck experience just isn’t the right fit.

Catering from a truck results in better food because it’s cooked right outside the event, he said. It’s not cooked in a kitchen across town and then transported over.

“The food truck offers us a mobile kitchen to make it fresher and make it as soon as people are ready to eat it, rather than sitting in warming racks for two hours,” Sevcik said.

Branching out with catering is one of the ways the business has adapted over time. While not initially part of the plan back in 2016, catering now accounts for about 60% of the business, Sevcik said. 

Over time, who Sevcik has partnered with has changed as well. In 2016, he worked a lot with breweries. The next year, he added in a few gatherings hosted by neighborhood associations and found that the business does well when it can get out to large, diverse crowds. Now his food trucks are much more likely to be at city, school or church events, he said. 

“You got to be fluid. You can’t be stuck in your ways,” Sevcik said. “For us, it’s adapting. We adapt to what’s going on.”