Business Spotlight: Bus Boy Mobile Cuisine offers new take on food truck fare

What is 36 feet long, nearly 15 feet tall and can feed more than three dozen people at once?

No, it's not a giant Twinkie formed by ecto-radiation.

By this spring, it will be the newest addition to Carson City's food truck fleet.

An English double-decker bus owned by Billy Lavelle of Carson City is in the process of being converted from a London-based people mover to a restaurant on wheels.

Lavelle is starting a mobile cuisine business called The Bus Boy, a venture that he said will be one-half food truck and the other half restaurant.

"Because of trends in food service -- especially the mobile aspect -- being so high in popularity, I thought it would be a good niche," he said. "Nobody has a mobile restaurant."

Lavelle said that while the food truck trend is not new, the idea of a mobile dine-in restaurant is radically different.

Unlike most food trucks, he said, The Bus Boy's two-story Cummins L10 diesel pusher will feature a full-sized commercial grade kitchen on the vehicle's main deck.

Most food trucks have a warming kitchen, Lavelle said. As such, they also require a base kitchen from which to prepare the food they serve.

But not The Bus Boy.

Food can be prepared from scratch aboard the Piccadilly wonder, using stainless steel commercial appliances that eliminate the need for a base restaurant.

With its on-board equipment, all the city requires of The Bus Boy is a base for certified portable water and a place to dump the grey water, Lavelle said.

Carson City Calvary Chapel, Lavelle's church, will provide for the vehicle's water needs, he said.

Currently, he runs the church's food pantry and commercial-grade kitchen -- aptly named Billy's Cucina -- from which he has created many of the dishes that will appear on The Bus Boy's menu.

The Bus Boy's food fare will run the gamut of traditional streetside treats to gourmet cuisine typically featured in upscale restaurants, Lavelle said.

Only from The Bus Boy can you order a juicy sausage dog at the streetside window, then sit down to enjoy savory beef or salmon Wellington in the same place.

Plus, there's television entertainment for those both at street level and on the bus's upper deck, Lavelle said. The bus will be heated and air-conditioned, too, for patron comfort, he added.

Four bar stools opposite the staircase in the 14-by-eight foot main deck area is planned between the bus operator's cab and the rear kitchen, Lavelle said, for those who prefer to eat closer to ground level.

The bus's upper deck is a 33-by-eight foot space large enough to seat 32 people in eight four-seat tables, he said.

Plans also call for a roof that can be raised an additional three feet, Lavelle said, providing diners with a unique open-air experience.

As neat as the idea is for Lavelle, converting a double-decker bus direct from London, England into a mobile restaurant isn't without its challenges.

"There are things with the health department that I'm having to overcome," he said, "because they don't have a classification for it."

Because the bus is from England, entry aboard the vehicle is on the left side instead of the right. This makes curbside parking a challenge because the doors face the street rather than the sidewalk.

"I'm trying to work with the city parking department so I can park it facing the opposite direction," Lavelle said. "If I park on the street, I have to park backwards because the doors are on the left and driver's seat is on the right."

Until that bug gets worked out, Lavelle said the bus will at least be suitable for parking lots and plazas.

Then there is the bus's height. Lavelle said the street-legal limit is 14 feet tall and the two-story London icon is just one inch shy of 15 feet.

"I had to get a special use permit for that," said Lavelle, who noted that the unconventional height adds limitations that other food trucks don't have.

"It limits where I can go and how I get to where I need to go," he said.

Lavelle's business won't have a base of operations, either, so customers will need to Google The Bus Boy in order to pin-point its location around town at any given time.

Lavelle said The Bus Boy will be equipped with global positioning system (GPS) technology linked to Google for this purpose.

Nonetheless, wherever and whenever The Bus Boy is, Lavelle said he wants it to be an inclusive experience by offering fare for every budget.

That's why he has developed two menus: one for affordable streetside eats and another featuring higher-end gourmet food up top.

"That's my big focus, family friendly and nobody gets excluded," he said. "There's an option for everybody."

Lavelle said The Bus Boy will also include gluten-free dishes on the menu for those with gluten sensitivity, including Wellingtons and fish-n-chips.

Food products will be sourced locally as much as practicable, he said, because keeping local is important to the 35-year food service industry veteran.

Hot dogs and link sausages will be provided by Flocchini Family Provisions, formerly The Sausage Factory, based in Carson City.

Desserts will come from L.A. Bakery on W. John Street, Lavelle said, and he hopes to have Schat's Bakery in the Carson Mall on board to supply baked goods for The Bus Boy.

Beef and lamb products are sourced from the Sanchez Ranch in Wellington, Lavelle said, and some produce will also come from Peri Brothers in Yerington, which supplies vegetables to Raley's Grocery Store, where he worked for more than three decades before retiring last Christmas Eve.

"Whenever I can, and it's feasible, I'll pay the extra to stay local," he said. "With that, I support the folks who are here."

A self-described food guy, Lavelle isn't your typical restaurateur.

He grew up in the New York City area, which he describes as the ultimate destination for food diversity and eclectic fare.

"It's a melting pot for food, and I got lots of influence from around there," he said. "I fell in love with food there."

Lavelle later resided in Nevada as a teenager, graduating from Carson High School in 1982. He began his career at Raley's while in high school and remained with the California-based Nob Hill Foods grocer for 35 years.

With no professional culinary credentials or certifications to his name, Lavelle followed his passion for food into the kitchen, where he developed his skills from hands-on experience.

"I'm just a guy who likes food," he said. "I've always had a passion for food."

Lavelle is passing along his zeal for meal to area high school students by sponsoring a month-long internship program through The Bus Boy.

These include private and home-schooled students as well as those enrolled in the CHS culinary arts program.

"They're going to get to develop a menu item," he said about the end-goal of the internship. "But first they put in their labor upstairs (in the dining room) and get that part down."

For the first two weeks of the internship, Lavelle said students will become familiar with dining room operations before transitioning to the kitchen on the bus's main deck.

Once there, the intern learns to develop a menu item by performing cost analysis, marketing, and tasting.

"At the end of their 30-day internship, the Thursday before they can sell that item and all the profit from those sales goes back to the (CHS) culinary program," Lavelle said.

But his internships aren't reserved just for culinary arts students, Lavelle said. They are open to any student who shares his passion for food.

The bus is currently undergoing major structural renovation by Pro Tech in Mound House, said Lavelle, who has also hired Fab Tech to build in the kitchen.

Start-up costs for his double-decker project are a lot more than those for the average food truck, he said.

But he thinks the investment will be worth it down the road.

Lavelle said he hopes to eventually expand into the Truckee Meadows and franchise out in time. However, Carson City is his company's base and it's also his first priority.

"I want this community to do well and this city to do well, because I'm a resident here," he said. "There are a lot of good folks who are helping me a long the way."

Lavelle said he is targeting a soft opening for the end of March or first of April with a grand opening celebration to follow.

He said he hopes to coincide that with the creation of a local food truck association, which he is forming along with other food truck businesses in the area.

Cooperation, he said, is much more important than competition to food trucks.

"In restaurant history, everyone is typically against each other and fighting for customers," Lavelle said. "Whereas in the food truck world, the more trucks that come together the better they do because it becomes an event and a destination."

For more information about The Bus Boy and its 2017 debut, visit online here or like the business on Facebook here.