Amy Le (BA ’03) takes her first orders at the debut of her food truck, DucknRoll. Visit
ducknrolltruck.com to learn more.
She also understands the risks. “It’s kind of
crazy, because we’re in a recession right now. The economy’s down—to make that decision to quit my job at a fast-growing Internet company to open my own business—it was a hard one.” Having grown up in her mother’s restaurants, Le knows the industry is a tricky one. “Very few restaurants actually make it— less than 4 percent,” she says. “It’s long hours. It’s a lot of work.” But Le believes the rewards outweigh the
challenges, and her mother, after some initial skepticism, helped her develop the concept and the plan for DucknRoll. “When I first told my mother, she pan-
IN LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK, food trucks have been a booming industry for the past couple of years. When Amy Le (BA ’03), who has long been passionate about the food industry and about starting her own business, visited LA, saw food trucks there, and experi- enced the food truck culture and community, she knew it was time to close her eyes and leap. “There are a lot of young chefs experimenting and contributing to this really cool culinary culture,” she says. “I wanted to be a part of it. And now is the time.” Le’s Chicago-based food truck, DucknRoll, opened for business in late October. Le, who graduated from Loyola in 2003 with a
communications degree, grew up in the restau- rant business. Her mother owned two Chinese restaurants in St. Louis, and Le learned from a young age about the many roles and mecha- nisms that keep a restaurant afloat. “From the time I could, I was washing dishes
and working in the front and back of the house,” Le says. She also worked as a server and bar- tender in the tough job market she faced after graduation. Le eventually started working for a Pio-
neer Press newspaper covering local news and Chicago politics. After five years there, she decided to leave print journalism to focus
on online ventures. “I felt that was the direction things were head- ing,” she says. She started as a blogger covering
D HERE ... FALL 2011 19
real estate, wanting to get more experience working for Internet companies. “Then I heard that GrubHub was looking for a social media manager, which would allow me to go back to my first passion, which is food.” GrubHub, then a startup with a handful of employees, is a Chicago-based company that allows customers to search for local restaurants and order delivery or takeout online. “I think I was employee num- ber 15, and now they have over 200,” says Le. She worked for the company managing their social media presence and doing PR. “That was an incredible experience,” she says. “I got a chance to work with and help independent restaurant owners, and it combined my two career paths (communications and the restaurant business).” It was hard for Le to leave GrubHub, but she
felt the time was right, and she went with the support of her employers. “They are very sup- portive when it comes to helping out entre- preneurs,” she says. “When I went in to let Mike and Matt [Evans and Maloney, co-founders of GrubHub] know I was leaving to start my own business, it was bittersweet. But they knew I’d always wanted to do some sort of venture of my own.” According to Le, there are just under 50 food
trucks operating in Chicago, whereas in New York and LA there are hundreds. “I wanted to develop mine first, before the market is saturated,” she says.” That’s a big factor in the timing.”
icked. But she knew I’d wanted to do it for a long time,” Le says. Le’s business partner, Bing Zhou, owner of Chen’s and Koi Chinese & Sushi in Chicago, brought expertise in navigating the restaurant landscape and knowledge of Chinese cooking. DucknRoll’s menu is inspired by Vietnam-
ese bánh mi sandwiches and features duck as a prominent ingredient. The menu has a pan-Asian influence and is partially a tribute to Le’s mother, who immigrated to the United States as a Vietnamese refugee, sometimes serving Vietnamese food alongside the Chinese menu items that were her own res- taurants’ main offerings. “Duck represents good luck in many
Asian cultures,” says Le. “It’s served at special holidays and events. This is a tribute to my mother and all the hard work she’s done.” Le is excited about DucknRoll and being
the co-owner of her own company, and she acknowledges the challenges as well. “Start- ing your own business is tough,” she says. “The challenge is that you have to expect the unexpected. There are a lot of things you can’t predict or control; you have to be adjustable to the unpredictable.” The food truck has had its own share of speed bumps and swerves as it’s moved into operation, but Le is glad to be doing what she believes is a natural career progression. “I didn’t take one straight path to get here, but it’s all connected,” she says. And at the root of it is a love and passion for food.
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