Today we’d like to introduce you to Julian Engels.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
In 2022, I felt the urge that all folks who have been out of the business a while feel when you’ve put just enough distance between yourself and the kitchen industry – an itch, calling maybe, that makes you think “that does sound like fun again.” In reality, I think we’re all drawn to the chaotic nature, camaraderie, and the day to day that changes every day!
I came across a 1992 Oshkosh. An old stick shift, salvaged, box truck for basically pennies. I went ahead and bought it and built it out (with the exception of plumbing and electrical) thinking it was time to get back into the industry. I started reaching out to other local food trucks, event coordinators, researching, etc.
My first event was Laumiere After Dark, and the truck I figured I got at a bargain decided to start showing its age. I had to have it towed in to the event! Not to mention I had no idea what I was getting into with Laumiere After Dark, incredibly busy, one of the best events of the year. I was utterly unprepared! Ha! But it was a great learning experience. The year after that, we went back to Laumiere After Dark and blew it out of the park (Laumiere Sculpture Park if we want to add pun).
I quickly streamlined my operations and never stopped trying to improve. There are several people I’d love to mention who helped me on the way with advice and events, they were instrumental in helping me learn and understand the food truck world, which is entirely different from the brick and mortar businesses I had exclusively worked in before.
Eventually I found myself being a mentor and consultant to many other trucks and trailers. There are many in the St. Louis area today who came to me when they were thinking about starting or in the process. I’ve always been an open book and want everyone to succeed, so I shared all my events, checklists, processes, what to look out for on events, hiring, menus, etc. There’s one truck that I helped get into the scene who grew enough to open their own brick and mortar! They’ve been open a year now and the truck is also still going strong!
This is a tough business, unforgiving. Mechanical issues plagued me and almost put me out of commission on many occasions. Let me tell you, it’s always breaking down at the worst moments too. But even so, I would always make sure to do my best to make it to the event I was supposed to be at, whether in a tent or whatever else we could strategize. There was one time a bride and groom expected us to be at their wedding reception, so I had the truck towed there. It cost quite a bit more than the money we were supposed to make, but to me that didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to let them down on their special day.
Where I’m at now is odd, we are successful, but I think I can speak for myself and many others when I say this last year has been the toughest on record. The rain and heat cancelled just over half of our events, which is a huge blow, then consumer spending and event attendance has been incredibly low at most of our events. We survived, but it’s making me reevaluate everything.
But on a positive note, I am still assisting others and have built such an incredible community I can rely on. We’ll see what the coming year brings.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No ha! I maybe over embellished in the last question and touched on many. There have been non stop struggles. To the point where you feel like you’re on some kind of prank tv show and I’m looking around for the cameras ready to be told you’ve been pranked!
There are major struggles we all deal with, in no particular order I’ll list them
Mechanical – These trucks are generally older and because of the infrastructure in St. Louis, they are more prone to breaking down. Most every breakdown is a major one as it takes us out of commission and we lose revenue generating days. On top of that we have to pay an absurd amount of money to have the truck fixed. Labor and parts skyrocket because all these trucks generally have parts that can be hard to find and the folks who know how to work on them are few and far between. Most any profit we saw went to mechanical fixes. Trust me, this is somehow always true, when you catch a break and get a GREAT event, you can count on some catastrophic breakdown in the next few days, ha! Just have to roll with the punches.
Events – It is incredibly important to know the approximate attendance of each event. We buy and prepare food for the amount of folks attending based on what the event tells us. This is inevitable, having a bad estimate. It happens. Generally we’ll see that a few times a year. But this last year (2025), the amount of events with an estimate that was not even close to what we were told skyrocketed. I keep notes on every event we have, as well as other details like est. attendance. There were events we were promised 500 or so people, and we saw maybe 30-50. It kills us, prep labor, food truck service labor, food, gas for the truck, gas for the generator, miles on the truck…. it goes on and on. This year it was one event after the other, labor and food waste were the worst it’s ever been and we only have so much freezer space to try and utilize any unused product for next time. Generally we serve everything in a state where it’s never been frozen, but this year we’ve had to seal and freeze several proteins and thaw them to utilize them.
The heat is a struggle too. This year the truck was 130 degrees inside. I have lots of equipment to keep everyone cool and implemented a 15 on 15 off policy so no one was too overworked. It’s just getting hotter every day.
Another struggle is finding commissary and parking consistently. Prices for utilizing kitchens seems to be taken advantage of now and dedicated commissary kitchens are charging absurd prices for an hourly basis, then taking advantage of the low supply of commissary kitchens by charging outrageous prices for renting a small shelf for dry storage.
Then the permitting process, that’s a struggle we’re all too familiar with. It’s not a straightforward process either. You have to go to several different departments in city hall then the health department, fill out paper work for each department, then obtain all these different permits. It’s too much to explain but their permitting is based on actual brick and mortar restaurants, not food trucks. Nothing has been updated to accommodate food trucks. I could go on, but as I said, it’s too much. I’m not sure there’s enough text to explain the process.
As you know, we’re big fans of Wok-O Taco. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Wok-O Taco is a food truck that specializes in street tacos. We bring together the cooking styles and ingredients of both Latin America and Asia, when I say Asia, I really mean all across Asia – Korea, Japan, China, Nepal, India, Vietnam… We’re proud of our bold flavors and emphasize beautiful simplicity. I draw on the original reason food trucks came around, to showcase delicious and beautiful street food that expands on the delicious and wonderful food from different regions. Everything we make is made from scratch. Our street tacos are the best in the area, using a few ingredients and preparing them in a way that orchestrates a deep and beautiful flavor where the ingredients work with each other and fit perfectly. You’ll take your first bite and taste the beauty and understand how these ingredients work in sync.
We’re a little loud and wild on the truck, never too wild of course. We love our loud music, having a good time, and going fast.
What sets us apart is that as a lot of companies move away from great customer service, we still strive to make things right and go above and beyond for our customers. We offer something no one else in St. Louis has flavor wise. I know our product, we stay true to our core concept, and above all we have integrity and try to show that in every thing we do. I hold myself to a very high standard on the truck and off the truck. We have high quality, made from scratch, delicious food.
We offer catering, private parties, pop ups, private dinners, etc. We love huge events with tons of people. Where we’re slammed and have to serve hundreds of customers with no break in the line. It’s a ton of fun and we have perfected our flow and getting out tacos within 30-45 seconds (but give us some grace on the busiest days!)
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
When I was younger, every summer I’d spend time with my Papa and Uncle Jeff at deer camp. It was a small piece of land they leased from a buddy. They taught me a lot, cooking and other stuff. To quote Jeff, Papa, Mama, my mom, and a few other uncles and aunts “That’s the education you just can’t get in school.” Now my mom always valued formal education and she was right to, but she also agreed that the time I spent there with them was one of the most important parts of growing up.
I vividly remember many things, lots of bugs, making my Uncle Jeff or Papa put the worm on the hook and taking the fish off the hook if I caught anything then making them throw it back in cause I didn’t want to hurt it. I remember sitting around the campfire listening to their stories. All the while we were making all kinds of different foods. My favorites were baked beans and pinto beans over the campfire.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wokotaco.com
- Instagram: woko_tacos
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084961341027
