Phoenix is home to a wide array of food trucks; these are their stories. To read the last installment of the Phoenix Food Trucks series, click here.
________________________
The fire-engine red food truck stands out against its counterparts during the Phoenix Public Market’s Food Truck Fridays. Its blue pop-off sunroofs also add to its uniqueness, as do the variety of burgers it offers.
Burgermania is gourmet-burger food truck that makes an appearance at downtown events including First Fridays and Food Truck Fridays. Burgermania founder and president Greg Colella serves up gourmet burgers to hungry customers every Friday around lunchtime.
The 44-year-old owner started serving burgers eight weeks ago and is part of the Phoenix Street Food Coalition.
“I was really trying to get a truck into the coalition, and I looked at what they didn’t have,” Greg Colella said. “And there was no one there that was doing burgers.”
Greg Colella has been working with his father’s company Ralph’s Snack Bar for more than 20 years. The snack bar is a family-run business, and founder Ralph Colella still runs the operation as CEO.
Ralph Colella’s trucks offer hot dogs, french fries, salads and other types of food, Greg Colella said.
“That’s what we’ve always done before this food-truck craze,” he added.
He decided to jump into the trend, creating a specialty truck and calling it Burgermania. Colella revamped one of the Ralph’s Snack Bar trucks, painting it and adding the Burgermania label.
Like other trucks at Food Truck Friday, it features a full kitchen inside. A table outside gives customers the opportunity to add condiments to their burgers.
The menu is just as wild as the truck’s name. There are more 10 kinds of burgers, and customers can even make their own. From beef to chicken to even a salmon-burger special for those observing Lent, Burgermania serves up a variety of meats and toppings.
CenturyLink employee Anna Salazar, 43, has been to Food Truck Fridays twice, and she decided to visit Burgermania because of its healthier burger options.
“They had a veggie burger, and it was really filling,” Salazar said.
The burger variety and the short line brought Salazar’s coworker John Liggin, 42, to Burgermania.
“The line was shorter than the hot-dog place,” Liggin said as he finished eating his buffalo-chicken burger.
The service at Burgermania was faster than most of the trucks. Both Liggin and Salazar received their burgers within three minutes of ordering.
“The service was perfect,” social worker Emily Herson, 34, said.
One reason Colella started Burgermania was because he liked the concept of comfort food in a food-truck setting.
“You can still make it (burgers) gourmet but keep it as comfort food,” he said.
But there is still some creativity mixed in. For example, Burgermania offers sweet-potato fries with all of its burgers.
Since coming joining the Phoenix Street Food Coalition, Burgermania has been able to cater at different events that the coalition offers, and business is booming.
Colella said they make over 100 sales at Food Truck Friday every week.
“Business is better, it’s improving, with the trucks, Food Truck Friday and downtown is good, the events are good,” he said.
Being in downtown Phoenix is new but exciting for him. Before coming to Food Truck Fridays, Burgermania was stationed alongside Emerson Fry Bread outside Revolver Records on First Fridays.
“I like the vibe of downtown Phoenix,” Colella said. “It’s a nice place to be and a nice place to work.”
One of the best things about it is that people can try a lot of different foods all in one place, he said.
“Designed by you, grilled fresh by us” is the motto Colella and his Burgermania employees stand by.
In the future, Colella wants to start another themed food truck. He also plans to to keep creating new burger combinations.
Contact the reporter at aldugan@asu.edu
