StreetFoodFinder app brings food trucks, customers together

Rich and Carla Hornung, owners of the Best of the Valley first-place food truck, Alaska’s Best Gourmet Dogs, have experienced difficulty in the past connecting with their customers. Facebook posts often get buried in the noise and customers are often left scratching their heads wondering where to find their favorite vendors. And they weren't the only food truck owners with this issue. The new-to-Alaska StreetFoodFinder app now connects customers to local food trucks, providing them with information on schedules, locations and menu items.

“We’ve used it down in the Lower 48. We use it when we go to Hawaii, all over the U.S.,” Carla said. She said she thought to herself, “‘This app is everywhere it seems. Alaska needs an app! We need something like this in Alaska.’”

During their travels, the Hornungs were introduced to the StreetFoodFinder app that directed them to different food trucks in the cities they visited. Carla said when they traveled to new areas, they didn’t know what Facebook pages to search or websites they needed to investigate. They didn’t have a centralized resource to turn to. Carla said that the StreetFoodFinder app was that new resource for them.

After experiencing their own personal success using the free app during their travels, the Hornungs decided to bring the application to Alaska. Carla said they reached out to the team at StreetFoodFinder and began working with them to bring the service to the state. Since then, they’ve brought other food trucks on board and all have said that the service has been a huge success.

“We’ve had people tell us they love the app,” Carla said. “They’re super excited about it.”

Customers can use the app to refine their food truck search by filtering locations, vendor schedules and within a set vicinity to their location. They can view photos shared by vendors and other customers. The app is also free to use by food truck owners, who can provide their location and schedule information, interact with their customers, share their upcoming events and connect customers to their social media accounts for ease of communication.

With the tourist season fast approaching, Carla believes the StreetFoodFinder app will help connect visitors to local businesses, benefiting both vendors and customers. She said she is sharing the app with as many customers and vendors as she can in hopes of creating a unified platform that benefits everyone in the food truck business across the state.

“It isn’t just about finding us, it’s about finding all food trucks,” Carla said. “This benefits every single food truck in Alaska.”

The Hornungs have owned Alaska’s Best Gourmet Dog’s for four years. Carla was a licensed counselor and Rich worked in construction, both with restaurant experience in their past. After experiencing a major injury and losing a close family member, the two decided to pursue a new career path and open their food truck business. Rich, a third generation Alaskan, and Carla, a resident of 30 years, decided that they wanted their business to reflect the state of Alaska the best they could and built their business around an Alaskan-themed menu and trailer.

“We both love Alaska,” Carla said. “Everything about our food, our menu, our food truck, everything’s Alaska themed.”

The Hornungs have been successful in their business, voted number one for the Best Food Truck in the Best of the Valley Awards for the last couple of years and in the top three for Best Food Trucks in Best of Alaska. Carla said they are very grateful for all of the support and that they like to give back to the community, hosting giveaways and working with organizations like Kids Kupboard and the Boys and Girls Club.

“It’s important for us to give back to our community,” Carla said.