Armando Vasquez has big dreams for his growing Flint restaurant and food truck, Smoke Rattle & Roll.
“The goal is 10 in 10 years, whether that’s 10 brick and mortars or some more food trucks with brick and mortars,” Vasquez said. “We want to expand in the Michigan market, obviously here in Genesee County, but also into Oakland County or down 23 south. Anywhere we go, we’ve been to Grand Rapids, to Brooklyn, to Detroit, what’s cool is that I’m starting to see people we’ve served in different cities and they recognize us and come back. That right there tells me we’re doing something right.”
The business received a boost to its future plans by winning the Two-Lane Fast Pitch Competition hosted by Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance’s Small Business Support Hub and ChoiceOne Bank in October. The competition featured two “lanes,” one for startups (businesses incorporated less than a year ago with 10 or fewer employees) and a “micro lane” for businesses incorporated more than a year ago with 10 or fewer employees.
Smoke Rattle & Roll won the $10,000 prize in the Micro Lane. Other finalists in that category were DK Sweet Shop and Green Pride Landscape. Powered by Grace, a gym, won the $5,000 prize in the startup category which also included Urn’d Wings and Rych Wicks Candles as finalists. Green Pride Landscape won the $1,000 people’s choice prize.
The funding will help Vasquez, a Powers Catholic graduate, with his next expansion. He’s currently evaluating spaces for his next location, which he hopes to share news about in the near future. He opened his first location inside the University of Michigan-Flint pavilion in 2020 and added a food truck in 2023.
“I’m looking to get into a second brick and mortar, and that’s (the pitch competition grant) gonna act as bridge capital for hopefully a loan to get into the new space and to get equipment, architect designs, general contracting,” Vasquez said. “My goal is to use it toward that to get the second location up and running and get to operations as fast as we can. I have a couple (locations) that I have in mind. I’m not sure yet which direction I want to go in, but I’ve been working with the leasing coordinators to narrow it down, both in Genesee County.”
Vasquez is excited to be in a position to expand his business now, considering the factors outside of his control that hindered him when he launched.
“I opened up January 2020 and closed March 2020 because of the pandemic,” he said. “So I was open for less than three months then closed for two years. I got into the space, spent the money to get in here, and then we had to close. Which is nuts.”
He credits the support from UM-Flint, as they worked with him and other vendors in the pavilion on rent, as one reason he was able to weather those tough times. He was also able to tap into the Flint & Genesee Chamber for some grant funding and the small business support services they provide.
“They have so many resources for small businesses and startups,” Vasquez said. “I wish I would’ve maybe gotten in a little bit sooner with them, because I think that could have helped me get where I am now a little bit faster. They can help put business plans together or to get you into events that connect you with other event organizers. There’s just so much that they have to offer.”
Smoke Rattle & Roll specializes in Tex-Mex barbecue fusion-style foods, including smoked brisket, pork, and chicken, tacos and burritos, street nachos, quesadillas, bowls, sandwiches, mac & cheese, and more. They also have a wide range of sauces that are homemade.
Vasquez’s passion for the food industry actually has roots in Florida. Shortly after graduating from Powers, he moved to Miami and lived there for about 10 years. He went to school and received his degrees in business management and international business from Florida International University, and began working in a restaurant that he stayed at for nearly the entire 10 years he lived there.
“Once I got my degree, I got into management, and then a few years after that I moved back home,” he said. “(The food), it’s like really kind of a specialty, the whole smoking the meats and the fusion part, pairing it with the Tex-Mex style. But for me it’s when people really eat, try the food and just to see their reaction when they bite into it. It’s really a blast of flavor that people aren’t used to. We, myself and my staff, put love into what we do, that’s really the part of it that we love.”
With two years to perfect the menu while his business was paused during the pandemic, he turned his focus to having a food truck ready to go shortly after reopening in 2022.
“The whole two years that I was off, I was designing the truck, figuring out how I wanted the flow of it, the equipment I needed, basically just the build of it,” Vasquez said. “Once we opened back up, I was ready to hit the streets. That’s really when things just took off.”
Since launching the food truck, Vasquez and his team, which includes eight full- and part-time employees, has been all over the state, including some high profile events like the NFL Draft and Ann Arbor Art Fair. It has become a fixture at local and statewide festivals, and they also do catering at parties and events. Those elements, along with the UM-Flint location, have fueled significant growth over the past two years.
“We’re actually up 51% this year in catering, so that’s been huge for us,” Vasquez said. “And overall we’re up about 11% in sales.”
One thing Vasquez is most proud of is simply being able to grow his business in his home community, which keeps him focused on giving back. He has hired UM-Flint students to work for him, and has also hired residents out of Carriage Town Ministry’s transitional employment program. He’s also participated in the annual Catholic Charities ‘Feed the City’ event.
“Without the community, we don’t survive,” Vasquez said. “To have the support from the community, from the people, it means everything.”
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