Business & Tech
Meet the Food Trucks: Cupcake City
Part one of a series featuring three of the mobile food trucks that park in Malden Center.
John Cataldo and his wife Kristin Cataldo took the mobile food truck craze as an opportunity to promote and expand Cupcake City’s storefront in Reading.
“We needed some way to get the product out for people, and we were going to need a delivery vehicle for weddings and birthdays and stuff like that, anyway,” Cataldo said. “So why not a truck with a window in it I can also sell out of?”
Reading’s Cupcake City is one of six trucks that parks in Malden Center, and Cataldo said it’s one of his favorite spots. Malden’s food truck program is in its second year and continues to grow.
While he spends his afternoons parked in downtown Boston, he reserves a spot in Malden Wednesday and Thursday and said he enjoys the camaraderie among trucks.
“Malden’s spot works best when two trucks are parked together,” Cataldo said. “It’s great to be parked next to Chicken and Rice Guys or Redbones and have people grab dessert from me while they’re waiting for their food to be prepared.”
And those residents keep coming back. Cataldo said one Malden couple gets dinner and dessert from the trucks each night he’s parked there.
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“There are people who see us tweet that we’ll be here, and they come up to the truck and say, ‘Where were you on Tuesday? I missed you, and I looked right when I got off the train,’” Cataldo said.
Cupcake City sometimes turns a better profit in Malden than it does in downtown Boston.
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“At City Hall downtown, I’m stuck in a corner about 30 feet away from foot traffic,” Cataldo said. “Parking in Malden is absolutely worth it.”
Cupcake City is in Malden Center on Wednesday with Chicken on the Road and on Thursday with Redbones at 5:30, but schedules vary.
You can fallow @TheCityofMalden on Twitter for the most up-to-date food truck schedules.
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