Frankie Abate

“I’ve been in the kitchen my whole life. Never finished college.

Almost everybody out here is going all-in on on their truck. Make it or die. Nine out of 10 trucks out here are putting every dollar they have into their business …

At the end of the day it’s about more than the food. These are people trying to change their lives.

I have an employee that was barely making ends meet before he came to work on the truck. Now he can afford to give his kids Christmas gifts.

That’s the story. That’s what matters. The smile on that dude’s face.

The people love us. And our employees have their hearts in this because they see the potential to have their own food truck one day. Everybody’s got the dream to be like Portillo’s. That guy started with a cart that was probably a quarter the cost of this truck. The potential for all these trucks is so huge. Everybody’s got to start somewhere.

Deep down Chicago loves street food and so do the people that work on these trucks. We’re just looking for everyone to come together. It’s not about us versus them. It’s about uniting our wonderful city around the trucks because that’s what we do.”

Frankie Abate
Da Pizza Dude