Meet Calvin and Phuong Blackmon | Food Truck Owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Calvin and Phuong Blackmon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Calvin and Phuong, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Both my wife and I enjoy cooking and seeing people enjoy the meals that we put together. It has always been my dream to open a small diner or some type of a small cozy restaurant, we began to notice how the food truck market has been growing We decided this was the perfect path for us to take .

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Our food truck is Em &Bubba’s Home-Cooking. A few of our dishes are a fusion of my wife’s Vietnamese cooking and my Texas style BBQ. It brings us joy when we see our different customers expressions when they take that 1st bite, that look speaks volumes about what we are trying to do with our cooking.

In late 2018 we decided that a food truck was the way to go, we spent months on trying to find out what to do 1st (chicken or the egg). We 1st put our focus on finding an affordable truck and that took us through all kinds of twist and turns. After checking out a few used trucks my wife said if we are going to do this it’s better if we get a new truck and avoid the unknowns of the used ones. The cost of the new food trucks were and are through the roof but luckily we located a company outside of Virginia that had large inventory of empty step vans that were ready for conversion . We took multiple trips to make sure the design was just what we wanted and then took the 1st of many big steps.

After the truck was completed and we had it delivered to Texas we continued our journey to get licensed and certified in North Texas. This was another exhausting experience because it took a lot of no’s before the yes’s started to flow in. It would have been better to do more research on the front end and save ourselves a lot of time and money, but the journey has helped us grow as a family and as business owners .

We put a lot of love and time into our cooking and if it’s not right it’s not going out to our customers.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When our friends come into town it’s for steak, BBQ, sushi, Cowboys and to spend a lot of time relaxing and enjoying time with the family. Here in DFW area we have all of the boxes checked, but we mostly spend the time at home cooking and hanging out together; there is nothing more personable than spend time cooking, eating and talking together in the comfort of your own home.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Our families have had our backs from day one. No matter where we go in North Texas someone from one of our families will always be there to support us by giving words of encouragements and inviting their coworkers and inviting their friends to come out and try our cooking.

Website: flow.page/emandbubbas 

Instagram: @emandbubbas

Facebook: @emandbubbas

Yelp: emandbubbas