Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Renteria.
Hi Brandon, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
The Funky Frenchie started as light-hearted idea turned to a must-do reality. At the time of the idea, I recently got a puppy named Bodhi, who’d later become our Mascot! I went out with my father to the park with Bodhi, not only to let him play but to relieve some stress.
My father, Silvano Renteria, and I were struggling with work during the Covid pandemic due to all the restaurants closing and reopening. When we went to the park and saw bodhi running around with a certain spunk and being a goofy little pup, we couldn’t help but laugh and try to find a word that best described his personality: “Funky.”
We both we’re familiar with Brunch food and had a love for it and realized that the nickname for a French Bulldog “Frenchie,” was the same nickname for French Toast.
We then came out with the idea of making fun desserts into French toast as a way to make brunch more fun and interesting! We came up with idea of making a business our of own and formed it as a family business in 2021. However, it was only until May of 2022 that we officially launched the Funky Frenchie food truck!
We were nervous about starting the truck and what challenges would wait us as we’d be San Diego’s only Brunch food truck and how being a small business would be like. However, we’d been embraced by the community in our short time as a company! We have done our best to put our customers first and service our community; and with over 2,500 meals served in San Diego, I’m glad people are checking out what’s got the town talking with our growingly popular food truck!
In the span of less than year, we have gone from having only 4 customers at our soft launch at our local swap meet to working with big clients and being involved with hundreds of people in our community. We’ve sponsored The San Diego Museum of Art, cooked at Carnival of the Arts alongside Chef Michael Wray, and are partnered with The G.E.T. Cooking to support people in our community start their own food business. As a father-Son small family business, we could have never imagined we’d be where we are at now.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been easy. Both my father and I lost our jobs and had to put everything we had on hold in order take a chance to make something for ourselves. We had no money and had to pool together what little we had in order to make something happen. My uncle came in to help us, too where he could.
With no income, no job, and already living paycheck to paycheck before, we emptied our savings and took a chance on our dream.
Once we got our truck, we couldn’t find a spot to be. Everyplace we’ve asked to give us a shot and let us park turned us away. I’ve lost track of the amount of times and places we’ve asked for an opportunity to show what we’re about.
There were times where we thought we should give up and throw in the towel. We debuted at the Santee Swap Meet and worked to the bone only to only to sell 4 orders for the countless hours we were there. However, my heart did not waver, and I treasured our first order sold, Frenchie served, interaction had, and customer made.
With newfound determination to not let our dreams fail, we looked for a new way to promote our business and develop ourselves further. My idea was to create a website to really show what we we’re about, however as we went into developing media; we found ourselves being short on money and also being ghosted by people who’d said they’d help us bring our vision to reality.
We not only had no one willing to give us a chance to start our business, we also divide our time the best we could in order to pay for our living expenses. I had to struggle being a full-time student, working part-time at the bank, and managing the business all the while my father had to jump between a new job and the business. With all this going on, it was hard to stay afloat with the commitment to the business and our lives as with such limited time, on the odd occasion we’d get a chance to showcase our food or had an event we’d have to tiptoe around schedules to make it happen which hurt our business.
We eventually were fortunate to find people willing to help with our food truck and bring our dream into a working reality. We couldn’t be more grateful.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Renteria and Company?
We’re a small company who values the three “C’s”: Courtesy, Compassion, and Communication. We bring that all together with our love for cooking and the community; we create something amazing. The company’s focus on developing unique food concepts and CATERING to the needs of our clients; literally! (Food Service Pun!)
In my personal career, I’ve optimized restaurants and increased gross sales upwards of 266% a with a record peak hourly sales of $21,000.
Under this company’s umbrella, we’ve developed 2 Concepts: “The Funky Frenchie” and “A Toda Madre”!
We’re best known for our 1st DBA the Funky Frenchie! We primarily serve brunch food with a funky twist, more specifically, French Toast! The French toast we are most well-known for is our Tiramisu French Toast! Although we primarily offer brunch offerings like: Breakfast Sandwiches and Burritos, we’ve also expanded into dinner items such as our signature Pica salad and Coconut shrimp!
What sets us apart from other food truck experiences is that we go ahead and provide an engaging, and fun service that’s unique to the concept. The concept focused on the retro ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s pop-culture.
I’m proud of the experience and the vibe we generate with our branding. We’re no regular degular truck. We blast music from the era ranging from Ray Charles and Luther Vandross to Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey! We love talking to our customers and making sure everyone is feeling the funk! You’ll without a doubt find us rocking a Whitney Houston Shirt and getting in on the fun with you.
We offer catering services for events and also do a lot of pop-ups! With over 40+ years of culinary experience under our belts, we are sure cook something up that will knock your socks off! When it comes to private event caterings, “We keep the food coming, so you can keep the party going!”. Contact us on our contact page on our website: eatfunkyfrenchie.com, and book us for your next event! Or follow us on our social media to see where we’ll pop up!
We’re opening our first restaurant location in San Diego in April, so be be sure come by and check us out at 955 Harbor Island Drive!
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
My view on risk-taking is that risk inevitable. Risk is a facet of life and ultimately must be faced at some point. Me personally, I’d rather embrace it than to tiptoe around it. I believe that we don’t take on risk out of comfort. But I think it’s better to walk the path less traveled than to have not tried to see what could come to be while walking the path of your dreams. We should become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I’ve risked my career, my savings, my home, and my livelihood. Lost time with friends and family to focus on the business. Although I’m not out of the woods yet, I’d still do it all over again if I could. I’ve never been more happier than I am now.
Contact Info:
- Website: eatfunkyfrenchie.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefunkyfrenchie/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eatfunkyfrenchie
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-renteria-Funky-Frenchie/
Image Credits
Jordan Guiterrez
Alexander Eide
Brandon Renteria
