With the growing trend of food trucks, it is hard to miss the Red Jett Sweets truck as it roams around Fort Worth and the 109. The bright colors and plane atop the truck, along with the promise of sugar onboard grab attention.
The mobile cupcakery sells gourmet cupcakes made fresh every morning. They sell their standard cupcakes, such as the Red Jett Velvet, as well as a rotating menu of seasonal cupcakes, such as Cocoa Peppermint Cloud and Gingerbread Hug. They also sell icing shots, which is simply a little cup just of icing.
“If you ever went to an ice cream truck, it’s kind of fun”, says Christina Jett-Meyer, the owner of Red Jett Sweets. “And our truck is fun, I mean you can’t miss it. I think it’s the excitement of the food truck thing.”
Meyer and her partner Natalie Gomez lives have revolved around food. Meyer’s grandmother owned bakeries all across the southeast and has a strong appreciation for food that has been instilled in Meyer.
“My whole life revolved around food and making things from scratch, quality of food and entertaining,” Meyer said.
Their company is named after her grandmother, her last name was Jett.
Gomez comes from a big restaurant family; her family owned the Fort Worth restaurant Dos Hermanos.
“Natalie and I were at the same junction in our lives both wanting to do something, she was graduating college and I was an empty nester,” Meyer says.
Trying to figure out the connection between the two? Well Gomez has been the long time girlfriend of one of Meyer’s sons. Through the years they have built a strong bond and an obsession with cupcakes.
“Everywhere we would travel we would go scope out the cupcakes. We both said that we could make a better cupcake,” says Meyer. “About 18 months ago I said why don’t we open a food truck and sell cupcakes.”
The interest with food trucks has been growing across the United States. “Last year there were 3 food trucks in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area, by the end of this year there will be 50, Meyer said.
“People want fast food, but they want good quality food,” Meyer said.
Every morning they fill up with 400 cupcakes and sometimes can sell out in as quickly as 45 minutes. For the days that they do not sell out they drop off the left over cupcakes to a local charity.
You can check their Facebook and Twitter daily to find out their current location and where they will be next.
“I think people like the cat and mouse game of figuring out where we are going to be. People follow us on Facebook and Twitter where we update our location throughout the day. We have around 1300 followers on Facebook, it’s fun.”
Meyer’s face lit up when she talked about Thomas, a 4 year-old regular. “I really get excited when Thomas comes to the truck, he is so cute and a funny little boy,” Meyer says.
With the numerous events this past month Red Jett Sweets has not been roaming Fort Worth as much and Thomas has been getting upset. His Mom posted on Facebook that Thomas has missed his Red Jett Sweets, which he visits twice a week. So what did Meyer and Gomez do? They made a special trip just for Thomas to make sure he got his cupcakes.
“I want everybody to be happy and I think that’s important to have good customer service,” Meyer says.
Don’t be fooled by these ladies who are adorned with red sparkly Toms (or the winter version, red sparkly Uggs) to complement their sparkly personalities. Owning a cupcake truck is hard work.
“We are normally up between 3 and 5 a.m. baking,” Meyer says. “I’ve been working 18 hours days. It’s hard work, baking and cooking in general is physical labor. We are up baking in the morning and then we are on our feet all day in the truck and then at the end of the day we have to clean the truck and fill up the gas tank and there is always some maintenance thing. Now I know why people always where ugly shoes in the kitchen.”
