We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brandon Brooks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brandon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

Well, I have two experiences. The first one was when I was about One month in after opening my Foodcart. And on my menu, I had three menu items that Showcased Chicago Street Food from where I came from. And this individual walked up to my Foodcart and he ordered the Pizza Puff. After he ate it he came from around my cart and he asked me to walk out so he could talk to me, when I got out to approach him he gave me a big hug and told me thank you & that taste of the pizza puff brought a strong taste from Chicago back to his memories Of late night parties and curing his drunken nights. Ha ha!

A second experience was in the summer of 2023 at the Gresham Oregon Art festival. We were closing up and a customer walked up to me and he had to order a Chicago hotdog. He mentioned to me that he was from south side Chicago and he’s been looking all over Portland Oregon for an authentic Chicago hotdog and when he approached my booth, he told me he had to try me out. Now keep in mind it was 103° weather and I was ready to go pack up and go home but I couldn’t leave without this man being satisfied from my establishment. So I served him up he walked away and we were packing up. He asked for another hotdog. He was so amused and satisfied so I made him another Chicago hotdog and he told me that he wanted to thank me for bringing the taste of Chicago to Portland, Oregon.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Before I had a concept on opening a business out here in Portland, Oregon, I had trouble deciding what was I going to showcase from my culinary arts. So one day I took a walk through several Foodcart pods out here and I’ve noticed people from Mexico, Thailand, certain parts of Africa, India, German, Russia, you name it they all were showcasing street foods they grew up on. So it dawned on me I told myself I am from southside Chicago. Why don’t I showcase street food I grew up on. And the rest was history.

And so to give my customers the authentic taste of Chicago I started doing research and I started looking at distribution areas to get the products from Chicago shipped out here and so every time someone comes up to my Foodcart or booth they’re getting the actual authentic taste of Chicago. And by the reviews I get from Google and my Instagram and my websites I can say I’m doing a good job providing that.

And what Sets me apart from other business owners is that number one I showcase Foods I grew up on, so I’m going to do my absolute best to make sure that I’m getting imported goods from where I come from and second I have to put my own spin on everything for an example my Italian beef sandwich. That’s a very popular street food from Chicago but I do it my way, I use a different cut of beef, I do my own Giardiniera & I do my own beef stock from scratch. I put my own spin on it, but I also get the French bread and imported from Chicago. Another thing is that making my food from scratch, leaves, everlasting results. Good results & what I mean by that is that I can say that’s one of the things that says sets me apart from other business owners, because in the past, I have seen several business owners in the food industry cut corners And really Lie and cheat to customers in order to sell them something that’s not authentic

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

You know that is an interesting question. Being from the old school, I would say Social Media is very new to me, but I also studied advertisement and marketing in culinary school years ago so when I got on social media, I already knew how to promote myself promote my business and things so forth.

But one thing I had to understand is that iron sharpens iron and what I mean by that is that you take notes on other video content creators you take notes on how they post pictures you take notes how they do hashtags and things like that. It’s also knowing how to showcase your dish you know people not only want to see what you’re cooking but they want to see the community and so when I would open up my Foodcart during the weeks or when I was showcasing my foods at Farmer markets and night markets, and other special events I would record the audience, the crowd I will also take pictures of customers ordering my food or posing with my products off my menu and that right there helps people to see how good your business is.

So if there’s any advice, I can give people who are in the upcoming and wanting to learn how to grow in the business I would say study other people on social media. It’s nothing wrong with taking notes and doing your own spin on things so study people on social media go on YouTube even create your own niche & be a people person when you’re in front of the camera on your phone or any other device because when a person a person see your content they’re gonna feel that you’re talking to them

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Yes, my hustle did turn into my full-time work and it was because I was having fun. I wasn’t worried about the dollar amount. I wasn’t worried about being discovered by the program. I was focusing on the love & drive so I was doing something I love to do and I didn’t care how many hours I spent on it, I didn’t care about how much money I spent on it. It was something I want to do for myself, and to be surprised my side hustle became my career

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thewindyrose.com
• Instagram: @dawindyrose
• Youtube: YouTube.com/chefupthegame