We recently connected with Kwindarius Sapp and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kwindarius, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name Q’s Culinary Cart came from a mesh of a few things near & dear to my heart. The 1st thing was “Q”. That’s my nickname and what everyone knows me as, so when I started the business including that was a opportunity to grow the following of who I actually am. The “Culinary Cart” portion was a play on 2 different things. One of my college degrees is in Culinary Arts so I thought it would be cool to intertwine that into the business name. It would also leave the door open for me to grow and not be boxed in to being known for only 1 thing is specific since “Culinary” covers a broad spectrum of foods. Before moving into the foodtruck and expanding our menu, the business was a hotdog cart. That where we got “Cart” from. Put it all together and here we are

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Kwindarius Sapp and I moved to Charlotte, NC from Durham, NC in 2010 to attend Culinary Arts school at Johnson & Wales University. I always loved cooking at home so choosing to pursue a culinary career was a very easy choice for me. To me cooking something that I actually enjoy doing & don’t find it difficult. During and after obtaining my Culinary Arts degree & Foodservice Management degrees, I was able to work in various sectors of the foodservice industry. I knew one day I wanted to own my own business, but I never knew when or how it would happen. In 2020 I was managing a restaurant in Lake norman when I purchased a hotdog cart to try to make some extra cash on my days off. It all seemed like a great plan until I was laid off from the restaurant in March 2020 due to the pandemic. At that moment I decided to take 6 months off to see if I could make a living out of selling hotdogs on the cart. It was a grind for sure, but the unique topping combinations & personable service made the cart take off! Up to this point, I’m most proud of the fact that I was able to stay in business facing so many uncertainties. There were plenty days I had to work alone and people would always say “I don’t see how you do it” and my reply would always be “me either”

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I advise investing in your team whole heartedly. I am a firm believer in fair compensation, creating opportunity, and encouraging growth within our team members. Setting clear goals for team members and following through by actually drawing up plans and executing those promises out goes further than you know for people that are working with you. I constantly remind myself to try to create a workplace that is the total opposite of any kitchen I’ve worked in that felt like a shortcoming to be an employees there

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I stay engaged with my clients via social media (primarily Facebook & instagram). One huge part of my target audience is social media users. This is where I post my pop up schedule weekly, share story posts, and directly engage with the people that love Q’s Culinary Cart. This is important because in the day and age that we live in, people are always on their phones. So being able to have my business right in anyone’s palm has made keeping in touch super convenient

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @qsculinarycart
• Facebook: QsculinaryCart