Marcus Delaine

Built a used food truck into a sit-down restaurant on Neil Street

Business

SAMPLE PROFILE — FILM SLOT

His story is coming to the series soon.

Kitchen Years

Marcus Delaine washed dishes in a Memphis rib joint at fifteen and worked kitchens straight through his twenties. Line cook, grill man, sous chef once for eight months until the place folded.

At twenty-six he got fired from a hotel kitchen in a dispute he'll admit was half his fault. He had $3,000 saved, a knife roll, and a girlfriend who'd just taken a job in Champaign. He followed her with no plan bigger than the passenger seat.

My first day on the truck I made two hundred fourteen dollars. I framed the receipt.

The Window

He bought a used food truck at auction, learned its wiring the hard way, and parked it near campus for the Green Street lunch rush. First day he sold $214 worth of food and framed the receipt.

The truck built a following one plate at a time. Four years in, he signed a lease on Neil Street downtown and turned the menu into a sit-down restaurant. The truck still runs on weekends. He hires teenagers for their first jobs on it, and he's harder on them than the dish room was on him. That part's on purpose.