Two New Jersey pizza lovers have converted a Tesla Cybertruck into what could be the future of food trucks.
Foodies praised restaurant owner Ryan McDermott of the Columbia Inn in Montville, New Jersey, and his business partner Fabio Antonio Arbelaez for their decision to transform a Cybertruck into a mobile eatery.
“It’s like a billboard along the highways,” Arbelaez told the Daily Voice this week.
Today, the duo has two Cybertrucks that are specially equipped to serve pizzas. Together, they can produce as many as 120 pizzas per hour.
Arbelaez claims he regularly receives emails from foodies who have seen his trucks, despite comments from some who say the cargo area resembles a dumpster.
Two New Jersey pizza lovers have converted a Tesla Cybertruck into what they called the ‘future of pizza trucks’
Ryan McDermott, owner of the Columbia Inn restaurant, and his business partner Fabio Antonio Arbelaez have always been fans of Tesla
The Columbia Inn purchased the two trucks last winter to meet the growing demand for catering services.
The business partners were already fans of Tesla and Arbelaez had already ordered a Cybertruck in 2019.
“We’re big Tesla guys and we really believe in the company and what Tesla is doing here. I love the product so much — I really love these cars and I love what they represent,” McDermott said.
“Our dependency on oil and things like that has to be broken. And in time you’ll see that with the technology that Tesla is working on.”
Arbelaez and McDermott installed two-tier ovens on both vehicles
Arbelaez and McDermott modified the trucks to make them commercially viable, adding 50-by-40-inch ovens that bake pizzas in about two minutes.
“We made a custom slide for the oven so we can pull it out when we park,” Arbelaez told the New York Post this month.
Arbelaez added that both vehicles also have room for a refrigeration unit with a dry ice cooler on the passenger side.
“What’s cool about the Cybertruck is that it’s completely autonomous. I could drive to the top of a mountain, as long as it’s charged, plug in this pizza oven and make pizzas,” McDermott said.
“I don’t need gas, I don’t need propane. It’s really awesome and I think there’s a bright future with this thing.”
The oven can bake 120 cakes per hour
Arbelaez earned the nickname “Mr. Tesla” after becoming one of the first drivers in his region to purchase a Cybertruck.
He said 70 percent of the comments on the vehicle were positive, and when he heard someone say his truck looked like a garbage can, it was “the best compliment he ever got.”
A few pizza lovers in New York had no problem with the truck after Arbelaez drove it to the Barstool Sports headquarters last August. viral video.
Later, a man reportedly shouted that the Cybertruck was the ugliest thing he had ever seen.
“I can’t understand why people are reacting so vividly to this thing. A lot of people look at it and say it looks bad,” he said.
‘I think: come on man, it’s just a car.’
The men went viral after Arbelaez stopped by Barstool Sports’ New York headquarters to hand out pizza to employees and bystanders
It’s unclear whether Columbia Inn will purchase more Cybertrucks, but McDermott imagines it will.
“This was a project where we never looked at our return on investment. We didn’t know what it would look like. It was fun and fortunately we have the space to experiment,” he said.
“I think we’ll have a whole fleet of these things in time. They’ve given us a national reputation and I think it’s only going to continue to grow as we move forward.”
Meanwhile, Arbelaez is working on improving the pizzas made on the trucks.
“The goal with the Cybertrucks is to eventually have them deliver without a driver,” he told the New York Post.
“You just order it, and it’s delivered to your door. Sorry, but you have to get off your couch to get them.”