Two pizza enthusiasts from New Jersey converted a Tesla Cybertruck into what could be the future of food trucks.
Food lovers praised restaurant owner Ryan McDermott of the Columbia Inn in Montville, New Jersey, and his business partner Fabio Antonio Arbelaez for their decision to take a Cybertruck and turn it into a mobile restaurant.
“It’s like a billboard on the roads,” Arbeláez told the Daily Voice this week.
Today, the couple has two Cybertrucks dedicated to serving pizza, and together they can produce an impressive 120 pizzas per hour.
Arbeláez said he regularly receives emails from food lovers who have seen his trucks, despite comments from some who believe his box vault looks like a dumpster.
Two pizza enthusiasts from New Jersey converted a Tesla Cybertruck into what they called the “future of pizza trucks.”
Columbia Inn restaurant owner Ryan McDermott and his business partner Fabio Antonio Arbelaez have long been Tesla fans.
The Columbia Inn purchased the two trucks last winter to meet growing catering demand.
The business partners were already Tesla fans, and Arbeláez had ordered a Cybertruck in 2019.
“We’re huge Tesla fans and we really believe in the company and what Tesla is doing here. I love the product, I love these cars and what they stand for,” McDermott said.
“We need to end our dependence on oil and things like that, and over time we’ll see that with the technology that Tesla is working on.”
Arbelaez and McDermott installed two-tier ovens in both vehicles.
Arbelaez and McDermott customized the trucks to make sure they were right for the business, including installing 50-by-40-inch ovens that cook pizza in about two minutes.
“We’ve custom built a slide for the oven, so when we park we can pull it out,” Arbeláez told the The New York Post This month.
Arbeláez added that there is also room for a refrigeration unit to house a dry ice cooler on the passenger side in both vehicles.
“The cool thing about the Cybertruck is that it’s fully autonomous. It 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 or propane. It’s really amazing and I think this thing has a bright future.”
The oven can bake 120 cakes per hour.
Arbeláez was nicknamed ‘Mr. Tesla’ after being one of the first drivers in his area to buy a Cybertruck.
He revealed that 70 percent of reactions to the vehicle were positive and hearing someone say his truck looked like a dumpster was “the best compliment he ever received.”
Some pizza lovers in New York had no problem with the truck after Arbelaez drove it to Barstool Sports headquarters last August in a Viral video.
Later, a man allegedly yelled that the Cybertruck was the ugliest thing he had ever seen.
“I can’t understand why people are reacting so strongly to this. Many people look at it and say it looks evil,” he said.
“I say, come on man, it’s just a car.”
The men went viral after Arbeláez stopped by Barstool Sports headquarters in New York to hand out pizza to employees and passersby.
It’s unclear whether Columbia Inn will acquire more Cybertrucks, but McDermott can imagine adding more.
“This was a project where we never looked at the return on investment. We didn’t know what it would be like. It’s been fun and luckily we have the freedom to experiment,” he said.
“Over time, I think we’ll be able to have a fleet of these things, which have raised our profile nationally, and I think that will continue to grow as we move forward.”
Arbeláez, for his part, is working to improve the pizza that is made in the trucks.
“The goal with Cybertrucks is that they will eventually be able to make driverless deliveries,” he told the New York Post.
“You just order it and it will be delivered to your home. Sorry, but you’ll have to get off the couch to pick it up.”