Taking Action: Bloomington Students Help Local Chefs Open Restaurant on Wheels
By: Kim Behrens
Updated: April 27, 2012
BLOOMINGTON-- Steffan Block and Jon Fritzen are long time friends turned business partners.
They bought a genuine double decker bus from London England last year, with a plan to turn it into their very own traveling restaurant.
"The big thing right now is food trucks," said Block. "They're huge out in Los Angeles, New York, Orlando. It's the big new scene for foodies."
The men named it "Two Blokes and a Bus."
A term used to describe a "friend," in Block's home country of England.
"It brings a little culture to the community," explained Block. "It gives it that big city feel."
While both chefs know their way around a kitchen, they needed someone to "cook" up a plan for the bus interior.
That's when they turned to students at Bloomington High School's Career and Technical Center.
"He's like, 'Yeah, I got this double decker bus and I need someone to design it on the computer for me," said senior Clayton Hamilton. "I was like yeah! I'll do that!"
Hamilton and fellow senior Blake Armstrong used a 3-D modeling program to figure where to place items like ovens, tables and stoves.
"There's a lot of commercial cooking equipment that you'd find in your standard restaurant kitchen," explained Armstrong. "We're trying to make it the exact size it needs to be to fit into the bus."
It took the students six months to finish the design.
But they say they're thankful for the chance to apply their skills in the real world.
"It's the program and the standards that we hold," said Hamilton. "Trying to do our best and make sure everything is professional and it's done to the highest quality."
There will be enough room for 24 customers on "Two Blokes and a Bus."
But if the restaurant's full, there will be a walk up window for people to purchase items.
Beep Beep!
The restaurant is scheduled to be up and running by June.
It'll set up shop in a different location each day.
The owners plan to use social networking to let customers know where it will be next.
