Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynnette Rogers.
Hi Lynnette, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
The Nacho Grill honestly started with me trying to impress my partner. 😂
At the time, I was getting my corporate on! I worked full-time at a law firm as a paralegal/legal secretary and part-time at a staffing agency. My partner smoked a brisket one day, I put it on the nachos I made at home, and we basically licked our plates clean. We looked at each other like, “Hold up…wait a minute. We might have something here.”
We let our family try them, they loved them, and eventually we started delivering nachos to family and friends for extra money. Our first real pop-up was under a tent at a gas station in the neighborhood…and we didn’t make ONE sale. 😂
But we kept going.
We continued doing pop-ups, the feedback got better and better, and people started looking for us. I was still working full-time and remember telling my partner, “I am NOT taking this seriously until it can replace my good income.”
Then COVID happened.
I was laid off from the law firm, staffing became incredibly difficult, and this little nacho business suddenly started looking very different. We began doing pop-ups at office buildings and serving essential workers, and they were a HIT. People constantly asked, “Where are you located?”
I’d tell them, “We have a food truck. Follow us on social media to see where we’ll be.”
We absolutely did NOT have a food truck. 🤦🏽♀️😂
But we built the audience first. People followed us because they wanted to find us, and about a year later we finally bought our first food trailer—with absolutely no clue how the food truck industry worked.
Then, in true Nacho Grill fashion, we signed up for Arts, Beats & Eats, one of the biggest festivals in our area, before our trailer was even finished. It was completed TWO DAYS before the four-day festival. I didn’t know how to drive a food trailer. We barely knew what we were doing.
We showed up anyway—and killed it.
That festival became our crash course in volume. We learned how to serve huge crowds and move a line incredibly fast, which would eventually become one of our biggest strengths. We also quickly learned the economics of festivals and realized we didn’t want to build a business that depended solely on them.
So we found a standing location in Ferndale while continuing to pursue profitable events.
Ferndale wasn’t automatically successful—we had to build it. We turned our little spot in a grocery store parking lot into an experience with a tent, music, cornhole and a whole vibe. Eventually, people forgot they were hanging out eating nachos in a parking lot. 😂 They were coming to The Nacho Grill.
Then people started calling us for private events, corporate events and prepaid catering. I’d move the truck from Ferndale to take those opportunities, and our Ferndale customers were NOT having it! 😂 I would hear about it when they showed up and we weren’t there.
Never mind the fact that it was literally a FOOD TRUCK with WHEELS. Apparently, according to our customers, that truck was no longer allowed to move. 😂
That demand justified Truck #2.
Truck #1 became our Ferndale flagship—almost like our own makeshift brick-and-mortar—while Truck #2 gave us the freedom to serve corporate clients, festivals and large-scale events. Having that second truck eventually positioned us for opportunities like serving at Comerica Park. And because those early festivals taught us how to handle serious volume, we were ready.
When I think about where we started—making nachos at home, delivering to friends and family and making zero dollars at that first gas station pop-up—to where we are today, it’s kind of crazy.
I started in a tiny, HOT kitchen at home. Today we have two trucks, a commercial kitchen, a loyal customer base and a business that serves everyone from our regular Ferndale customers to corporate clients and major events.
Somewhere along the way, we also figured out our superpower: we know how to feed a crowd. Our food is delicious, but we’ve also built systems that allow us to move large lines incredibly fast without sacrificing the quality of our food or the customer experience. We actually LOVE seeing a huge crowd coming our way now. 😂
And that’s a big part of how I’m thinking about the future of The Nacho Grill. I’m thinking BIG—bigger crowds, bigger opportunities and bigger stages for this brand.
We didn’t start with money. We didn’t know the food truck industry. We definitely didn’t have some perfect master plan. We just kept listening to our customers, learning the business, solving the next problem in front of us and betting on ourselves.
And I truly believe we’re just getting started.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth?! Absolutely NOT. 😂
One of the biggest challenges has been learning an entire industry while actively running a business in it. We didn’t come from the restaurant or food truck industry. There was no blueprint handed to us, so a lot of our education came from jumping in, making mistakes, paying for those mistakes and figuring out how not to make them twice.
Early on, we thought a big crowd automatically meant a great opportunity. We learned quickly that being BUSY and being PROFITABLE are two very different things. There are event fees, percentages of sales, food costs, labor, fuel, prep, equipment and sometimes hours or even days of work before you make the first sale. We’ve had events where we absolutely killed it in sales and then looked at what we actually kept and thought, “Wait…WHAT?!” 😂 That forced us to learn our numbers and become much more intentional about the opportunities we say yes to.
Scaling has brought its own challenges. Going from pop-ups to one truck, then two trucks and a commercial kitchen sounds great—and it is—but every level requires more systems, more equipment, more inventory, more people and more responsibility. Staffing has probably been one of our biggest ongoing challenges. You can have the customers, the food and the opportunity, but you still need a dependable team capable of executing it.
There have also been equipment failures, slow days, weather cancellations, events that didn’t perform the way we expected, rising food costs, long hours and plenty of moments where we had to make decisions without knowing for sure whether they were the right ones.
I’ve also had to grow personally as the business has grown. In the beginning, I could jump in and fix everything myself. As we’ve gotten bigger, I’ve realized that isn’t sustainable. I’m learning that building a successful business isn’t just about working harder—it’s about creating systems, developing people, understanding your numbers and building something that can operate without you personally carrying every piece of it.
I think entrepreneurship has taught me that the challenges don’t necessarily disappear when you become successful—they just change. You solve one problem, grow to another level, and meet a whole new set of problems waiting for you there. 😂
But I wouldn’t trade the lessons. Every mistake, bad event, equipment breakdown and hard season has taught us something that helped build the business we have today. We’ve learned how to pivot quickly, trust ourselves, protect our profitability and keep moving.
So no, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. But I think all those bumps are exactly what taught us how to drive it.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The Nacho Grill is an elevated nacho concept based in Metro Detroit, and while nachos are obviously what we do, I think what we’ve built is much bigger than just a food truck.
We specialize in creating delicious, loaded nachos with house-made corn chips and a variety of proteins and toppings, but one of the things that really sets us apart is our ability to serve LARGE crowds—and serve them FAST.
We learned early that great food isn’t enough when you’re feeding hundreds or thousands of people. Nobody wants to spend their entire lunch break or half of an event standing in a food line. Over the years we’ve intentionally built systems that allow us to move people through our line incredibly quickly, often in about a minute or less, while still giving customers a fresh, personalized meal.
That’s become our sweet spot. Give us a crowd! 😂
Today, we operate two food trucks and a commercial kitchen. Our Ferndale truck serves as our flagship location, while our mobile truck allows us to serve corporate campuses, employee appreciation events, private events, festivals and other large-scale gatherings throughout Metro Detroit.
We also offer on-site Nacho Bar catering for organizations that want The Nacho Grill experience without necessarily bringing in the truck. We come in, set up and serve guests on-site, so it’s still an experience rather than simply dropping off trays of food.
Another thing that’s important to us is making it possible for a diverse group of people to eat together. We can accommodate many dietary needs and preferences, including gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan and halal options. For corporate events especially, that matters. You shouldn’t have to order food from five different places just to make sure everybody on your team has something they can enjoy.
Brand-wise, I’m probably most proud that people genuinely connect with The Nacho Grill. We’ve built more than customers—we’ve built community. Our Ferndale customers proved that when they basically informed us that our FOOD TRUCK was no longer allowed to move. 😂 And we’ve been fortunate to take what we learned serving that community into larger opportunities, including corporate events and serving crowds at Comerica Park.
Our food is delicious—that will always come first. But we’ve realized that our real superpower is combining great food with speed, flexibility and the ability to handle serious volume.
So when I think about where The Nacho Grill is headed, I’m thinking BIG. I want us in the places where there are a lot of hungry people and a short amount of time to feed them—corporate campuses, stadiums, major events, universities and large-scale gatherings.
Give us the crowd. We’ll bring the nachos. 😂
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I don’t know if I’ve always thought of myself as a risk-taker, but when I look back at how we’ve built The Nacho Grill…I clearly am. 😂
I’ve learned that for me, taking a risk doesn’t mean I’m not scared or that I know everything is going to work out. Most of the time, I DON’T know. It means I’m willing to make a move when I believe the opportunity on the other side is worth figuring out.
One of the biggest examples was signing up for Arts, Beats & Eats before we even had our first food trailer. We had already committed to one of the largest festivals in our area, and our trailer wasn’t finished until TWO DAYS before the event. I didn’t even know how to drive the thing! 😂
Looking back, that sounds absolutely crazy—and maybe it was a little crazy—but that risk changed our business. We learned how to operate in a high-volume environment, how to move huge lines quickly and how much we actually enjoyed serving large crowds. Some of what separates The Nacho Grill today came from saying yes to something we probably weren’t completely ready for and then becoming ready because we HAD to.
Buying that first trailer was a risk. Adding a second truck was a risk. Moving from my tiny home kitchen into a commercial kitchen was a risk. There have been plenty of times we’ve committed money, time and resources without having a guarantee that the next move would work.
But I’ve also learned that risk needs to evolve as the business evolves.
Early Lynnette would jump first and figure EVERYTHING out on the way down. 😂 Today, I’m much more interested in calculated risks. I want to know the numbers. I want to understand the upside and downside. I ask, “If this doesn’t work, can we survive it? And if it DOES work, where could it take us?”
I also think there’s a risk people don’t talk about enough: the risk of staying too comfortable.
Sometimes NOT making the move can cost you just as much as making the wrong one. If we had waited until we knew everything about food trucks before buying one, I’m not sure The Nacho Grill would exist in the form it does today. If we’d waited until we felt completely ready for large events, we wouldn’t have developed one of our biggest strengths.
So I’m willing to bet on myself and on this brand.
I’m still going to be nervous sometimes. I’m still going to ask a million questions. 😂 But I’ve learned that I don’t have to know exactly how I’m going to accomplish something before I decide that I’m capable of accomplishing it.
Sometimes you say yes, and then you grow into the person—and the business—capable of handling the yes.
Pricing:
- * The Nacho Grill offers food truck service, on-site Nacho Bar catering, corporate catering, private events and large-scale event service throughout Metro Detroit. * Corporate and private events can be customized based on guest count, menu selections, service style and event needs. * We offer options for a variety of dietary needs and preferences, including gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan and halal. * We especially love high-volume events! If you have a large crowd and a limited amount of time to feed them, that’s where The Nacho Grill shines. * Pricing and event quotes are customized based on the size and needs of each event. Contact The Nacho Grill directly for current pricing and availability.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thenachogrill.com
- Instagram: The Nacho Grill
- Facebook: The Nacho Grill
