Operating a food truck in Charlottesville with Jessie Dizon of Little Manila

In this episode of Charlottesville Connected, Amy Cochran speaks with Jessie Dizon, the Co-owner of Little Manila Food Truck. Little Manila Food Truck has been around since 2012 when they started selling food at the Charlottesville City Market. From there, the company has grown to have a full food truck operating around the city.

Jessie and Amy talk through the experiences of owning a food truck around town and being involved with wineries, breweries, and corporate office buildings. Jessie also mentions the Charlottesville Food Truck family - a group of owners who all coordinate different events and participate together.

“My husband was in banking for about 8 years and just decided to make the switch one day. After doing the Charlottesville City Market, he decided to quit his full-time job and just do the food truck.”

- Jessie Dizon

Tune in to hear Jessie’s experience of owning a food truck operation within the city of Charlottesville, VA.

Highlights

• Jessie discusses the origination of Little Manila Food Truck and how it got started at local events
• Jessie discusses some of the early challenges faced when growing the operation into a full-time gig
• Jessie’s husband grew up around food & cooking - so this inspires a lot of the dishes at Little Manila
• During COVID, operations have slowed down and Jessie talks about some of the adjustments they’ve made to keep operations running