Before Tom Pritzl came on as Richmond Kickers director of stadium operations, the food offerings at City Stadium were slim.
Pritzl has approached the food side of his job with the same gusto and dedication to quality as the beverage side. “Instead of normal concessions we decided to bring in local businesses,” says Pritzl. “We’re able to showcase what they do, and it helps embrace our brand and what we can do.”
City Stadium always has at least four food trucks onsite for home games—El Guapo, Arroz, Shakedown Eats and La Bete—plus Chick-Fil-A.
We sat down with Arroz food truck owner Keisler Baquiran to learn more about this fan favorite, and why he took a chance on the City Stadium partnership three seasons ago.
Style Weekly: What brought you to Richmond and how did you get involved in the city’s food truck scene?
Keisler Baquiran: My family immigrated here in the early 2000s, and I’ve lived in DC and Charlottesville since then, but mostly I’ve been in Richmond. I’m rooted here now. Richmond is a small-big town, every day there is a community event to participate in, and eventually you come to know a lot of like-minded business owners in the same industry
I got my start in the food truck scene in 2012 when I was helping my friends over at Goatocado. We were going to a lot of festivals, and I started to see how everything worked, and how having a good turnaround often trumps everything else when it comes to serving big crowds. In 2016, a business partner approached me and said, ‘Why don’t we do this concept [Arroz].’ At the time, there was no one offering this Chipotle-like cuisine. I like to say we’re essentially Chipotle on wheels [think bowls, burritos and salads with fresh veggies and proteins]. By 2019, I decided to commit to Arroz fulltime.
SW: How did you land at the Richmond Kickers—that’s a pretty permanent obligation for a roaming food truck.
KB: Tom [Pritzl] reached out right after he’d started at the Kickers, and they were beginning to host games again and needed food options. We were going to have to sign a sponsorship agreement for an entire season. Running a business, I’m always looking at the cost margin and would it be worth it for us to commit to something like this. There were a lot of variables at play, one of them being the weather. If we had one or two bad games, it could cost us more in the long run.
I told Tom we would try it out and decide after our first year to see if it’s worth it to continue. We are now in our third year with them, and it’s really worked out for us. We are typically at the stadium for 12-15 games, minimum, during the season. We’re also signed up with Broadberry Events at Brown’s Island and Music at Maymont. We’ll consistently show up for lunch at Riverfront Plaza and the Martin Agency, and breweries will invite us to big events. Since committing to the food truck full-time, I’ve learned that even one event on your calendar is one thing you don’t have to worry about.
SW: What sets Arroz apart from other trucks?
KB: I think our biggest competitive advantage, especially at the Kickers games, is that while a lot of the neighboring trucks are serving fried food, we are providing as many fresh ingredients as you can eat. We source produce from local farmers and partner with Ellwood Thompson’s to source organic chicken. We use compostable products, even though they are more costly. I would like to think I’m contributing to bettering the planet.
Another advantage that we have, and one of the reasons Tom likes to work with us, is that our wait times are so short. There’s often the misconception of long wait times with food trucks. At the Kickers games, we start with guests coming in as a trickle at the beginning, and then they flock to the truck at halftime, which is when we really excel. Our goal is to pump as much food out as quickly as possible so they can get back to their seats to they can watch the game.
SW: What are your plans for Arroz going forward?
KB: For years now, people have been asking me the next step for Arroz. I’ve had the truck for seven years now. I always tell people, there are already so many Chipotles and Hispanic restaurants. If I settle into a brick and mortar, I would be just like any other place. As a food truck, I can go anywhere. It’s exciting to me one to be on the move; one day at we’re at City Stadium, one day we’ll be setting up for a rehearsal dinner, it’s cool for us to always work a different venue.
My heritage is Filipino, and I’ve considered doing a Filipino concept, but that’s on the backburner for now. Arroz was profitable just after a year—it’s inexpensive compared to opening a restaurant and lucky for me we already have a lineup of clients that can book with us any given season, and our calendar fills up.
