The point is that Mr. Rivera never had the intention of selling meat.
A New York City native and barbecue fan, he became obsessed with a hot sauce he tried in 2009 at a Mets game. He set out to recreate it at home, a quest that led him to leave a secure job as an executive chef and enter culinary school.
By 2019, it was marketing its own sauces, which evoke flavors of traditional Puerto Rican cuisine. He used the moniker Father & Son, with a label showing a snapshot of him and his son stirring a pot.
Then the pandemic and an injury kept him at home. Rivera searched online for ideas.
In 2021, he began selling his sauces on weekends at Gun Hill Brewery in the Allerton neighborhood of the Bronx until it closed last month. A friend brought a meat smoker to make it easier for customers to try the sauce samples. The food was gone in three hours, he said.
“The food overshadowed the sauce,” he said. “The breadwinner of the family was food.”
What Rivera assumed would be a one-time weekend is now about to become something more, he said: a full-time small business, with the help of his wife, Jasity Soltero, their 17-year-old son Mason, and some cousins as necessary. Rivera has developed a menu that features his version of Puerto Rican classics like roast pork or yellow rice with pigeon peas. He wants to remind people that the indigenous people of Puerto Rico also barbecued meats.
“It has the best-tasting brisket I’ve ever had,” chef Miguel Antonio Salamanca said at a recent community festival in Co-op City. He added: “I felt like this was the place to be.”
Depending on the amount of meat in the sandwich and the quality of the cut, the price of food in New York City can range from as low as Rivera’s, which is their best seller, to more than $20 at other places.
Challenges and surprises abound, including fluctuating meat prices and rising costs of diesel fuel and paper products, said Ben Goldberg, co-founder of the New York Food Truck Association. The pandemic prompted more outdoor events, which can actually be more profitable for food vendors than street vending, he said.
Still, Mr. Rivera’s business requires a lot of work. He sometimes prepares food in a commercial kitchen in Westchester County, which costs him between $100 and $300 a visit. He often sleeps in his truck overnight when he cooks meat for an event and tailors certain menus. For Co-op City, he added a meat combo plate and three sides for about $20, and to keep families happy, he offered hot dogs, French fries and juice boxes.
Rivera has to stay agile, like when his truck broke down and the rental cost him $500 for the weekend, even though he only needed it for a day and a half. His favorite brioche buns aren’t always available, so he might switch to a cheaper option at the last minute.
But there are positives: His plan to go full time after three years on the road keeps him motivated. His first employee outside the family, an apprentice, will be a great help.
“What stops me is that I’m at that apex where I can see the view from above,” Mr. Rivera said. “Now I need a staff I can train and walk away for a day.”
Produced by Eden Weingart, Andrew Hinderaker and Dagny Salas. Development by Gabriel Gianordoli and Aliza Aufrichtig.