Ozzy Acosta started his food truck business in July 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic raged. Many Americans were staying home, and Florida restaurants only could serve at 50% capacity until September 2020.
Those months helped Acosta jumpstart the Mambo Sandwich Co., where he cooks and manages the food operations, while his wife Suzy Acosta manages the finances and scheduling.
During those days, the schedule featured frequent visits to hospital parking lots and various gated communities, mostly in Lee County.
“Once COVID happened, that’s when I bought the tiny trailer,” Acosta said. “People thought I was crazy.”
Just in time for the third anniversary, Acosta has bought a new trailer. Mambo No. 2, which is actually his third trailer as he sold the first, cost $65,000. At 14 feet long, it’s four feet longer than Mambo No. 1.
The bigger truck will make its official debut from 2 to 10 p.m. July 11 at the Fort Myers Brewing Co; from 4 to 9 p.m. July 12, it will be at Palm City Brewing Co. in Fort Myers; from 6 to 11 p.m. July 14, it will be at Hopsized Brewing Co. in Bonita Springs; and from 2 to 10 p.m. July 15, it will be at Riptide Brewing Company in Bonita Springs. Every order on those four dates will come with a raffle ticket.
Four people – one from each of those days – will win a free taco trio for an entire year, redeemable once per week.
The food truck’s schedule is updated on Facebook under Mambo Food Truck 2020.
“The community has been a great support,” Acosta said. “We’ve done nothing but gain and grow and expand. So, we’re to a point now where we had to expand, just for better equipment, more space and bigger flavor. And we’re able to spread the love a little bit more.”
The food truck set its own business record at Taste of the Town in Fort Myers in 2021 by selling 500 sandwiches in an hour. With the new trailer, Acosta said he’s hoping to top that personal best as his business closes in on pressing its 10,000th sandwich since opening.
“It’s a labor of love,” Acosta said. “No. 1, you do have to be on your game. People have very high expectations, and we want that from them. We want to make sure that we meet that expectation and exceed it. It’s not only the business side of it. Obviously, there’s a paperwork side of it that you have to do. There’s the cooking side of it that you have to do.”
