Brittney Pawlick is trying to make up for lost time.

Outfitting her food truck took her and partner Norby Hegedus over a year and cost about $140,000. It hit the streets selling pork poutine, schnitzels and steak sandwiches in October, six months overdue.

So despite frigid temperatures the pair will remain out all winter, she said last week as the first real cold weather of the season settled in.

Pawlick, 26, co-owner of Curbalicious Inc., is one of a handful of hardy food truck operators who plan to brave the stormy weather ahead. Meteorologists predict the balmy winters of recent years will give way to average temperatures below freezing and around 80 centimetres of snow.

“It gets cold,” Pawlick said. She wears a hat and scarf when serving through the window. “I do most of the social interaction. I’m always the coldest.”

Pawlick plans to park her 2002 MT45 Freightliner, which looks like a FedEx van painted orange and white, on Portland St. near Wellington St. from 8 p.m. till 3:30 a.m. on Friday nights all winter, hoping to cash in on closing-time crowds from local bars.

Staff dress in layers, even if late-night customers ordering “porky poutine” don’t seem to notice the cold in their short skirts.

“It blows our minds sometimes. Omigod, it is freezing outside,” said Pawlick. “But between the alcohol and hunger, they’re willing to stand.”

Water pipes were specially installed inside the truck so as not to freeze and burst. And they bought a 400-pound propane tank because cold temperatures affect the pressurization.

After a few nights of cold air blowing down their necks from the ceiling vents, Hegedus put in ductwork to divert it. They installed heavy RV curtains in the windows to keep in the warm air created by a 20,000-BTU heater.

Pawlick hopes that will be enough to get through the winter — and that sales will be worth it.

For Gabe Wee and his wife Karyne, who run a BeaverTails franchise truck, sales go up as the temperature drops: people seem to love the combination of fried dough, butter and cinnamon.

“We have a psychodemographic,” Wee said. “People think of skating, skiing, winter carnivals. BeaverTails reminds them of childhood.”

To keep the truck moving through winter, the couple rustproofed the underside and drained all the water. They now haul hot water in special insulated tanks for the legally required handwashing station and take the dirty dishes home to Mississauga to wash. (City officials inspect food trucks just like restaurants.)

To heat the truck with three extra space heaters costs about $100 more per day. They need to sell $1,000 per service to make it worthwhile. That’s 175 beavertails, he said.

The temperature inside the truck hit –2 C one afternoon this month, despite the heaters. Karyne said she wears “tons of layers. So many layers.” Her husband has thermal socks and heavy boots. Everyone wears a winter coat in the truck.

Before there were food trucks, there was the venerable hotdog cart. They would sell street meat in all weather, much like Champs World Famous Hot Dogs and Sausages, operated by Mammad Adel, still does outside the University of Toronto.

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The only time Adel shuts down is during a storm. And not out of any fear of frostbite, he said, but “it’s so cold nobody’s coming.”

Adel’s cart is outfitted with a shelter that keeps in the heat emitted by the grill and a propane heater. He wears a hooded sweatshirt, a toque and a neck warmer, but no gloves.

“It’s not cold!” he said when it was –10 C outside.

Most operators say they will be parking their trucks until the warm weather returns in spring, around the same time a city staff report is expected on the fate of the food truck program. A two-month pilot project this summer allowed 24 trucks to operate in city parks, but they are mostly relegated to privately owned parking lots.

A round of public consultations will be held in January, followed by recommendations for a new, harmonized street food vending bylaw presented by to the city’s licensing and standards committee in March.

Until then, Shontelle Pinch of Gourmet Bitches has sold her last Cuban pulled pork taco.

“My pipe just burst,” she said. “The cold, the roads, who really wants to stand on the street?”

If trucks were able to set up in busy public spaces, she said, there would be a financial incentive to stay rolling all winter.

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