An Interview with Oli’s Cheesesteaks
It’s been a while since The Peninsula Report has had an interview, but I’m excited to start it all again with Alejandro, the genius behind Oli’s Cheesesteaks.
If you’ve never had an Oli’s Cheesesteak before, you need to make it to one of their pop-ups and give them a try. Read on to learn all about what makes Oli’s such a special addition to the local food scene.
Let’s start with what we’re all here for: the cheesesteaks. What comes in your cheesesteaks?
The main item is the ribeye beef, which is thinly sliced to be as tender as possible.Our cheesesteaks vary in ingredients (sauces and veggies) depending on which one you’re having. We have added quite a few ingredients to the list since we started and are slowly growing that list.
You have so many awesome menu items, from cheesesteaks and burgers, to breakfast. How much testing and research is done before you debut a new item to the public?
Thank you. We definitely do a lot of testing and research into what we want to put on the menu. We don’t release an item until it’s something that WE enjoy eating one hundred percent. We definitely don’t serve our customers anything that we don’t all agree on. And even then, we are still working on how to make that one sandwich as best as it can be for us. We eat in silence together, and then discuss what we liked and what we don't like about a sandwich. It’s become a ritual.
We have a few other sandwiches that are in the testing lab right now and we should see them on the menu sometime soon.
I like to learn from people, and taste different sandwiches. I sometimes like to blend different sandwiches and sauces together. Our cheesesteak is basically a hybrid of a few different regions, from the bread, to our custom rub.
I can totally see that. I couldn’t help but notice the Peruvian and New York inspired sandwiches. Is there some history there?
I really enjoy any chances that I get to add a Peruvian flavor to the menu, like our secret Lomo sauce in our cheesesteak, or our Peruvian yellow pepper aioli, or the house sauce.
Though our menu flavor is mainly Peruvian influenced, I didn’t have a cheesesteak until I lived in Miami. It was sometime in the late ‘90’s at this spot called Miami Subs.
The New Yorker sandwich was an idea that our friend Patrick had. He mentioned to me how he had a pastrami cheesesteak on the East Coast. I started to research and pastrami is a huge thing on the East Coast. I thought it would be really cool to mix pastrami with ribeye and make a cheesesteak with those two. The name was just coincidental, and it had a nice ring to it.
The flavors and recipes are flavors that we use in our cuisine in Peru. I come from a town called Trujillo and was lucky to grow up eating awesome street food from amazing unknown cooks.
Those amazing unknown cooks must have had quite some influence on you. Is that where your culinary background comes from?
My culinary background definitely started in my hometown, then it expanded a lot when I lived in Miami, before I moved to California in 2010.
So what inspired you to start Oli’s Cheesesteaks?
The love for a good cheesesteak was definitely an inspiration from the start. I was making cheesesteaks at home with my family quite often and, with my small food background, it was enough of a push to launch it.
That push is usually the scary part. Was there a kind of leap of faith, either financially or otherwise, that went into starting Oli’s?
There definitely was a huge leap of faith, financially, emotionally, you name it!
At first we started in a tent with a small grill. We figured things out and invested in our little trailer and now we are kind of at the point that we are outgrowing it and need a bigger space to operate in. The final factor that led us to take the chance was definitely wanting to make the best sandwich I could possibly make and see if anyone liked it.
I think it’s safe to say people like it! Where did the name Oli’s come from?
We named it after my mother, her name was Olinda.
I love that. Oli’s Cheesesteaks is a great name. It lends itself well to the logo design and now we know it has a truly thoughtful and inspirational origin.
I think we would all like to have an exclusive look into the day-to-day routine of working the truck. Can you share a behind-the-scenes look into how you prepare for a day of service?
Preparing for a day of service can start very early in the day. It usually starts with a strong cup of coffee, picking up our freshly baked bread from the bakery, and getting our veggies for washing and chopping. Once we set up for the event and the trailer is locked in and running, we fire up the JBL speaker and listen to music loud. We cannot have a shift without music.
Well now I have to ask: what do you all listen to when prepping?
We shuffle all sorts of things to be honest, from old school country, hip-hop, heavy metal, rock, indie, Spanish, etcetera etcetera. We can talk about music quite a lot. That's another interview we could do!
Definitely something to consider! Do you want to tell me a bit about your team?
Our team has been amazing since day one. We have had some great help from the start and they have been crucial to our everyday operations.
There is definitely a story behind each person that has joined our team. All of them have gone through instances of being friends, and being involved in food.
It’s a testament to your success that your team works so well together. And all that good synergy is reflected in the food and in your happy customers.
One of your Yelp reviews says “The steak was so tender a toothless person could have eaten it.” And that’s only one of many 5-star reviews. What’s the secret to building such a devoted fan base?
I honestly couldn’t tell you any secrets because I have no idea. We just focus on the food and creating a welcoming environment for our customers. We are definitely very lucky to have any following at all. It’s definitely a blessing. Huge thank you and big hugs to anyone that comes to visit us to eat, or takes the time to write us a lovely message after their meals, or even review us on Yelp or Reddit. It’s quite humbling to see how many people enjoy our food. We just hope we are able to keep up the expectations.
Just from the sandwiches I’ve had, I’d say you’re exceeding expectations pretty regularly. Being such a unique addition to Monterey County, what impact do you hope your business has on the community?
This is probably one of the most important questions for any business. I just really hope that we are able to bring joy to our people while giving them a great sandwich experience made with fresh ingredients. We also love giving what we can to the community, either by doing food giveaways and donations, discount codes, or our annual Christmas turkey giveaways. We are still looking for ways to help in any way that we can, within our means. We have met so many incredible people and they have shared lots of amazing stories about how our food reminded them of their favorite places to eat back home with family and friends.
That reminds me of that scene in Ratatouille, where the food reviewer, Anton Ego, experiences sudden nostalgia for his mom’s cooking when he eats the title dish. There must be something on the menu that does the trick for you, right? What’s your personal favorite item?
My favorite item on the menu right now is the burger with pickles. We are still working out a few kinks to make it just right for our taste buds, but are getting closer and closer. We have been testing out different breads, different beef blends and sizes for patties, among many other small details.
In terms of sauce, I really, really like our chimichurri, and to those that KNOW about our chimi, it’s almost a spiritual awakening of flavors. Chimi takes the cheesesteak sandwich to a whole new level, and it’s scary how good it can get.
Chimichurri is such an underrated sauce. I can see how that hit of acidity and herbs is the secret to breaking up the richness of a cheesesteak. Of course, everyone loves a secret menu. Are there any special orders that my readers might like to know about?
Yes, absolutely! We have a sandwich called The Godfather. It’s quite amazing and quite large for anyone that’s really, really hungry. For anyone that is gluten free, we have a Steak Salad Bowl, which you can make spicy or regular. That comes with grilled mushrooms and if you add the home pickles, it’s really nice. We just started making our own pickles. They are 10/10.
Burgers, sauces, pickles, cheesesteaks - that’s a lot of new stuff! What’s the secret to staying motivated and passionate about your work every day?
My family is a huge motivator for me. Seeing how hard my wife works and how hard she “moms” and raises our son. Also, watching my son grow and seeing how many new things he learns every day. Then, my relatives and friends who all work really hard. It’s inspiring for sure. A lot of our vendor friends also succeed with their companies and that definitely rubs off on us as I try to keep up with them all. Anytime I feel like something is not going right, I remind myself how lucky we are and how many great people I have close to me that I can look up to.
It’s great that you have such a good support network. You’re also at a lot of local events. Are there any partnerships or collaborations that are particularly meaningful to you?
Thank you, yes! There are a lot of people and businesses I can talk about that have been part of our journey, but one in particular that we find really, really awesome is our collaborations with Chef David Pasculli of Sammich’d. He has been part of our family since we began and is the creator of our Top Shelf Spicy Sauce, which he also bottles. These sauces are delicious and 100% locally made, and we just love his work. Highly recommend anyone to check out what he has going on.
You can check out Sammich’d here on Instagram.
Speaking of Instagram, social media plays a big role in every small business’ life and your game is particularly strong. Where does the inspiration for all the funny memes come from?
Thank you for the compliments on our social media game. We definitely don’t try too much. Social media is really difficult to navigate and the algorithm is always doing something different. I am just not too good with social media. However, our inspiration comes from everyday life and being hungry for food, mixed with humor.
You all honestly sound like you have a lot of fun working. What’s the hardest part of your day and how do you handle that?
The hardest part I would say is loading the trailer and unloading it, making sure the engine is running okay. Once we have our trailer and kitchen secure, the rest of the shift is quite fun!
That’s great! What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned since starting Oli’s?
I’ve definitely learned to have patience and to trust the process. It’s a slow, painful, and oftentimes stressful start, with lots of hurdles yet to come. We have grown a lot, not quite in size, but mainly internal growth, and we are still working on our flavors and overall menu to really bring something special to the street food scene.
I know that some places around here can have strict “no food trucks” rules, but I don’t think the public’s opinion of trucks reflects that. Can you tell me about your experience owning a food truck?
A lot of people I talk to really want the city to be more open to food trucks and street food setups. In the short years that we have been in business, I can definitely understand both sides of the story. If the public streets were all open for food trucks, I think that could create a bit of chaos around the tight traffic commute in some areas of the city. It’s a fairly small grid that’s available to operate in so most of the time we serve at events, festivals, and farmer’s markets.
I think it’s one of those situations where if we had more open access to parks around town, we would also see way more vendors and trucks coming in. Both scenarios have pros and cons. It’s something that you don’t really think about when you are starting a business. One big important factor that impacts what we do, is the city infrastructure itself. That is a whole other conversation that needs to happen soon.
Personally, I’m in the camp that wants to see more food trucks. I remember in Hawaii, there was an entire picnic area near a Costco dedicate to food truck gatherings.
What have been some of the biggest milestones or achievements for Oli’s so far?
We’re still discovering this part of us. At the moment, every time we see a repeat customer, that’s our biggest milestone. We have done large events, camped out for days at locations, but when it’s all said and done, there is no better feeling than seeing the friendly faces of our regulars coming to order their steaks and burgers!
With all the events you attend, how do you balance your food truck life and your personal life?
I am still learning to do that too. The first two years were really busy and we were cooking a lot of cheesesteaks. I like to try and balance some days off so that I can be with the family. In our business (the food business), we usually work holidays because those can be really good money days. So having a few days off throughout the week really helps in the long term. It’s important to try and find a balance and I am beyond lucky to have that opportunity.
When you actually have some time off, what do you like to do?
With my son in the picture now, the time off is very small. It’s just a few minutes per day, maybe, so we mostly do stuff together! I have been lucky to have had a few windows of time during the holidays to go surfing, which is something I grew up doing, but now it’s more of an occasional thing. Once a week I try to play a bit of tennis with the boys so that I can keep doing cardio and keep the legs running. I also love skateboarding, and playing drums.
It sounds like you have endless energy! It's definitely an enviable trait, especially for a business that relies on being available to people almost anywhere.
Are there any upcoming events or promos that you want to share?
Depending on when this goes out, our schedule is always getting updated
For the most part, you can find us every Monday at the Pacific Grove Farmer’s Market, from 3-6pm. It’s the only farmer’s market we are a part of at the moment.
Thursdays and Fridays we cook lunch at Russo's Wholesale Produce in Del Rey Oaks, from 11-2pm.
Then on Friday evenings, we are at Post No Bills Craft Beer, in Sand City, from 4-8pm.
Saturdays we are at Acme Coffee in Seaside, from 10-2pm (breakfast sandos!).
Where can we expect to see Oli’s Cheesesteaks in the next five years? Any plans for expansion or moving to a storefront?
It would be great to have a brick and mortar location where we can keep all of our stuff and maybe hang some posters on the walls. We have a bunch of other items on our menu that we cannot create in our small trailer.
We have a french fry menu that is itching to see the light of day, as well as a panini menu, salad menu, a larger steak menu, and of course a kids menu.
Oh wow, french fries and salads would be amazing additions! What advice would you give to someone who aspires to start their own food truck business?
I think it definitely helps to start with something you are passionate about and at the same time fills a need for what’s missing in a particular area of your city or community. Doing research in your area is a good way to start.
Thank you so much for your time. I’m sure my readers will love hearing all about what makes Oli’s Cheesesteaks so special.
Visit their website for the full schedule, information about catering, and more. Also, don’t forget to follow them on Instagram.
Now go get a cheesesteak!