You could consider Moe Adams a morning person… at least if breakfast is involved. And preferably if he’s the one serving it. The entrepreneurial mind behind the Ahh Huevo food truck, a mobile kitchen that runs on gasoline and culinary creativity, Adams has been serving up his hot take on breakfast food to the Greater Los Angeles area since roughly 2017. We met up with Adams on the verge of his eagerly-anticipated appearance at LA’s Black Restaurant Week to discuss community, motivation, and the almighty power of a unique menu item.
A Dream of Breakfast
Even before Ahh Huevo, Adams was no stranger to the fast-paced, often unforgiving culinary industry. For up to two decades, he’d served as area manager, general manager, and seemingly anything in between for a variety of establishments. But even in the chaos of the kitchen, he found time to dream of starting his own business. It’s just that any offers of collaboration went nowhere. Finally, he realized that if he wanted to step out of someone else’s kitchen and into his own, he’d have to do so alone.
Adams never dreamt of a food truck. Rather, his visions were ruled by a passionate fixation on breakfast food. In those days, he didn’t care how he got his creative flavors into the dreams of others as long as they got there. At one point, Ahh Huevo was a basic table-and-grill setup. This led to pop-up opportunities and collaborations. But soon, Adams realized that Ahh Huevo was a dream with mileage, so it only made sense to throw some wheels on it. For a while, he dragged it along in a trailer from farmer’s market to farmer’s market.
“I used to do it on the weekends while still holding my restaurant job,” recalls Adams while speaking with the JohnHart Media team. “I sort of kind of fell into running a food truck and I love it. I used to work around, just to go ahead and get my foot in and figure out exactly where to go.” But Adams didn’t have the luxury of gradually wading into his life as a small business owner. Rather, Ahh Huevo would need to hit the gas.
The Strongest Motivator
“The pandemic hit and the restaurant I was working at shut down,” he explains. “I was on vacation with my family in Mexico when I got the call. ‘When you get back, shut down the restaurant.’ I cried like a baby. I was like, ‘What am I going to do?’ I had to go full force. Or stop living.”
Looking back to that dark moment, Adams recognizes how the dependence of others served as a motivating force to rival any passion. “A scary thing called bills is one of the biggest motivators anyone can have,” he laughs. “I have two dogs, a cat, three goldfish, a parrot, a wife, four kids, a mortgage, and all kinds of fun things, so it’s like ‘Hey, you know what? You’ve got to do it hard or go home. Or don’t have a home.”
LA’s Breakfast Void
In a city that loves its brunch, Adams still recognized a void for breakfast products that he knew Ahh Huevo could satisfy. “Check and see my interpretation of breakfast and brunch foods,” he invites while gesturing to the menu plastered across the side of the vibrant yellow Ahh Huevo food truck. “It’s not extremely exotic or any of that fun stuff, but it’s unique in the flavors, the textures, and the presentation.” Where else will you find crispy tater tots, spicy jalapeño aioli, applewood smoked bacon, gooey cheese, and dashes of cilantro and lime served up on a concha (a distinct type of Mexican sweet roll)?
When discussing his menu, Adams’ authentic enthusiasm couldn’t be clearer. “If you like spice, there’s a breakfast burrito that’s Nashville chicken, fluffy whipped eggs, red chili aioli, crispy tater tots, and then afterwards, the key, the magical piece, is if you take the burrito after wrapping it and you have to put it on the grill, “ he proudly gushes. “Crunchy texture on the outside. When you cut it open, you can see some of the cheese; see the steam. You bite into it and it doesn’t drip down your arm, but it’s nice, fluffy, and warm.”
The Search for Ahh Huevo’s Signature Menu Item
Just a glance at the Ahh Huevo menu highlights Adams’ penchant for originality; a focus that he feels is central to his dream. His primary goal is to offer one unique Ahh Huevo menu item so intrinsically tied to the brand that it creates a distinct experience unattainable anywhere else. It’s an instantly recognizable pleasure that Adams has himself experienced all across the world. “One of the biggest things I like to do besides eating is traveling,” he explains. “Different places over the seas, under the seas, in the hood. Anytime I go anywhere, I say ‘Let’s find out where the cool kids eat.’ And some of these items are like unique items that you can only find here or you can only find there.”
It reminds him of his time growing up in Chicago, a period that heavily influenced his culinary path as well as his talent for providing something different yet comfortably familiar. “If you go to Chicago, Maxwell Street, for blocks you used to be able to smell grilled onions and the Polish sausages they make,” he reminisces. “And it’s the simplest thing in the world. It’s like mustard, Polish sausage, and grilled onions, but there would be lines of people waiting everywhere to get them.”
With Adams calling Los Angeles home these days, his influences are admittedly more local. “The influence of Mexican culture or Latin culture in California has changed my approach. It’s a whole mixture of American and Spaniard tradition.” And while he admits that he probably never even tried his first taco until he was a teenager, Latin flavors consistently make their way onto his menu.
En Español, Por Favor
The common denominator that holds Adams’ unique take on breakfast together is right there in the name. “Ahh Huevo means so many different things,” he prefaces. “Everything on the menu has egg in it and everything is inspired by egg.” Most people in Los Angeles won’t need to pull up their Google Translate to know huevo is Spanish for “egg” among other meanings. Surprisingly, Adams didn’t grow up learning Spanish, but fluency in English has become integral to his success.
“I had to learn Spanish in order to be able to continue,” he acknowledges. “A lot of the places with the culture here in California, they’ll ask you ‘What does it (the menu item) come with?’ And if you can’t tell them in Spanish, they’ll tell you ‘Have a nice day.’ But I want the money, so I had to learn how to say it.”
“Where’s Your Who?”
Learning a new language alludes to a greater challenge Adams continues to work at to this day: finding his loyal customers, an objective that he sums up in one succinct question: “Where’s your who?” Adams has used his vast network of connections to get prime spots at notable sporting and music events such as Just Like Heaven, Stagecoach, Coachella… even the Super Bowl. With the constant grind to find new business, having a restaurant on wheels comes in handy. “If you can find that niche audience that can appreciate what you do and consistently deliver the same thing, you don’t need anything more,” proclaims Adams. “Why do you need octopus and all that fun stuff when you can just knock out Raising Cane’s chicken strips and fries? If you feel that, get it.”
While the Ahh Huevo menu speaks for itself, the success of the food truck has to do with more than bold flavors. A conscious fusion of care and connection underlies Adams’ every effort as he strives to clarify the Ahh Huevo experience. Portions are generous. Food is made fresh onsite. And if you want extra sauce, all you have to do is ask.
Caring for the Community
As much as Adams brings up the motivating power of bills, he’s doing a lot of work behind the scenes that’s far from financially lucrative. “We do go out and feed the homeless,” he admits. “We do lots of parks and fun stuff. And that’s me coming out of pocket versus doing it so you can get ‘likes’ and clicks.”
For Adams, it’s important to do good without recognition, a lesson instilled in him by his mother while he was growing up in Chicago. “My mother used to run a department at the church where we used to feed the homeless every Saturday,” he remembers with a smile. “Doesn’t matter what cartoon you like! Every Saturday, we’re getting up and making 100 to 150 sandwiches and passing them out to the community.”
That charitable spirit continues through Ahh Huevo today. “We’ve been fortunate enough to pay it forward,” he continues, citing times that Ahh Huevo donated tickets for Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm to an area elementary school with the suggestion they be given to the child who reads the most books in a single week. The fact that Ahh Huevo is a food truck gives Adams a consistent opportunity to immerse himself in the community he adores while often meeting new faces.
But community spirit is bigger than charity. It can also mean investing directly in your community, which Adams honors by sourcing local ingredients. “I think sourcing ingredients locally helps create opportunity in the local community,” he confirms. When able, Adams uses his business to keep money circulating throughout his neighborhood, recognizing that if those funds dry up “the neighborhood falls.”
Owning a Food Truck Rolls Both Ways
Yet Adams also believes that operating a food truck is an overall more hectic experience than running a traditional restaurant. And its greatest benefit is also its worst consequence: mobility. Rather than dwell on all the ways the life of a food truck entrepreneur can go off the rails, he prefers to focus on why he loves it so much. “Sometimes, we get calls that say ‘We have 200 people. Can you bring us food?’ and I’m like ‘Do you have money?’”, he laughs.
His multi-decade network of connections in the food industry also contributes to his unique adaptability. “There’s people with other businesses that actually come up and say, ‘Hey, I’m not working my business today. I’ll go with you.’” explains Adams. “That is dope.” He even appreciates the simple convenience of being able to roll up to school to pick up the kids without leaving his place of business.
With his devotion to constantly learning and growing, Adams always has an eye on the future of Ahh Huevo. And for those plans, he often consults the Los Angeles Urban League. “One of the biggest issues for a small food truck or small business owner is access to capital,” he explains. “I’m working with the Los Angeles Urban League right now, and they’re constantly giving us information.” Ultimately, he’d like to have two or three Ahh Huevo trucks in circulation.
Ahh Huevo and Black Restaurant Week
Ahh Huevo came to JohnHart Media’s attention through their inclusion in the 2024 Black Restaurant Week lineup. Offering black-owned businesses exclusive grants and valuable networking opportunities, Black Restaurant Week is much more than a restaurant showcase. The event serves as an indispensable resource for business growth within the black community, not to mention the perfect chance to answer the question “Where’s your who?”
Black Restaurant Week creates a platform for businesses that might otherwise struggle to find their way into the spotlight their food so deserves. It’s why Ahh Huevo has been collaborating with them for years. “The work Black Restaurant Week is doing is tremendously special because they’re connecting different individuals that otherwise wouldn’t have any connection,” Adams points out. It allows established businesses to give like-minded individuals a leg up as well as an immersive learning opportunity unlike any other.
Sage Advice from the Ahh Huevo Window
While we’d greatly recommend you make it a point to visit Ahh Huevo at Black Restaurant Week (if not sooner), we didn’t want to wait to get Adams’ advice for aspiring entrepreneurs of color. He suggests working in someone else’s business as a test run before taking a risk on your own dream.
“Go and find out by working for someone else,” he suggests. “It doesn’t hurt to learn. It doesn’t hurt to go through the training module. I did it a million times, on purpose, because I wanted to. Once I figured out that I needed to work for myself, I cheated and I went and worked a job. I wanted to find out how to make pizza, so I went and worked at a pizza parlor. I wanted to find out how to make hamburgers, so I went and worked at a hamburger shop. I wanted to find out how do you make burritos, so I literally went and worked at a burrito shop while holding my other job. I’m going to learn how to do this, see someone else’s interpretation, and get paid for it.”
And if you want to start your own food truck? “Don’t,” Adams says simply, before lighting up in a laugh. But he eventually doubles down on his advice. “Anybody trying to start a food truck needs to do a lot of homework. Before you get a food truck, try to see if there’s a food truck where you can go and just experience it for a couple days.”
The Ahh Huevo Experience
Fortunately, you don’t need to dream of breakfast to connect with Ahh Huevo, though it certainly doesn’t hurt. All you need to do is crave a simple but substantial meal with flavor and texture that hits different, crunchy and fluffy and gooey in all the right places, and prepared fresh with as much sauce as you like. Where Moe Adams is concerned, it’s not too much to ask.
