TBCB   Hong Kong

The Story of HK's One and Only Food Truck

Black Betty is the one and only Food Truck in Hong Kong and is owned by The Butchers Club, here is her story.

The Butchers Club Food Truck is a 1957 Citroen H Van, it was found on a farm in central France where it had stood motionless in a barn for 25 years. The engine, battery and fuel tank were removed before shipping it to Hong Kong.

Rumour has it that Betty was originally a police vehicle during its working life.  The van was in pretty bad shape. It was purchased for 3,000 Euros and shipped to Marseille by a flatbed truck and then placed in a 40 foot high shipping container and shipped to Hong Kong in September 2014.

On arrival Betty was collected by a tow truck and taken to a secret garage near Shek O and work started to restore her. The floor pan was completely rotten and a new one welded in. The hatches were cut out and lightweight aluminium serving hatches made – turning it into a food truck.  The walls and roof were lined in stainless steel for easy cleaning.

It was decided that the interior would not be fitted with fixed cooking equipment, giving the truck the flexibility to be used for different purposes and with different kitchen configurations. In place of the engine a beer cooler was fitted, allowing for ice-cold Peroni to be served from the front of the van.  Since the van has no engine it isn’t actually classed as a road vehicle and does not need licensing. She is in fact towed to events on the back of a flatbed truck.

The body was given two coats of matt black paint and put straight into service. Black Betty made an immediate impact in Hong Kong and was invited to high profile events. She was also asked to cater at high end corporate parties and used to launch numerous luxury brands, shops and products, she was even used as a pop-up changing room within a mall for a luxury jeans brand.

Black Betty has been extremely well received in Hong Kong and has become an iconic mascot for The Butchers Club, she has been photographed literally thousands of times by fans and has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, appeared in scores of television and radio interviews and was even mentioned by John Tsang, Hong Kong’s Finance Minister, who wants to legalise food trucks in Hong Kong. 

Here is a pictorial journey of Black Betty’s movements around Hong Kong:


Black Betty’s first outing was at The Hong Kong Classic Car show at The Central Waterfront, where she served traditional pie and peas to around 2500 car enthusiast and was even given a little mention in the awards ceremony.

At another festival at The Central Waterfront Black Betty was featured in a French motorsport show called ‘Turbo’ and interviewed by Dominique Chapatte.

Black Betty served over 2,000 pulled pork sandwiches at the Dine and Design festival at The Central Waterfront in Hong Kong.

Black Betty and The Butchers Club catered the HSBC Rugby Sevens Village and served over 10,000 meals over 3 days. The van had to be craned in and out of the venue. Watch the video here.

Black Betty and The Butchers Club provided exclusive catering for the Hong Kong Darts Masters at the Central Waterfront and served over 5,000 meals over 2 days.

Black Betty was at Beertopia and over a 2 day period served over 3000 hotdogs and steak sandwiches.

Black Betty catered to the film crew and actors making a Kung Fu movie at The Shing Fung Studios in Sai Kung and actually featured in the movie.

Black Betty catered a corporate BBQ in Wanchai for 600 lucky AIA office workers. The food was simple yet delicious: dry-aged cheese and bacon burgers, all-beef hotdogs, steak sandwiches and a salad bar.

Black Betty has been used to launch numerous retail stores and draws the crowds to come and take a look. Here she is on Fashion Street in Causeway Bay launching a new Club Monaco outlet.

Here she is again, this time creating a street party event for the launching of a Grana retail store. 

At Clockenflap 2014 at the Western Kowloon Cultural District, Black Betty and The Butchers Club served over 10,000 meals over 3 days and at times had over 100 customers queuing to buy a steak sandwich from the iconic food truck.

The Butchers Club also uses Black Betty to launch its own restaurants. Here over 400 people turned up to celebrate the launch of Steak Frites. She will be present at K11 in November to launch the new Butchers Club Burger site opening there and 2000 members of the press and public are expected to attend the block party in the courtyard of the mall.

Interested parties can contact events@thebutchers.club for more information.

 

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