When chef Ika Nasa came to Lafayette a year ago, she was excited to develop a brand based on a staple dish everyone loves: noodles.
Her food truck restaurant, Noodlehead, started serving up Japanese-inspired comfort food last December. They quickly amassed a local following with dishes like birria ramen, pork belly sliders, creamy tonkotsu and “hangover cure noodles” with shrimp, vegetables, egg and a savory sauce with a touch of sweetness.
She’s always had a bigger goal to build a brand and franchise the concept. Now, that vision is leading Nasa and Noodlehead to Houston, just a year after relocating to Lafayette from Nashville.
Nasa, a native of Indonesia, spent the past 17 years in Nashville as a sushi chef. After marrying an Acadiana native, the desire to be close to family brought Nasa and her wife down to Lafayette — and it was here that the couple decided to start their own food truck venture.
Her previous experience in the corporate restaurant world, with the Rock n’ Roll sushi chain, taught the chef how to franchise, train and open new locations — and that’s her intention for Noodlehead.
“My plan is to franchise, but I want to make sure I know what I’m doing first and can tell someone else how to do things the exact way I do,” she says.
Before Noodlehead can expand, it needs to be established on a firm business footing. Nasa says that despite the support they have found in Lafayette, operating a food truck comes with unique challenges. Moving on a weekly or daily basis to new locations is fine for sales but bad for logistics and training employees. And Lafayette does not have centralized commissaries that give food trucks the space to prep, re-stock and re-fuel quickly.
“A commissary is a pit stop that has commercial kitchens you can rent out hourly,” says Nasa. “In Lafayette it’s less convenient — the option is to work with a restaurant that allows you to use their space. But you can’t just walk in and ask them to move when you need to use the space.”
Nasa says that her brother lives in Houston, and the food truck community there intrigued her.
“It’s bigger, and there’s food truck parks everywhere,” she said. “It’s so much easier to find a spot to park. That’s been a challenge in Lafayette. That’s why we’ve been going out of town so much, to Pineville and Alexandria. Moving around every day for a year, I’m just tired. It’s so much easier to stay in one spot.”
In around six to eight weeks, once the permitting is in order, Noodlehead will make the move to Main Street Food Truck Park in La Porte, Texas — about a 30-minute drive from downtown Houston. With a commissary on site and a permanent place to park the truck, Nasa says that the move will help them build consistency.
“Now I have to start all over again. It’s not easy to make that decision,” she says. “We bought a house in Lafayette, our family and friends are here, we built a life. When I explained my business proposal to my wife, I was surprised she said yes. But she was like, ‘I get it. I know it’s your dream.’ She believes in me, and I can’t let myself down or my family down.”
The couple also considered opening a brick and mortar location in Lafayette, and that may still be in the cards for the future. But that’s a big commitment for a small brand, and Nasa says that they don’t want to rush things.
“Once you choose a wrong location, that’s it,” she says. “We’d love to open a noodle bar in Lafayette, and maybe also in Houston one day. We’re not selling our house. We know once we build our empire we want to come home again to Lafayette. I’m not going to give up on Noodlehead. I know it has potential. If a move is necessary to make it happen, that’s what I’ll do.”
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