Even when Eugene’s artisan ice cream company was just a little red wagon, its owners found that making frozen dessert was no child’s play.

Red Wagon Creamery, which opened its first brick-and-mortar shop in downtown Eugene last May, started out as a traveling cart that frequented public markets and parking lots around Eugene and Springfield from 2011 to 2013. It gained notoriety for its local, natural and off-beat flavors, such as “Smoked Salt Caramel” and “Just Beet It,” a bright pink ice cream that contains beets and chocolate chips.

The cart was such a hit, in fact, that it sold out almost daily, said co-owner Stuart Phillips. He and his wife and co-owner, Emily, scooped ice cream by day and then rushed to Food For Lane County, where they rented kitchen and storage space, to make more ice cream nightly from 9 p.m. to midnight.

“It was nomadic, but fun,” Phillips said. But after two years of this lifestyle, the couple were eager last May to open a space of their own, where they could make more ice cream, serve a broader variety of flavors and host customers out of the cold and rain.

Now that they’re closing in on their first year at the West Broadway shop, Phillips and his wife can clearly see the perks, and the challenges, of moving to their own kitchen and storefront.

A growing number of local food carts are eyeing the same transition. A food cart comes with cramped space but lower costs. A fixed location comes with more space — and the chance to make more revenue — but also with bigger expenses and obligations, such as lease payments.

“It’s definitely a lot less physical labor, but a lot more responsibility,” said Stuart Phillips. The shop took $200,000 in startup costs, and Phillips now manages a team of employees and a long list of bills.

The old red cart, a $15,000 startup, “felt more like a hobby, whereas now it’s more like a real business,” he said.

But having a store has its benefits, Phillips said. In the shop’s first year, it sold three times as much as the cart.

Making the transition

As the economy recovers, more food carts can afford to make the transition from mobile vendor to storefront because consumers are spending more on luxuries like dining out, said Jim Lindly, director of Lane Community College’s Small Business Development Center in downtown Eugene.

“It’s picking back up now, so they’re doing better. … They can start thinking about getting a building,” Lindly said.

But cart owners shouldn’t take the transition lightly. At the small business development center, Lindly and his team help business owners draft a business plan, determine startup costs and work through administrative and operational details.

Some restaurants, he said, are extremely popular in their first few years, but lose momentum as trends and customers move on.

“There’s probably no tougher business than the restaurant business,” Lindly said.

That’s why new restaurant owners should choose a building wisely, he said. “Location is everything.”

While a food cart can experiment with different communities, locations and festivals, Lindly said, “you’re locked into a location. If you’re not in a good location and you’ve had to sign a long-term lease, that’s not a good thing.”

In Red Wagon’s case, a storefront in the heart of downtown Eugene has served well so far. The Phillipses partnered with Party Downtown, another local cart-turned-restaurant, to share the building space and a five-year lease.

Because of the location, the restaurants were able to obtain a downtown revitalization loan from the city.

The Phillipses also received a small business loan from Community Lending Works, the lending arm of the Springfield-based Neighborhood Economic Development Corp., which offers loans ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 for small businesses.

Doing the research

Careful research before picking a location can pay off.

The owners of Delacata, a “Southern, Cajun and Northwest fusion” cart usually parked on 8th Avenue and Olive Street since 2011, said they checked out about 15 locations before signing a 10-year building lease at the former Carl’s Jr. location on East Broadway Street, where they plan to launch Elk Horn Brewery this summer.

“We have big plans for this place,” said Stephen Sheehan, who owns the cart with his wife, Colleen Sheehan. “You’ll never know it was a Carl’s Jr. when we get done with it.

They plan to bring their popular recipes to the 5,580-square-foot restaurant and brewery, where they will also serve beer, cider, mead and Sweet Cheeks wine on tap.

They said they are confident their location near the University of Oregon will draw students and community members. The basement of the building — a negative for many users — is where they’ll brew beer that will come up into the restaurant through tap lines, Stephen Sheehan said.

For other food carts, the Whiteaker neighborhood was appealing for a brick-and-mortar location. Papa’s Soul Food Kitchen and BBQ made its home there in 2002 after starting out as a food cart in 2000.

Pizza Research Institute, which got its start as a traveling booth at local festivals, also settled down in the Whiteaker neighborhood, in 2009.

BBQ King, a food cart formerly across from Safeway on 18th Avenue, has recently moved into the former Big Town Hero building just a few blocks away on 18th Avenue after serving Southern barbecue in Eugene for nearly 35 years. The new restaurant will open this spring with an expanded menu of Southern classics, says owner Ken Fuller, who likes being close to the University of Oregon.

Soup Nation, which has served soup from its cart just off campus since 1997, found a home in downtown Eugene in 2011 and still serves from its cart on 14th Avenue and Kincaid Street.

Owner Mark Stern declined to say how much he spent to start his Soup Nation Cafe, but said he was able to completely cover the costs with savings from his cart and catering business, Carte Blanche Caterers.

Looking back on the transition, Stern said, “I certainly would have done it sooner.” He waited years to find the optimum spot near 5th Avenue and High Street, but he said he would like to be further along in his restaurant career.

Some pitfalls

The owners of Cart De Frisco, another near-campus vendor, say they will also keep their Kincaid Street cart after they open a restaurant on Franklin Boulevard this summer.

The cart’s co-owner, Kit Tangtrongjita, said in his 34 years running a food cart in Eugene, he’s always dreamed of opening a restaurant of his own, and he’s watched a number of other carts make the transition.

“But I’ve seen some fail, because when they go into the restaurant, they go into high overhead,” he said.

To combat high overhead, he said, restaurants often expand their menu to foods outside their specialties, which could help or hurt their following.

“With the cart,” he added, “you have low overhead, and you’re able to offer the food that you’re good at.”

In a deal approved March 10, Tangtrongjita agreed to pay the city $288,938 for a 38,000-square-foot parcel of land and give the city an adjacent 8,333-square-foot lot that he already owned. He and his wife, Wanna, plan to use the land for an indoor/outdoor restaurant featuring a kitchen in a converted trolley car located next to a covered dining area.

The process has taken three years already, said Tangtrongjita, but he said he’s confident that once the details are in place, the transition to a restaurant will be a smooth one.

“We’ve moved carefully,” he said. “We’re keeping it small and simple. That’s been our concept all these years.”

At Red Wagon Creamery, the owners’ move to their own storefront and kitchen space has allowed them to expand beyond the shop. Phillips said the company has expanded into a wholesale business — they sell pints to Kiva Grocery Store, Capella Market, Sundance Natural Foods and Friendly Street Market in Eugene and Wynant’s Family Health Foods in Springfield, and are looking to sell in Portland.

They’ve also expanded their menu to include ice cream shop favorites such as root beer floats and hot fudge sundaes.

Phillips said he still enjoys catering festivals and events with the cart whenever he can.

“It’s a lot of fun to scoop for people — to be there in the open air,” he said.

On rainy days, Phillips said, nothing beats being able to stay out of the elements in the comfort of the shop.

But that doesn’t mean the work is easy, he added.

“It’s as hard as we thought it would be,” Phillips said. “You can’t go into it thinking everything’s going to be rosy every day. Even though the work is different, it’s still just as much hard work as setting up a tent every day.”

Follow Kelsey on Twitter @kelseythalhofer. Email kelsey.thalhofer@registerguard.com.