‘Lunch Truck Vahe’: How an Armenian immigrant revolutionized the L.A. food truck scene

Meals vans are a staple in Los Angeles and in a lot of the world, and that’s all because of Vahe Karapetyan or “Lunch Truck Vahe” as he’s identified.

At Vahe Enterprises Inc., the whole lot is in-built home. They manufacture customized meals vans — the identical ones on almost each L.A. road.

Karapetyan nonetheless exhibits as much as work day by day at his East L.A. manufacturing unit, in a swimsuit and at all times early. On the age of 81, he’s nonetheless creating.

Born in Lebanon, Karapetyan immigrated at age 5 to Soviet Armenia, the place his household noticed very tough occasions, he says. It was these exhausting early days that formed him, he provides.

After his father handed away, he began working at simply 16 years outdated to help his household. At nights, he studied engineering on the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute.

Then on July 4, 1968, Karapetyan moved to the U.S.

As soon as in L.A., he started working for an air-con firm. He didn’t converse a phrase of English however he had an concept.

“I requested my boss if he can provide me an opportunity to experiment on one truck within the yard,” he remembers. “In 5 months, I constructed the primary truck.”

That was the primary catering truck that could possibly be mass produced and make food-on-the-go safely and effectively.

Fairly quickly he had 5 orders and never lengthy after that an entire fleet.

“Lunch Truck Vahe” turned an business chief, promoting his creations all around the world.

Again within the Seventies, meals vans primarily served development websites, however all through the years, Karapetyan’s designs made it accessible for any chef to take their menu to the road.

However Karapetyan says his greatest accomplishment helps different immigrant-owned corporations succeed, like with King Taco happening wheels and increasing the chain in a giant method.

“Solely this nation provides you alternative,” he says. “Obtain no matter you’ll be able to obtain.”

For the final 4 many years, Karapetyan has been relentless in creating alternatives for his group, particularly the Armenian group, funding colleges, church buildings and cultural facilities each domestically and overseas.

He even constructed a manufacturing unit in Armenia to create catering vans for Europe and the Center East. However when warfare broke out in Nagorno Karabakh in 2020, the plan modified and the vans become cellular emergency rooms to assist heal the wounded.

What occurred in Nagorno Karabakh, or Artskah as locals name it, reminds him every day of the Armenian genocide, he says, and what his individuals endured in 1915. His mom was a survivor of that genocide.

His newest contribution is a tribute to his late mom — a lunch truck become a cellular studio.

He donated a meals truck to the USC Institute of Armenian Research for a challenge known as My Armenian Story — a crowd-sourced oral historical past challenge to document, collect and doc particular person tales of Armenians in Southern California and reconstitute them as a part of the nationwide story. Individuals can hop into the cellular truck and document their household story at varied places within the L.A. space all through April in honor of Armenian Historical past Month.

All through his life, Karapetyan has achieved his American dream and has acquired many honors, together with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

“We Armenians at all times love to realize one thing,” he says.