Veteran chef Evan Dominguez of San Antonio watched his food truck, Evan’s Taste of Heaven, vanish from a storage lot near Palo Alto College, and now he is scrambling to keep the business alive with a fundraiser at Rooster’s Icehouse in Lytle while the San Antonio Police Department searches for the vehicle.
Dominguez built his food truck from three years of savings and a stubborn love of feeding people. He’s an Army veteran who turned those savings into Evan’s Taste of Heaven, a rolling kitchen that has become a regular across South Central Texas and a small business that means everything to him.
“They just didn’t steal a food truck,” owner Evan Dominguez said. “They stole a piece of me.” He stored the truck temporarily at a storage center near Palo Alto College while waiting out rainy weather and last checked on it in late March, thinking it was safe during the slow season.
On May 9, a phone call upended that assumption. “The storage unit called me on May 9,” Dominguez said. “They said, ‘Are you working on your food truck?’ I said ‘No, ma’am, the food truck is in the storage.’ They’re like, ‘No, your food truck’s not here.’” His reaction was immediate and raw. “My heart just dropped,” he said. “Everything (was) just gone.”
The San Antonio Police Department has issued an alert for the missing vehicle and is actively investigating the theft. The incident report shows officers are treating the disappearance as a motor vehicle theft, and investigators are canvassing storage facilities and nearby businesses for surveillance footage and witnesses who might have seen something unusual that night.
For Dominguez, the truck was more than a set of cooking equipment; it was the brand, the recipes, and the community ties he built rolling through markets and events. “Whatever you like, I make,” Dominguez said with a laugh, a line that captures why regulars are showing up to support him now as he scrambles to replace not just a vehicle, but the livelihood and momentum it represented.
Support has come quickly from friends, customers, and neighbors who know him from his stops around town and from the veteran community. He’s raising money online and has organized an in-person fundraiser at Rooster’s Icehouse in Lytle this Saturday, where people can drop by to donate, eat, and help keep Evan’s Taste of Heaven alive while the police continue the search.
Authorities ask anyone with information about the truck’s whereabouts to contact the San Antonio Police Department and submit a tip so investigators can follow up. Meanwhile Dominguez is focused on one thing at a time: getting resources to replace the truck and finding ways to keep serving the people who supported him from the beginning.
