Double Decker food truck calls Carson City home

Carson City residents may have seen a large double-decker bus in town recently. It’s a new British- and American-themed food truck opened by owner Billy Lavelle.

The Bus Boy Mobile Cuisine bus serves customers with a street-side menu, and includes a sit-down restaurant upstairs on the revamped 1988 Leyland Olympian double decker bus.

“It was my retirement gift from Jesus,” the Carson City resident said.

After working for Raley’s for 36 years, he was offered an option for an early retirement. His last day was Dec. 24, 2015.

“I asked my wife, and we did it,” he said.

Lavelle put a great deal of time into putting together the Bus Boy Mobile Cuisine. The first bus made its way to Carson in February 2016 and opened for business in January this year. Among some of the renovations, the roof of the bus was raised seven inches. The kitchen floor was dropped and there was a deck engineered to re-do the chassis.

“I knew it was going to be a lot of work,” he said.

The project cost him four times as much as he planned and took three times as long.

“If I knew that I might have not done it, but there was enough to make me want to do it,” Lavelle said.

From the outside, the bus is hard to miss, with it’s dark blue color and artistic graphics along the side with a large Bus Boy logo. There are a couple of sliding windows for orders, and monitors display the menu bright and vividly.

When you enter the food truck, you first see the driver seat on the right side because it was an actual bus used in Great Britain. The schedule is still on the wall. There’s a place to order and the kitchen is completely open.

Up the spiral staircase to the second floor, multiple tables await customers, which seats 28. Chrome and neon highlights give a 1950s diner ambience to the room. Red and white cushioned booth seats match the white tables and there are champagne-style lights coming from the ceiling. Fireplaces add more of a homey feel, and Lavelle installed retractable TVs at each end for big occasions.

One of the last things installed was a dumbwaiter — a device similar to an elevator, to get the food to the second floor without carrying it in the staircase. A variety of memorabilia also sits for sale with the Bus Boy logo.

MENU

The Bus Boy menu keeps the British and American theme consistent with items like the beef Wellington and their cowboy steak. Other items include the salmon Wellington, salmon dinner and a chicken dinner — each comes with a choice of two sides. On the street-side menu, there’s fish & chips, sliders and frankfurters. Lavelle said the lamb burger is one of the favorites they serve. Meals are served in a printout of “The London Royal Times” with fun stuff to read on it. The food truck does have gluten free options.

The eatery connected with local food sources. Lavelle orders meat from Bently Ranch Meats. The ice cream comes from Icecycle Creamery in Reno and some desserts come from LA Bakery and Donuts To Go in Carson City.

Lavelle said he’ll keep the Bus Boy primarily in Carson City. He has plans to take it to Reno for the first Food Truck Friday, but it’s made to stay in Carson. His goal for the future is to create two more Bus Boy food trucks — one to be located in south Reno next year and another for north Reno the year after. Then his plan is to franchise the business.