Custom Elote Trailers
Elote and esquites pull a line wherever you park. 916 Concession builds the trailer that keeps the corn hot, the rail cold, and the county happy, from one yard in Sacramento serving all of California.
Street corn moves. A good elote setup runs swap meets, soccer parks, quinceaneras, and weekend lots, and the demand in California speaks for itself, especially across Hispanic neighborhoods where people grew up on a cup of esquites with lime and chili. The hard part has never been the recipe. It's the trailer, and the paperwork that comes with it. 916 Concession builds the unit around how you actually serve, gets it the HCD insignia so the State signs off on the build, and hands you blueprints your county health department will recognize. You bring the menu and the decisions. We carry the steel, the plumbing, the wiring, and the registration. Custom any size, and a 7x14 is the shell most elote operators order first.
A standard elote build centers on a propane stockpot burner fitted for a roughly 20-inch pot for boiling and steaming corn, backed by one or two commercial steamers with aluminum water pans to hold cobs and esquites kernels at temperature. A steam table carries the esquites bases and warm condiments, and a refrigerated topping rail with full and fractional pans keeps mayo and crema, cotija, Tajin and chili powder, lime, butter, hot-Cheeto and Takis dust, chamoy, and Valentina lined up for fast assembly. An under-counter refrigerator holds dairy and aguas. Round it out with stainless prep counters and work surfaces, detachable side prep tables for busy days, and the required three-compartment sink plus a separate handwash sink. We spec the exact count and sizes to your menu and your footprint.
Cooking on an elote trailer is propane-driven: a 20-pound tank feeding a high-pressure regulator runs the stockpot burner and steamers, so your heat doesn't lean on the electrical system. Electrical, typically a 30 to 50 amp shore connection or a generator, handles refrigeration, the topping rail, lights, and the water pump. On water, the unit carries roughly 40 gallons of fresh and 46-plus gallons of grey to stay ahead of the fresh tank as the county requires, with a heater delivering 100-degree hot water to the sinks. 916 Concession sizes the tanks, the regulator, and the electrical load to how hard you'll run the trailer, so nothing browns out or runs dry mid-service.
Why elote sells, and who's buying the trailer
Corn is cheap, the margins are wide, and the menu travels. That's why elote and esquites carts have turned into full trailers across California. The people calling 916 Concession are first-time owners working swap meets and flea markets, families running weekend event circuits, and operators who started off a folding table and a stockpot and got tired of borrowing somebody else's kitchen to pass inspection. A lot of them are pairing the corn with aguas frescas, mangonadas, and chamoy, so the build has to hold more than one cold product. The good news for you: almost nobody builds a dedicated elote trailer well, so a clean, county-ready unit puts you ahead of the cart down the street before you serve a single cup.
Built around your menu, in your size
We start with what you sell. Straight elote and esquites is a tighter build than a loaded-Cheeto-cup, chamoy, and aguas operation, and the layout changes with it. A propane stockpot burner sized for a roughly 20-inch pot handles boiling and steaming the cob; commercial steamers with aluminum water pans hold corn and esquites kernels at temperature through a rush. A steam table keeps your esquites bases and warm condiments ready, and a refrigerated rail with full and fractional pans lines up the crema, cotija, Tajin, lime, butter, chili-dust, chamoy, and Valentina in reach. Most operators land on a 7x14 or 8x16, but 916 Concession builds any size. If you want to grow into a bigger menu later, we plan the footprint for it now.
Two approvals, and who owns each one
This trips up new owners, so here it is plain. The first approval is on the trailer itself: 916 Concession builds to Title 25 and gets the unit its California HCD insignia, the State's sign-off that the build is legal. That part is on us. The second approval is your county health permit, the local department's okay to operate and serve in their jurisdiction. That step belongs to you, because it's tied to your menu, your water plan, and where you'll park. What we do is hand you blueprints your county will recognize, with the three-compartment sink, separate handwash sink, hot water, and county-approved cleanable cladding already drawn and built in, so your plan check goes smooth instead of sideways.
Timeline, registration, and getting it to you
A typical elote build runs about six weeks once the layout is locked, though inspection scheduling can move that line, and we tell you straight if it does. While the trailer is going together, 916 Concession handles the California registration. The DMV issues temporary tags first and mails the permanent plates after, which is normal here, so you can be legal on the road before the plates ever show up. When it's done, we bring it to you with in-house transport, a dedicated team we run with on every build, not a load-board hauler we found that week. If financing is part of your plan, we connect you with third-party lenders; we won't quote you rates we don't set, but we'll point you the right direction.
Build your Elote Trailer
Tell us your menu and timeline. 916 Concession builds the unit, sets the California HCD insignia, and provides the county-ready blueprints.
Prefer to talk? Call 7758951064.