So I got a great deal on a nearly fully equipped bbq food trailer. The kitchen area has a commercial fridge and a commercial freezer, commercial 6 burner stove/oven unit, a commercial drink cooler, and to top it off it came with a old hickory cto dw smoker on the back porch. The only thing I'm missing is a food water like a metro or Alto shaam, but I'm pretty tight on space inside. I could easily fit a half size warmer inside, but I couldn't do a full size without doing some renovations which I don't want to do atm. Can I use the old hickory cto dw as a hot holding unit during my selling hours to keep my brisket, pulled pork, and trays of sides at a safe temp without ruining my food? Will the health department give me problems for using it to hold my food? It's an NSF rated smoker, but I dunno if it needs to be rated as a holding unit or something? My plan is to maybe get a half size warmer for inside the kitchen area for my meats, and a steam table for my sides so I can keep some food within reach for orders and then restock it from the food I have staying warm on the smoker as I need to. Is there anything similar to a table top steam table that I can use to keep my cold sides easily accessible? I definitely don't have the space for one of those refrigerated prep tables so something countertop that can fit a few small 1/3 size pans would great and I can just refill from the fridge as I need to.p. Thanks for any advice y'all might have, I'm new to the food truck/trailer game, but I'm super stoked and wanna do it right. Any and all creative solutions/suggestions are super welcome.
