HUMBOLDT — The next time a custom food truck rolls into a festival, a cocktail trailer serves guests at a wedding or a mobile business opens for the first time, there is a chance it began its journey in a shop outside Humboldt.
What started as a family project during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into a business building custom concession trailers, food trucks and specialty mobile units that are now operating across the country. Rockin’ M Concessions, owned by Beckie and Curtis Manahan and joined by their 21-year-old son, Tyler, has expanded far beyond its original vision, with projects now traveling to states including Florida, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma.
The Manahans moved to the Humboldt area in 2002 after Beckie graduated from physician assistant school and accepted a position at Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center. The couple built a home on 80 acres outside Humboldt, where Beckie continues her medical career while the family’s second business has steadily grown.
Rockin’ M Concessions officially began in 2021, though the idea had been on Beckie’s mind for years. “I had always wanted to do a little bit of concession-style work or have my own little food truck and trailer,” she said.
THAT DREAM started with an aging three-sided concession trailer from the 1970s. “It was honestly a piece of junk,” Beckie recalled.
She knew exactly who could bring it back to life.
Curtis, whose background includes 35 years in construction, completely restored the trailer. The family operated it at Independence High School football games after COVID restrictions closed the stadium’s permanent concession facilities.
When football season ended, the trailer was listed for sale. “It sold the very next day,” Beckie said.
That first sale quickly led to another project, this time an old delivery van that also underwent a complete transformation before being sold to a buyer in Florida. Soon afterward, the family drove to Kentucky to purchase a trailer and completely rebuilt it into a wood-fired pizza trailer and eventually delivered it back to a buyer in Kentucky.
That customer has gone on to build a thriving pizza business, something Beckie said remains especially rewarding to watch.
The experience also reinforced what the Manahans believe mobile businesses can offer aspiring entrepreneurs.
Instead of investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into a traditional restaurant with higher staffing costs, owners can begin with a custom trailer operated by just two or three people while taking their business directly to festivals, events and busy locations.
Although the company name includes “concessions,” its work has expanded beyond food trucks. “We build any kind of custom-built trailer,” Beckie said
Today, Rockin’ M builds everything from coffee trailers and ice cream trailers to cocktail bars, dog grooming vans, mobile flower shops and other specialized businesses.
The company recently secured a contract funded through the Department of Homeland Security to build a Mobile Emergency Response Trailer for use across several counties in southeast Kansas.
EACH PROJECT begins with a conversation rather than a catalog.
