Tips on consistency, branding, and social proof from a Top 100 food truck and restaurant
Follow Chef German Sierra’s journey from selling homemade arepas in college to making Pana Food Truck a top destination on Yelp.
Photo from Pana Food Truck
When German Sierra immigrated to Northern California in 2016, he couldn’t find the arepas he ate daily back home in Venezuela—so he decided to make them himself. He began selling the popular Venezuelan staple to friends at his university, then opened a food trailer with his wife, Gabriella Ramirez.
After relocating to Santa Cruz, the couple launched Pana Food Truck (“homie” in Spanish) with the goal of making it an arepa destination. Through six years of hard work and consistent growth, Pana earned a spot on Yelp’s 2025 Top 100 U.S. Food Trucks list and even expanded into a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Whether behind the wheel of a food truck or helming his new restaurant, German’s mission remains the same. “For us, it’s not [about] being a food truck… or a restaurant. Those are [just] the vehicle to showcase our food,” he said. “I didn’t wanna be just in the food truck business. I actually wanna be in the heart-warming business because the food makes your heart warm. That’s the emotion I wanna create every time.”
Still, Pana faced many hurdles on the journey to Top 100 success, from complex permitting to slim profit margins. “I wouldn’t sugarcoat it: It’s not for everybody. There’s a lot of delayed gratification,” German said. “You gotta be really passionate about it because there’s a lot of downs in the food industry.”
Discover three ways German and Gabriella overcame the challenges of the food industry to bring arepas to their new home in Santa Cruz.
1. Creating a memorable brand with a focused menu
From day one, German and Gabriella had a clear goal: become the arepas place in Santa Cruz. The menu includes a few drinks and add-ons, but arepas are the star of the show. The toasted cornmeal pockets—naturally gluten-free—come stuffed with various fillings, from plantains and shredded beef to chicken with avocado and mayo.
The tight focus was strategic. German says too many options can overwhelm the customer, while a signature item sticks in their minds: “We wanted to focus on arepas—just [keep it] as narrow as possible—[so] there is no confusion of what we sell. Every time you eat in Pana, you will know that it’s arepas. You go home, and you’ll remember what you ate and the brand.”
Their biggest challenge was convincing diners to try something unfamiliar, especially with no menu alternatives. “It was hard in the beginning—and [is] still hard—to convince people why we don’t have other dishes. [Often when people from] other cultures open a restaurant, they do different tests of menu and styles of food because they wanna gather a wider demographic,” German said.
The chef’s solution was offering free samples for first-time customers. “We sell an item that a lot of people don’t know, so you need to taste it to eat it again,” he said.
These days, the restaurant’s reputation speaks for itself—Pana’s Yelp Page is full of satisfied customers trying arepas for the first time: “I’ve never tried Venezuelan food before and I’m so happy I came here to try it,” Yelp user Brianna W. wrote. Others are longtime arepa lovers, who say Pana reminds them of flavors from their childhood: “The arepa was so good it made me miss home,” wrote Sofia F. from Columbia.
Photo of an early Pana Food Truck from Yelp user Sameer S.
2. Turning a food truck into a destination
One of the biggest advantages of a food truck is the flexibility: You can move between places with existing customer bases—for example, partnering with a gas station or a grocery store to serve customers in the parking lot, then driving downtown for the office lunch rush.
Pana, however, took a different approach: They asked customers to come to them, parking in the same spot for five years. “We started parking… in the middle of pretty much nowhere because I wanted to create the demand of: We are a destination, and we are not just passing through,” German said.
German said this strategy helped him build a brand recognition and a consistent audience: “If you go to a supermarket and eat in a food truck, then you get home and you don’t even know where you ate… [Being] consistent in a spot… was good for us.”
This approach isn’t right for every food truck; German had to invest more time in word-of-mouth and social media marketing to bring customers to his chosen location. “It takes longer than being in a [high-traffic] place. But for me it was about, again, making [it] memorable for people to come and eat there,” he said.
Location was also a major factor in Pana’s expansion: After building a devoted fanbase, German and Gabriella waited three years for the perfect spot to open up downtown, then made their move to a full-service restaurant—all while keeping the food trucks running.
Photo of Gabriella Ramirez and German Sierra from Pana Food Truck
3. Leading an expansion based on social proof
Social media has also been crucial to Pana’s success, from alerting customers to the trucks’ locations to making personal connections with a following of 23,000. The restaurant’s Instagram feed features behind-the-scenes updates, front-facing videos with German, and memes spreading his love of arepas.
German encourages restaurateurs to share more than just menu items: “If I post just an arepa picture, what does that mean to you? It won’t mean that much,” he said. “There has to be a story behind it because if not, you wouldn’t be interested in getting it.”
Social media is a two-way street, and German and Gabriella actively engage with their customers online by responding to Yelp reviews, often with specific details and personal flair:
Photo from Yelp user Andrés C.
They’ve also made these reviews—so foundational to their success—a physical part of their brick-and-mortar. In the new restaurant, 5-star reviews cover the walls as a tribute to their customers. “Almost the whole restaurant is full of Yelp and Google reviews… just to show that’s the standard we wanna keep doing every time,” German said. “We call it ‘social proof.’”
“You will never see me anywhere [saying] that my food is the best food ever. I want [customers] to tell me that my food is the best. So how can we prove that? People are talking about it, and other customers [who] are unsure of what to eat… decide to go with us because other people are saying it.”
These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear more from German, or visit the show homepage to learn about the show and find more episodes.