Tots on the Street Leadership: Hannah and Tami Kopplin Headquarters: St. Francis Website: totsonthestreet.com What it does: Makes and sells gourmet tater tots Founded: 2019 Employees: Four full time (20 seasonal) Next goals: Regional distribution Funding: Bootstrapped In addition to the food truck, Tots packages its four flavors of tater tots
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In addition to the food truck, Tots packages its four flavors of tater tots for wholesale to retailers and restaurants across the state[/caption]
St. Francis-based gourmet tater tot company Tots on the Street was launched in 2019 by the mother-daughter team of Tami and Hannah Kopplin. What started as a single food truck has since grown into a three-truck operation, along with a budding distribution business.
On the menu are unique flavors like cheese curd and basil pesto mozzarella. Operating out of a commercial kitchen space in St. Francis, the business makes all of its tater tots by hand using gluten-free ingredients.
“My mom and I cooked together a lot,” said Hannah Kopplin, co-owner and founder of Tots on the Street. “There’s a dish called tater tot casserole that I really like. We wanted to make it our own, so a lot of the recipes you see today are based off that.”
The duo spent weeks trying to perfect different recipes for the tater tots. Then, they hit the streets in their first food truck to get customer feedback. Breweries were popular landing spots in the company’s early days.
“We kind of accidentally found out that we aren’t a ‘main meal’ food truck,” said Kopplin. “We’re not competition that takes away from other trucks, because we’re a really good snack or addition to other foods.”
She realized Tots had finally “made it” in 2023 when the company not only opened its third food truck, but also started its wholesale business and landed a concession spot at Fiserv Forum.
Kopplin says she loves the service industry, but operating food trucks can be a lot of work, especially in a state where the weather can be extreme.
“I wanted to find a way we could put Tots in every family’s home in Wisconsin and find a way to grow, so I was pretty curious about wholesale,” she said.
Tots products are now sold frozen at two dozen retail stores across the state, including all Sendik’s Food Market locations and Metcalfe’s in Wauwatosa and Madison, and served fresh at several Milwaukee-area establishments including all Camp Bar locations, Lakefront Brewery, 1840 Brewing, and Leinie Lodge in Chippewa Falls, according to Tots’ website.
While Tots has been bootstrapped thus far, Kopplin says she and her mother are open to welcoming outside investors to support their goal of distributing their products regionally and, eventually, nationally. Right now, the Kopplins handle all distribution themselves.
“We are actively working with investors, and co-packing in general is kind of an investment, so that is our next step,” said Kopplin.
Tots recently accepted its first outside funding in the $10,000 grand prize it won on this season of local pitch competition show “Project Pitch It.” The money was used to hire a business consultant.
“We can’t really move too much (product) if our costs are too high,” said Kopplin. “Never in our dreams could we have afforded this before.”
Even though Tots is leaning more heavily into its distribution business, the Kopplin family will always keep at least one food truck running to stay in touch with customers.
“There will always be trucks somewhere in Milwaukee,” said Kopplin. “Probably not three. We are going to need to take a vacation sometime.”
