Due Draghi
and now we know what Marco wants to call his restaurant 😀
(Due Draghi is Italian for ‘Two Dragons’)
I want to thank everyone that bought something from the webshop over the last week. It’s been a great success so far! All of you are so awesome!
As always, if you like the comic, please consider donating on my patreon. Even one dollar goes a long way.
Don’t forget that I stream every Sunday! You are more than welcome to join in on the fun.
The stream is held at the following hour:
UTC: 1PM
EDT: 9AM
PDT: 6AM
CEST: 3PM
Don’t forget to vote for Twin Dragons at Topwebcomics!
http://topwebcomics.com/vote/21879
Thanks for voting!
This has nothing really to do with the comic (which is awesome as usual, by the way), but do you think you might be able to put a link to your FA up there with the other social icons? ~
I’ll see if I can add a logo for FA in there, but I believe it wasn’t supported when I made the website.
Order them? Geez man, we are not barbarians! Besides, what else are they gonna do while they wait for their food?
That…. is actually a pretty good idea. Plus people just wanting a drink can come over & buy 1, most likely smell the food being made inside & try some…
I want Italian food and soft drink now…
Also, if people already eating want a drink they won’t have to queue.
Also Also, not having to worry drink orders will allow Kai and Marco to focus on the food.
Daniel here. I’d say they would have multiple of the same item, so they don’t have to constantly reload it and carry on with the cooking. That said, they’ll still have to restock it when too many of the same option empty out. What I’m curious about is whether this is your typical “open the front to restock” vending machine or if Cleo’s Dad was smart & invested in a “reload from the rear” type. If it IS “reload from the rear”, then all they’ll have to do is open the back from inside & load in whatever is needed before quickly getting back to cooking. “Reload from the front” means lugging the drinks outside, unlocking it, loading it up, locking it shut, going back inside & back to cooking…
Hopefully that made sense, Screwball seems to understand it so hopefully that means I didn’t stuff it up :P. Either that, or he’s starting to learn how to speak “Daniel”… 😛 😀
No worries, you made complete sense. It’s basically the difference between a modern cannon with a loading port and an older cannon where you have to shove the powder and cannonball down the barrel.
Also also also, the vending machine doesn’t have to ONLY have food items…
Kai: “Uh…Cleo…why does this machine also sell underpants and DS games?”
Cleo: (awkwardly opens up the vending machine and empties the contents) Clearly the work of vandals. Surely. No need to check the installed security camera. (thinking) I knew I should have checked which one we used for that slumber party last year.
What kind of party was she hosting?!?!
Probably wasn’t the party.
Jin: “Hey, those are the kind of vending machines we see all over the place in Japan!”
exactly! This is the 21st century, Benji! xD
Now Benji learns how Cleo works
as the team claps eyes on the bus.
Who’s to say incredulous words
wouldn’t have come from half of us?
Not a battle bus but a tank
stocked to the gills with best food;
when Larissa learns about it
it’ll really deepen her mood.
With McThunderpants there to act
will sweet Lizzy reject her call?
Or, perhaps, it’ll just be good food
that tis enough to save them all…
Oops, that went wrong. Please delete my email.
If you look at the far right, you can see that this is actually a trailer for a big-rig, not a bus.
Looks like a 40 footer. Logically than, 52 foot versions exist.
I don’t think good food is enough to save Larissa xD
I… I have no idea if Cleo’s being sarcastic or not.
I think she’s mostly being defensive.
You never know with Cleo :p
Well, “train” is an exaggeration, but this thing is clearly meant to be towed by a tractor unit, so “food trailer” perhaps?
Green, white, red. Everybody shall see from afar that this place is Italian.
“Two Dragons” is quite plausible as a restaurant name.
yeah, but they could use a fancy logo, something fun+creative, and not just write the name on it
(Dangit.. Need an “edit/merge/delete” button…)
Logo does look a bit…”tentative”. Good design takes time and Cleo probably didn’t have it. She’d need to get Marco’s approval on it too.
Also… Cleo’s forte seems to be ‘business’. Maybe artistic design isn’t in her skill set? 🙂
…or Mexican. 😉
I thought it would be a great name for the restaurant ^^
Okay, first I’m gonna have to nitpick. Your Italian grammar looks accurate, but “restaurant” in Italian should be “ristorante”. Was that an error on your part, or was it intended to be an error on Cleo’s?
In terms of actual reaction to the strip: Marco actually named his joint “Two Dragons Restaurant?” Someone is very proud to have mythical hybrid children. Best dad ever.
Also, that ‘food truck’ looks more like a semi-truck trailer. In my experience, a food truck is a single unit like an RV, where the vehicle’s cabin is directly connected to the preparation area. The figure poking out on the left-hand side of the bottom-left panel looks more like a proper food truck. I’m not surprised Benji’s calling it a monster. And is that seating area supposed to be one part with the trailer, or is it provided by the festival organizers and the trucks just park up next to them?
Finally, as much as Cleo sounds like she’s missing the point, the vending machine DOES seem like a good idea. Being able to get your drinks independently of your meal means that you don’t need to slow down people who are actually getting their food, which will speed up customer consumption.
It needn’t be an error an anyone’s part. “Restaurant” is in English because English is spoken in Hybrid City. The name is in Italian to suggest that the restaurant serves Italian food. I read it as “This is a restaurant. Its name is Due Draghi. It’s an Italian restaurant but we speak English, so don’t worry about language problems.”
The name itself is a hybrid. Hee hee!
Okay, that’s a pretty clever point.
Pouring a drink takes a surprising amount of time, plus this allows refills. The cost of the soda is actually quite low. Grocery store prices not withstanding.
The restaurant thing is intended by me, and no error on their part. It’s to be accessible to the people that don’t speak Italian ^^
Ah yes, the train sized food truck with built in vending machine, completely normal to just have sitting around in a half forgotten garage.
Arguments about how ‘forgotten’ the garage may or may not be aside, I’m going to paraphrase a quote from a TV show some of my friends have gotten into recently: “You really have no idea how rich her family is, do you?”
of course! Who doesn’t have one of those? xD
Let the festivities begin!
I like varied facial expressions.
Character interactions are always fun, Benji is playing the part of the practical everyman this time around (which I’m pretty sure is his default setting), Cleo is still getting to the point where she has street-level sense but at least she’s financially literate enough to know when someone is trying to take her for a ride, the twins are a pair of wildcards regardless of where they are (especially when they’re together), and I’m pretty sure Red is there for the entertainment value at this point.
“Red”? You mean Nate? Yup; definitely entertaining at this point! I’m betting down the road a bit he’ll come into play when Lizzy shows up.
Of you were indeed referring to Nate as “red” do to his hair color, wouldn’t “pink” or “pinky” be a better adjective since he’s got pink hair? If anyone in that group should be called red, it would be Kai and Kaya, aka Red 1 and Red 2.
Nate’s hair looks lilac on my monitor. There’s too much blue in it to be pink.
Uh, guys? I think “Red” might have been a typo of “Rex”.
Heh! Maybe Ben will come back and tell us. Be funny if he was talking about Kai &/or Kaya all along! 🙂
It was a type of Rex. Although, I think that Nate is there more for damage control than anything else.
Take a drink , Benji ; and stop to panic ^_^
I hope the team has shared a lot of flyers with peoples ?
I think they’re still in the planning stages, since we haven’t seen Jin yet, as he’s supposed help pass out the flyers.
Okay; I really like this page, especially the range of expressions in panel 2. 🙂 Good restaurant name too! I’m glad Marco had at least some input into this thing. I wonder how much Cleo did discuss with him before going “all out”. I like the raised porch, but would remove the third table as it severely interferes with access if they get even a decent turnout.
The food “truck” is quite nice. And, it’s apparently a “5th-wheel” kind of trailer meant to be pulled by a largeish pickup truck, NOT an 18 wheeler/tractor-trailer rig. (See the location of the wheels and style of opening? Plus the elevated front end of the trailer (right-end), the support stands underneath, and it’s overall size relative to the tables.) Most “food trucks” are -trucks-, but this trailer type is not unusual either, just not usually seen as the type to travel between several sites during the day. However, it’s also likely to be serving much ‘nicer’ foods than the average food truck traveling between multiple jobsites daily
I like the paint scheme too. Might want to add something to make it more obvious this is -Italian- food and not Mexican though. How many people know enough Italian to tell from just two words? 😉 (Same basic flag colors, just slightly different shades of red and green.)
The drinks vending machine is actually not a bad idea. I would position it farther from the serving area though. People getting -food- can order a drink with their meal. People who just want to get a drink quickly can avoid the slower lines by going directly to the vending machine.
Really nice page overall, Robin!
“I like the raised porch, but would remove the third table as it severely interferes with access if they get even a decent turnout.”
Condiments table? (Y’know; Parmesan cheese, various Italian spices, breadsticks, salad dressings, etc.)
Making it a condiments table is a good idea, but it still needs to be moved. That ordering area may have enough room for condiments, depending on how many order-takers there are. Or, they may even be part of the ordering process if this is meant to be a fancier style unit. Otherwise, move that table under the raised (and protected from weather) front end of the trailer for condiments. Either way, it’s blocking access where it is now, and its size.
Alt-text: There should be a comma at the end of “straight”.
Nope.
I have a punctuation blind spot as well. It’s the semi-colon.
Semi-colons are a pain! (and colons aren’t much better. 😉 )
No comma is needed.
I must say it looks considerably bigger than it did in the promotional picture.
Panel Two.
PANEL.
TWO.
I died.
I agree; that is one of the better, well-executed panels I’ve seen in a while~
Cleo don’t do things by halves does she? Nice name, wonder what the twins think about it? Hope Marco is prepared to work his & Kai’s tail off in it’s kitchen if she’s going to this much effort to set up the truck!
Hmmm, now does she have uniforms for Rex and Nate inside the truck? Kinda doubt she wants them serving people in just street clothes.
Hmmm, with that porch and tables I wonder if Cleo has a second trailer somewhere off panel used to transport that or if she paid to rent one of the nicer spots for their truck to set up? Unless all that stuff is easily collapsible for storage there wouldn’t be much room left over in the truck for food supplies and kitchen equipment.
Of course it’s collapsible. For transport and storage it’s stowed inside the trailer, leaving little or no room for people. To get ready for business they take it all out and assemble it, and the space that is freed up is enough for one or two chefs to work among the kitchen equipment.
Hmm, but I’m sure it’s rather cramped in there, and Marco is an unusually tall man. I hope it’s not too cramped for him.
I kinda thought it would fold up over the side. You don’t really need the serving window open when moving and it’d still leave room in the trailer for other things. Maybe have an ad mural or something on the underside so you don’t just cover the main logo too.
Do they happen to have any Dragon fruit drinks in that Vending machine? Just wondering. hehe.
I like kaya’s shirt
She does tend to be a little more stylish than Kai, eh? 🙂
After doing a Google image search for “drop frame van trailers,” I actually saw a couple that looked how you drew this one. Nice job!
However, as a truck driver, I have to say that I think the style you drew is less common. The most common ones look like this:
https://www.grandrapidstransport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Big-h_dropframe-300×164.jpg
They usually have sliding tandem axles underneath, because load weights require the wheels to be in different positions, relative to the ‘box’ of the trailer. I suppose for a food truck trailer where the load inside never changes, a fixed-location axle makes sense.
I forgot to ask; how long is the trailer that Miss Cleo is using? I don’t know what the limits are in Europe, but here in the US, you have to have a Commercial Driver’s License to drive any vehicle (or truck and trailer combination) that weighs 26,001 pounds. (That is, if you’re using the vehicle (or trailer) for business purposes. If you’re using it for private/personal use you don’t need a CDL, but that’s obviously not the case here, as they’re intending to run a for-profit business.)
Even in the US, I don’t think the length of the trailer matters as much as the weight, but I’m not sure.
In most places, trucks use a single 52 or 53 foot trailer, 40 foot in some oddball states or cities. Double 40 foot trailers do exist, but aren’t normally used for local trips.
Weight also matters greatly. Drivers are really really better off if they weigh before going past a weigh station. Don’t know why we can’t stop dump truck drivers from driving with the bed up though. Destroyed a bridge recently on I16 in GA.
Driving on public roads with the bed up probably -is- illegal. It’s just a matter of catching them. Next time you see one, try calling your state patrol and reporting it. Around here they’ve taken to hiding the license plate, but you can usually still get the company name, and maybe the truck number, off the door (if you can get up beside it).
They demonstrated sliding axles on one of those heavy rescue shows on the weather channel. The trailer was heavily damaged, they slid the axle as far forward as it would go to support the middle, which was sagging badly.
I think you can still get away with a common class C license in CA as long as the trailer doesn’t need anything bigger than a Ford F150. I used to drive ambulances, that’s a similar chassis with a specialized body (and you can use a class C, but you need an ADL extension, which is like a CDL but involves certification for proper lighting and code 3 protocols). The CDL extension is needed if the vehicle itself is registered for commercial purposes.
Who knows, maybe Cleo’s dad likes to get his hands dirty with work, maybe building computers and helping out the troops.
Hah. I’ve never seen a food truck with a built in vending machine before, but I’ll admit it is a pretty clever idea. I’m sure there’s at least one out there somewhere. Also, can anyone else totally picture a “food train” where each car is a different food vendor? That would certainly be a sight to see. Robin’s unintentionally giving inspiration to new business models here! As far as the comic goes, I just have to compliment panel 2 even though everyone’s already raving about it. The faces are just so darn good. (Especially Benji having a mild freak out there.) I can tell you put a lot of thought and love into that panel Robin. Rest assured that it shows. Thank you for continuing to keep up with this comic and for creating it to start with. You really have brought a bit more light into this world for each of us as tour readers. Keep up the good work, and as always, stay awesome!
I have no idea if this has any bearing on reality. It’s been 20 odd years since I went to a street fest and a food truck. Who knows what they are up to these days. All I really cared about was the mini-donut truck anyway.
I have returned from the void!!! Also that isn’t a food truck it a food trailer
Heavily simplified, but it gets the idea across. Missing kingpin, and I see no vent. But to keep the height down, the hood could be on the back, so problem solved. Also missing air connections and lighting socket.
Something like this could be civilized. Some of the smaller food trucks can be unpleasant to work in.
But it is possible to do good work in a small place. This is probably larger than most Navy kitchens in ships. Definitely larger than a submarine kitchen.
Good to know. I pondered being a sub striker once…but I was also looking at med school. I’d had to start corpsman and then apply to USUHS. With my luck I might be working under the engineer on the reactor (I once wanted to be a physicist, and physics is a prereq for med school).
I’d be willing to bet that the refrigeration and fuel systems crank out of the left side of the trailer when the unit is parked (like those really fancy RV’s), leaving the right side of the trailer free to deploy its awning and deck.
Though the last comic mentioned a “food truck rally…” They’d better have something with a lot of torque to tow that thing at competitive speeds! 🃏
The jokes about competitive speeds were mostly in the comics; I’m pretty sure “rally” just meant that it was going to be primarily food trucks that were setting up shop.
*mostly in the comments. Good Alpha, that looked so stupid with that typo.
That was why I put the joker emoji at the end of that line.
At default zoom level, that emoji looks like a double-ended fleur-de-lis. Which doesn’t make sense, so I assumed you were on a mobile device and accidentally tapped to the emoji page of your keyboard in the moment before you sent the message. Nothing that detailed should be made an emoji, emoji are tiny 85% of the time.
On my pc it’s nearly invisible.
Can we all just appreciate that surely, when someone mentions “food truck rally,” at least one of these characters would be thinking about a race, perhaps how funny it would be to do Mario Kart with a food truck?
My browser displays the “joker” as a five-pointed star in a rectangle. That means nothing to me. The association chain (star → asterisk → wildcard character → joker card → jester → joke) is too long.
Please just use the traditional winking smiley to show that you’re joking.
Imagine skidding through a curve with that trailer. 🙂
They did that with an 18-wheeler near the end of the first “Smokey and the Bandit” movie. 🙂
The fast food and the furious.
Haha, nice.
Nice truck. I haven’t seen too many food trucks in my life. Mainly just ones that sell pre-prepared food at warehouses. The built in vending machine is interesting too. I’m assuming it’s part and parcel with the truck so it’s up to the owner to stock it. If so it would mean Cleo can program in the prices. I would think it might be wise to take a hit and under price the soda to draw people in. Like $1 if it’s bottles of soda. A nice round number like that tends to please people because it’s easier then figuring out $1.35. It might be a good idea to have prepped snack foods like mozzarella sticks ready to go. Someone swings by, buys a soda, smells all the awesome Italian food, and can buy something quick and easy.
But I personally have come to love soda fountain drinks myself. I’m a long haul driver so 66% of my meals are restaurant take-out. As such I got very use to the slightly watered down taste of the fountain drinks. I mainly eat Subway since it’s better then a burger. In fact I found a way to get an Italian taste without too much fat. I order the oven roasted chicken but have them put the marinara sauce on the bread first. Then go with mozzarella when it’s available and parmesan cheese after it is toasted. Then the big secret is I ad powdered garlic that I keep right by the driver’s seat.
vending machine nice idea, but weight & space is often an issue with food trucks
Nice. The closest I’ve done is several cross-country trips over the course of my education. CA to DC and back, CA to GA and back, CA to NY and back…
I know some government workers who have the same money awareness. (as does my brother and his wife, both high ranking MD’s)
There was a converted school bus that used to be parked around the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In addition to carry out, it also had a few tables inside. It was named Le Bus. (If you have spent time in the Philadelphia area and have heard of Le Bus Restaurant and Le Bus Bakery, that converted school bus is how it started.)
A number of food trucks around here are moved by a pickup truck with a trailer hitch. They park them at the location in the morning and pick them up at night. A few of the vendors have multiple trailers that they use the same truck for. Square footage around here is usually set by local ordinance. The one big requirement is that the propane tanks can’t be enclosed because of fire codes.
Food festivals are often more lenient with what can be used because they aren’t actually taking up normal parking spaces. They also frequently have some storage space set up next to the food trucks so food storage isn’t a problem. However, you can’t quibble too much about codes and physical reality. Just remember the words from the theme song of MST3K: “Just repeat to yourself it’s just a show, I should really just relax”.
“Who’s Draggy and when’s he due?”
In Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s voice.