You may not know entrepreneur Allan Jimenez Leandro ’21 by name, but you probably know his truck.
His Astro Dogs food truck is covered in colorful illustrations with K-pop influences, much like the “flavored-up” Korean corn dogs he serves out of its window. Students, staff, and community members can easily spot him at campus events like Homecoming or on Spring Garden when they need a late-night bite on the weekends.
What his patrons don’t know is how UNC Greensboro helped Leandro turn his passion for street food into a thriving business.
Finding His Way
Leandro arrived at UNCG with his mind set on a career in health sciences. Scholarships and grants made UNCG an excellent choice, but the influence of faculty, staff, and fellow students he found here guided him to follow his true passions.
“College expanded my mind to new things, and the community I found here was a big part of that,” Leandro says.
His languages, literature, and culture major allowed him to explore his heritage: “I was born in Yadkin County, but when I was 6 years old, I moved to Mexico City for about seven years,” Leandro explained. “Although I knew a lot about my Mexican culture, the major opened my mind to other Hispanic nationalities and Spanish influences that I didn’t know about.”
Leandro was taking all the science courses for a pre-dental pre-professional track and was even the president of the pre-dental club at UNCG for a couple of years, but he soon began to question his commitment to a career in dentistry. Then the COVID shutdown made him realize he wanted to try something different: explore business.
“I had great support from advisors like Marisa Gonzalez and Margarita Kerkado, who encouraged me to follow my heart,” he says. “They gave me the courage to switch my major and the support to follow through with it.”
Leandro began taking business courses, added an economics minor, and helped start an ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals for America) chapter at UNCG with his friend and founding chapter president, Hector Hernandez-Arroyo ’22.
“I was a founding member of UNCG’s ALPFA chapter in 2020, and now there are over 200 members. It’s the biggest chapter in North Carolina, and we made that happen,” Leandro boasts. “Through ALPFA, I got internships, grew as a person, and made connections that pushed me into different spaces and offered new opportunities.”
Spartan Built Business
As Leandro was discovering his calling, UNCG faculty and fellow students “propelled him along the way.” He began to understand the critical role that food played in building community, further enticing him towards a career in the food industry.
“I just love the way food creates memories and brings people together,” he says. “I had worked as a server and a manager, and my family has restaurant businesses, but I wanted to try something on my own. I always loved street food from a young age, but it was a fellow UNCG student who introduced me to my first Korean corn dog.”
He loved it. Before long, he was trying them everywhere he could. Some were sweet; some were savory; and he began to visualize how he could put his own spin on this trending street food.
Like many entrepreneurs, Leandro had a dream and settled most of the details of the business through trial and error.
“I placed the order for the food truck and decided to figure out the rest as I went,” he explains. “I tried different recipes until I found the best ones for our menu. It’s been a fulfilling process for me to get Astro Dogs to where it is right now.”
He credits the Spartan community with getting his business off the ground and launching the best seller on his menu: a hot dog-on-a-stick covered in French fries and fried, then topped with Astro sauce and spicy mayo.
“At first, I shared my social channels with UNCG faculty and students,” Leandro says. “Then they shared with friends. Then students would come by and then post about it, and then their friends would come. For the first few months, it was 85% UNCG students and staff, and our business grew from there.”
The Astro Dogs truck appears at events and festivals, but locals can find it parked at 1621 Spring Garden St. on weekend nights from 4 p.m.–midnight. On weekdays, you’ll see Leandro’s Mood Up coffee truck at the same location, fueling students as they head to campus for class. Last summer, he opened a second Astro Dogs location in an outdoor food court in Wilmington. It is thriving at its location near our sister institution, UNCW. It seems that student markets work well for his unique product.
“I just want to create spaces where people can connect and share a passion for food,” he says. “In simple words, I love what I do. Sometimes it’s stressful, but so is everything worth investing in.”
Success Breeds Success
Entrepreneurial success isn’t encouraging Leandro to rest on his laurels anytime soon. He just returned from a trip to Asia where he was researching flavors for a new Greensboro restaurant featuring sushi, Korean wings, and Korean tacos. He’s hoping to begin this venture in early 2026.
In the meantime, he’s giving back to the UNCG community that built him. He helps student organizations by giving a percentage of sales to their fundraisers, and he supports the Center for New North Carolinians. He has also connected with alumni groups to fund a UNCG Trailblazer scholarship.
“We started by offering laptops to students who apply, and now we’re transitioning to a monetary scholarship,” Leandro explains. “It is personally rewarding to give back to students like me and encourage other alumni to do the same.”
Through all his success, Leandro takes time to remember his roots and give thanks to the University that paved the way: “I came to UNCG not knowing anyone and was able to accomplish a lot. The community I built here and networking I did through different organizations has made me the person that I am today.”
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications.
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications.
