Food trucks- big in your area or not

[TravelingChris]

My city has a live ive ot of food trucks and they are super popular. So many different types of cuisine and really innovative chefs. One guy I like has a vegetarian truck where he uses kids from the housing project to give them a job and teach them skills. A few are mainly burger trucks but not your regular burgers- Korean style, Cuban style, Creole style, Italian style, etc. They use all sorts of less common ingredients to make delicious dishes. There are cupcake trucks, mini bundt cake trucks, trucks with all types of cuisines, a few trucks which make their own unusual popsicles or ice creams. Anyway, just want to know if they are popular where you live too?

[SparklyUnicorn]

nope, not popular where I am

 

I believe there are some in the capital which isn't too too far from me. 

[Arcadia]

We have food truck Wednesdays at the library parking lot which is next to a park. It is three food trucks every Wednesday in the late afternoon and is coordinated by the neighborhood mom's group. We went but the food truck food prices were on the high side compared to eating places nearby.

[Lady Florida.]

No, not here. They tried though. There was a time when they were in our Target parking lot once a month, then the city tried to lure them for their monthly Friday downtown event.  They didn't go over too well. A few still come to the downtown events but most find it not worth their while, since they usually come from out of town. It's not worth the trip here for them. 

 

I confess I don't get the appeal. I never cared for food truck food at fairs and festivals, not even the ones that had ethnic or specialty foods. How is this different? 

[Annie G]

Our small town only has one or two and they're kind of fair food quality. But some local bigger cities have a lot more and some are super good. Really interesting food and high quality ingredients. Christina, I would LOVE to have the variety of food trucks you have! It's a great way for a talented chef to make a living without the investment of a regular restaurant. 

[winterbaby]

We have them but the prices are generally too high for me to pay and not have a place to sit down.

[Guest]

Hugely popular in Houston and extremely EXPENSIVE!!!! I don't get it, personally. If I'm going to pay that much I'm going to sit in a restaurant and be waited upon in the AC. Not stand in line out in 100 degree heat to either go eat in my car or sit on a bench. I think it's definitely trendy though. 

[Rachel]

There are quite a few here, I'm not sure if they are super popular or not though.

 

My favorite are the taco trucks that are in the predominately Hispanic area of town. Most of the cooks don't speak English and they are trying to serve the Hispanic population, not the white population. The food is SO GOOD! It's nothing like what you get at a typical Mexican restaurant.

 

There is a crepe truck that is pretty good too. Around here most of the other food trucks serve lunch or at festivals and I haven't had a chance to try many of the other foods available.

[Ali in OR]

We have a few, but they have to move around every few months. Established restaurants fight them because they don't have to provide bathrooms, pay rent, etc., so the city only allows them as a temporary thing. I think they get 90 days in a spot before they have to relocate.

[ealp2009]

We have lots. It is basically fast food but a lot better quality and variety than fast food chains.

 

 

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[Heatherwith4]

Yes! But we live in the same city, so you already knew that. ;) I haven't really tried any of them though.

[LarlaB]

Yes popular, delicious and $$$. We are north of Denver.

 

They have started coming to our neighborhood this summer and setting up in the pool parking lot every other Thursday night. It's been a huge hit and a fun idea although ironic given how we are within walking distance of restaurants.

 

Last nights food trucks was Mexican, Skewers, Burgers and Hawaiian Ice. They have a schedule and so far we haven't had the same trucks twice.

 

Last night we got nachos with carnitas, 1 guacamole taco, 1shrimp taco, 1 chicken skewer plate (2 skewers of chicken, grilled asparagus and tomatoes, and rice with special sauce) and large shaved ice and it was $35.

 

Delicious and a huge treat (especially since they actually had GF options) but incredibly expensive.

 

The irony is we really can walk to about 16 restaurants (Noodles and Company, Chickfila, Indian, Japanese, Mexican, pizza, Greek etc) and two major grocery stores within a mile of our house. But most people don't. We do 😜 And I walk to the grocery store 4x a week.

[teachermom2834]

In the nearby medium size city they are pretty popular. They are expensive so it is not any cheaper than sitting down somewhere. The ones we have tried did have interesting and / or high quality food.

 

However, I do not enjoy waiting in line in the heat or trying to eat standing up/sitting on a curb/ off flimsy containers, etc. The place we run into them is a crowded farmers market. If we could sit down and eat at a nice picnic table with an umbrella I bet I would enjoy it a lot more.

[lynn]

My city has a live ive ot of food trucks and they are super popular. So many different types of cuisine and really innovative chefs. One guy I like has a vegetarian truck where he uses kids from the housing project to give them a job and teach them skills. A few are mainly burger trucks but not your regular burgers- Korean style, Cuban style, Creole style, Italian style, etc. They use all sorts of less common ingredients to make delicious dishes. There are cupcake trucks, mini bundt cake trucks, trucks with all types of cuisines, a few trucks which make their own unusual popsicles or ice creams. Anyway, just want to know if they are popular where you live too?

Have you tried any in our area?

Edited July 14, 2017 by lynn

[BarbecueMom]

Yes, a friend's husband owns a food truck. I haven't eaten there. My mom has and didn't stop raving about it for weeks.

[QueenCat]

They are gaining popularity here. We love them when at outdoor concerts. We always bring chairs that have a small side table attached to these kind of events so we aren't standing up when we're eating!

[Bluegoat]

Yes, a fair number.  Some older ones, that tend to stay in the same spots - they get a vendors liscence.  Fries, burgers, or fish and chips, typically.

 

Newer ones may have  vendor spot but many move around and are in places like parking lots.  They are more varied - taco bus, doughnuts, smoked food, and more.

 

There is one that parks near my house sometimes, with Jamacian food. I love it, though it probably costs the same as a café.  But most of the places near my house are fast food.  The oxtails he sells are to die for homestyle food.

[Mergath]

Sadly no, at least not outside of events like the county fair. The city won't give them permits because the restaurants don't want the competition, so no food trucks for us.

[Bluegoat]

Sadly no, at least not outside of events like the county fair. The city won't give them permits because the restaurants don't want the competition, so no food trucks for us.

 

I can't help but think this is shortsighted.  Usually when commercial or retail areas become more appealing, it makes things better for everyone.

[Mergath]

I can't help but think this is shortsighted.  Usually when commercial or retail areas become more appealing, it makes things better for everyone.

 

I agree. But our city council is not overly forward-thinking. It also doesn't help that they're a bunch of old white guys, this is a conservative rural area, and at least one of the people applying for the permits wanted to sell authentic Mexican food. I'm STILL pissed that I missed out on having a place to buy good Mexican food. But, you know, heaven forbid one of the umpteen restaurants that sell burgers and other diner food have any real competition. :001_rolleyes:

[OneStepAtATime]

Not any at all where I live (that I have seen) but there are quite a few in San Antonio and Austin that I have seen.  Never eaten at one but I have friends in those cities that rave about certain ones.

[gardenmom5]

we have some - usually mexican.  one brazilian food truck did so well, he opened an actual restaurant.

[catz]

Oh my gosh, yes, they are huge here.  They are going hand in hand with the tap room trend that doesn't serve food, but you can bring in food.  I think many are very good and are using high quality ingredients and doing a small number of menu items very well.  It doesn't replace a sit down restaurant experience for me but at outdoor events and tap rooms it's often much better than the typical fare we used to get out of portable food venues. 

 

Some B&M restaurants have their own food trucks too.

Edited July 14, 2017 by WoolySocks

[TravelingChris]

Lynn, where are you?

 

In terms of restaurants, the restaurants here sometimes have them too. We have a little food truck area that I haven't been too but the various free concerts in downtown or at the converted Mill or other venues and events. I just started thinking about this because this morning I was buying tickets to a charity event for space camp scholarships and they said food trucks will be there. So I was checking out the menu of one and realized I hadn't heard much about food trucks in many of the areas we have visited or lived. Back when we lived in LA before kids, we use to frequent fast food type trucks that pulled up to our respective jobs- those were run by Mexicans and I know that my dh used to rave about his truck's dishes. But since then, I haven't really seen them. So I was wondering about other areas.

They are a great way for chefs to start. One truck we frequent has a chef who has won several cooking competitions here but is biding his time for now. I think for him and some of the others, it has to do with family life. It is hard on the family when you open up a restaurant. Our restaurants don't seem to have any problems with them and the ones we go to have good attendance. Like we have concerts at our park. The one restaurant nearby does good business but can't handle the hundreds who turn out. Some people bring food but lots of others use the trucks. We eat at the restaurant sometimes and at food trucks other times. As to price, I am not sure what others call expensive. I am usually paying something like 7-9 dollars for my meal minus drink. That is less than most of the places we go to eat and comparable to things like Farm Burger. It is a bit more than 5 guys. We go to both of those two along with many other restaurants. It is less than the boxed delivery program we tried and with that we had to do a lot of prepping and cooking.

[gingersmom]

Semi popular but I'm not a fan of any of them.

 

During the summer there is a weekly food truck festival. We stopped going.

 

We were in San Francisco several years ago and went to a giant food truck festival. Amazing!!! We ate ourselves silly!

Edited July 14, 2017 by gingersmom

[Bootsie]

Food trucks are popular here.  It is very trendy.  The university even has a food truck because students think food is better somehow if it is off of a truck.  The local ice cream truck is now a food truck--not just selling popsicles and other packaged frozen treats but serving sundaes, malts, banana splits, etc.  

 

I don't see why they are so popular with customers.  From a business perspective I see why the food truck owners like it; much lower cost than maintaining a building; they can move locations easily, etc.

[MEmama]

Yep. Very popular here (for a small town).

 

Our favorite brewery/tasting room has a rotating selection of food trucks out back. I love that they can keep the focus on what they do best--brew incredible beer--and still satisfy customers needs for food. It's a win-win all around.

 

It's funny to me that people mention no tables. I think it's part of the fun--it's more communal to bring a blanket and spread out on the green, say, or on a park bench.

 

Proper restaurants can be stupid expensive to start up; food trucks IMO are a modern approach to solving that issue with the bonus of preparing innovative cuisine. There is far less risk and all the benefits for the owners. Plus they are fun! :)

[Bluegoat]

I think it can also mean, for the customer, they have access to something that wouldn't be there if they needed a storefront.

 

 

[dsmith]

Here in the suburbs I don't see them at all, although they used to actually come to places of work. Now I only see them at various festivals and fairs. When we travel we see them in various cities we visit. I remember Boston had some very interesting looking food trucks. 

[Arcadia]

The university even has a food truck because students think food is better somehow if it is off of a truck.

...

I don't see why they are so popular with customers.

CalPoly SLO has two food trucks and one Starbucks truck near their Kennedy Library entrance. When we were visiting as my husband had a business trip there, the food truck prices were comparable to the campus food court prices. There is a cafe in the library but the prices were comparable and my kids didn't find the food appealing. So my kids would have bought the food off the food truck if they were hungry and just sit around and eat.

[Guest]

We are rural, chamber of commerce does not permit.

 

What you see is the occasional hot dog truck by the side of a state road.

 

My kid at state u now has food trucks at his off campus apt complex daily at dinner time. Apparently the landlord can't prevent them.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Heigh Ho

[cjzimmer1]

We've had food trucks in our city for as long as I can remember.  Most of them are actually off shoots from already established restaurants but it's fine because that's how I've learned about some of my favorite places.  

 

Our city has specified places and permits are awarded on a yearly basis.  Trucks are rated on visual appear, diversity of menu, etc and then are given a priority number.  Than they get to pick what spot they want based on their priority.  There is spots on the university campus, spots downtown by the capital.  Spot by some heavily populated business areas etc.  

 

There are also some traveling carts too.  But the hard part is you might find a cart you like but the next year it has moved to the other side of town or they might not have won a spot etc.  

 

I don't eat them often anymore since none are near my residential area but when I worked I'd visit them a lot in the summer.

[Janeway]

My city has a live ive ot of food trucks and they are super popular. So many different types of cuisine and really innovative chefs. One guy I like has a vegetarian truck where he uses kids from the housing project to give them a job and teach them skills. A few are mainly burger trucks but not your regular burgers- Korean style, Cuban style, Creole style, Italian style, etc. They use all sorts of less common ingredients to make delicious dishes. There are cupcake trucks, mini bundt cake trucks, trucks with all types of cuisines, a few trucks which make their own unusual popsicles or ice creams. Anyway, just want to know if they are popular where you live too?

I wish.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

They are gaining in popularity here. 

[AmandaVT]

There are a couple in Montpelier. I know there's the apple cider doughnut truck in the fall and I think they're doing gelato over the summer. There is another one that does BBQ. Also, the local bakery has a cookie cart that's driven by a bicycle. :-) 

 

Burlington has a dumpling cart and a crepe cart, yum! 

[Wheres Toto]

We've always had a few around here, usually in a parking lot out on the highway.  I think there's a hot dog truck (I think we had a "famous" one where a woman worked it in a bikini year round), and a taco truck.

 

Lately they seem to be becoming trendy.  There have been a couple "Food Truck Festivals" in nearby towns, our town is having one this weekend.  Some of the local lakes have been having a different one come by once a week or so.  I think our lake has an empanada truck coming next week.  

 

A place I used to work didn't have a cafe inside for a while so they had a food truck come for breakfast and lunch until a new place opened up.  I think that's the only time I've eaten from a food truck, except at a carnival.

[trulycrabby]

Hey transientchris, I think we live in the same city, and there are a lot of delicious food trucks! My favourite is el Cazador!

Edited July 14, 2017 by trulycrabby

[Carol in Cal.]

We have two levels of them around here.

 

One is the oldfashioned, standard pushcart or small vehicle ones, like ice cream trucks, ice cream carts, that go through the neighborhoods, or a plethora of fast foodish trucks downtown near the government buildings for people to run out and grab a hot dog or burger or burrito.  These are the kinds of things you would see at, say, a Farmers' Market or county fair also.

 

The other is waaaaay upscale, sponsored in groups by a company called Moveable Feasts.  These are gourmet offerings presented in a big parking lot or plaza, usually once a week, maybe 10-12 of them, in the evening.  They arrange themselves in a half circle or curved line to define the 'car space' and the 'pedestrian space'.  There is usually a family/party atmosphere with lights and a sound system playing recorded music and a bunch of upside down 5 gallon buckets to sit on.  It's kind of fun.  The company changes the trucks slowly so there are usually a bunch of regulars and a few unique offerings.  There is one at a light rail station with an underused parking lot on Friday nights near us.  I go occasionally.  They tend to have food that I can't find elsewhere, like Peruvian street food, or Maine lobster rolls (in CA that's pretty unusual and quite a treat for me.)

[elegantlion]

We have one, I think. It's a taco truck and I don't get to that part of town very often. I wish we could have one on/near campus, our current food vendor would never let that happen. 

[MaeFlowers]

There is a taco truck that comes down our road every day for the construction workers. Other than that, I had not seen one in years.

 

GA has very particular laws about food trucks. They may have changed, but the last time I looked, you were not allow to cook any food in the truck. It had to be cooked in a restaurant kitchen. Kind of changes the game.

[MEmama]

There are a couple in Montpelier. I know there's the apple cider doughnut truck in the fall and I think they're doing gelato over the summer. There is another one that does BBQ. Also, the local bakery has a cookie cart that's driven by a bicycle. :-)

 

Burlington has a dumpling cart and a crepe cart, yum!

Cider doughnut truck--really, what more does one need? Yum! :)

[AmandaVT]

Cider doughnut truck--really, what more does one need? Yum! :)

 

You can smell them as you drive down main st. too.....mmmm

[MEmama]

You can smell them as you drive down main st. too.....mmmm

So I'm thinking a fall trip is in order! :)

[idnib]

Too many to count.

 

People find out where they'll be using Twitter or if they have a regular schedule. We also have regular places where they gather in groups and usually local musicians play as well. People here use them to cater parties and even weddings, esp weddings where there's no kitchen handy.

[historically accurate]

We have 1 that I see regularly parked in 2 different spots. I've never seen any others. The one we have is authentic Mexican. Oh, and we just got an ice cream truck last year - we'd never had one before.

[G5052]

Only one in our small town, but TONS in certain areas of our metropolitan area. The local one is an extension of a restaurant.

 

In 2015 we went to a very small island in a remote part of the Bahamas. And yes, there was a food truck there. Apparently she had it on one of the larger islands where they're common, but her husband got transferred to that tiny island (he works for the government). One of the two best places to eat there!

[ScoutTN]

Yes popular, delicious and $$$. 

 

 

:iagree:

 

Food trucks are fun, but only an occasional treat for us. 

 

They are not generally near our neighborhood, but they come to events and are all over downtown. They will be at a church concert we are attending Sunday. The botanical garden has them for member nights. Hoping there will be many at the City Meet tomorrow! Hundreds of swimmers plus their parents and coaches, the parking is insane, the noise is crazy loud, the heat index with humidity will be close to 100 - yes, I could use some ice cream or fresh pressed juice or even a burger! (I budgeted for that since ds swims between 4-7:30 and the awards are after that.) 

 

Several are regularly at our Farmers' Market. They use food produced by many of the market vendors. 

[Spy Car]

In Los Angeles? Sure.

 

Two general types.

 

1) One, the old-school non-pretentious food trucks that serve Mexican food (and sometimes Central American specialties). Most are inexpensive and serve tasty food.

 

2) Two, the trendy "chef" on wheels trucks with Twitter followers. These range from Korean Tacos to fancy grilled cheese. Tend to be expensive, but the food is usually pretty good.

 

I tend to hit the old-school type trucks myself.

 

Bill

 

 

[DawnM]

When I lived in LA, yes.  Many were cited for cleanliness back in the day.  They are now usually much better (not the "roach coach" types that people used to call them.)

 

Here in NC, not as prevalent, but we do have them.  The last couple of all day seminars I have had for work has ordered a food truck and the food was very good.

[PinkTulip]

I am very lucky in this regard as we live less than a mile from a food truck park. Every day, they have 7 spots that tons of different trucks rotate through and they are usually really good. There are 15-ish permanent big picnic tables that will each seat 8-10, and big umbrellas for when it gets hot out. It's packed there every night of the summer -tons of people. If I lived in a different city, I would start one there - it has been a hugely successful business plan.

 

They have had trucks with wood-fired pizzas, Korean BBQ, lobster rolls, gourmet tacos, paninis, falafels, Cuban food, ramen, sliders, waffles, crepes, donuts, BBQ, baked potatoes, corn dogs, sushi, shaved ice, vegetarian, and lots of farm-to-table offerings. Probably a few more, but a huge variety. Most trucks run $7-10-ish for a main dish, so not super cheap, but not super expensive. We have dinner there way more often than I care to admit!