Gourmet Food Trucks

I have been writing a bit about the gourmet food trucks that show up all over the city.  Some have a fixed schedule.  Some show up at events. 

I posted some of my thoughts on facebook and thought I'd copy some of that dialogue here.....

Today I posted this on facebook:  This food truck thing is pretty serious - this is about the truck "great balls on tires" which does a lot of meatball items.

This started a little bit of commentary. 

One of my friends wrote:  This notion of fine dining guys taking their chops to street food is really interesting. I have only two recommendations - follow these guys on Twitter (they all use it to let folks know where they are) and be there early! Sometimes the lines can get ferocious.

My reply was:   I have a number of ways I follow my favorite folks and know their schedules in many cases.

Great stuff, lots of creative spirit and talent, less expense than brick and mortar restaurants and a lot of keen competition assures a lot of... bang for the $$$$.

Most of the folks operating the trucks are terrific people. There are some chain trucks at this point but the ones that are owner operated and owned can be good.

The one off trucks that follow their own heart and creative spirit are generally the ones you walk away from shaking your head as in ... how did they do that .... great meal ... great value. Hopefully it will not become too commercial with too much corporate involvement in the future. Some of these trucks are already straying too far from the cool concepts. The portions are getting smaller and some are more concerned with presentation and that " L.A. Trendy Nonsense" that many of the expensive restaurants are accused of having.

Many years ago there was a taco truck that grew into a chain - King Taco. They never strayed from their roots and so far I have not found a taco better than the tacos they produce. Keeping true to your roots and not doing as little as one can to maximize profit. Those short term practices do little for long term business. Just a heads up to the food truckers ... stay true to your roots and take pride in a meal that is served from fresh ingredients, heavy on flavor and talent and light on attitude. If you do these things you will probably build a very strong reputation.  If you want a great taco from many locations they can be found at http://www.kingtaco.com/   These folks serve great food at a great value.  Their staff are terrific folks and their locations are clean and organized.  They are an example that a good business model and quality can stand side by side.  More info on their business model at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Taco

If you look on the right side of this blog you will see a number of links.  Some are about these food trucks and how to find out about them, their websites and their current and planned location.

Fun stuff that in most cases is easy on the wallet.