Food Trucks

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

Have any in your neck of the woods. In SF there are quite a few in fact someone has made a biz out of organizing them (off the grid) in locations throughout the city. Anything exciting going on near you? My favorites are Chairman Bao and Curry Up Now.

2

Must be 50 in Napa. Years ago, there were 3, then 5, then 10 “Taco Trucks” Now we have a number of BBQ, Deli Style, Vegetarian and other cuisine dedicated trucks. The City of Napa has ordinances that restrict some of their locations/operations. At one time, one of the truck owners organized about 12 trucks at one location. The city shut them down for violating a number of ordinances, half very legitimate and half of which were shaky to Chicken Shit.

Also:

Several of the early trucks bought/built restaurants and most dropped their trucks. A number of trucks have come and gone and personally, I think there just got to be too many trucks/competition as costs/restrictions rose. It used to be the Food Trucks couldn’t remain in one location longer than 90 minutes. They also weren’t allowed to be within 1000 feet of a restaurant. Nobody adhered to the laws. The surviving trucks rent space on private property or hope nobody will enforce the laws.

3

We have a lot but I’m not in a position to leave my store for lunch and few trucks are open for dinner regularly. If they parked in my lot I’d eat there, but they don’t…

4

Chairman Bao… Yummo.

Where are all of these trucks, Randy? I think I’ve only ever seen the taco trucks.

5

Best assemblage I’ve seen is in downtown Portland. There is an entire city block that’s ringed with food trucks of every description. Must be around 40 or more. I could only pick one, so after some research, I chose an Asian truck that did handmade noodles. I had the noodle and spicy seafood combo for $7.50. Mighty good.

6

There are about 500 in Portland now. 40 or so are concentrated in one area downtown, with another 25 or so a few blocks away.

7

There’s a bunch in the OC. Every Sunday, there’s anywhere from 10-15 at the local farmers market. I’m a fan, my wife is not…so we usually don’t partake. Food trucks are like restaurants, some outstanding, some mediocre. But most are not cheap these days.

8

One of my favorite food trucks, Quesadilla Mobilla, in Moab UT enjoyed a long run as Tripadvisor’s #1 rated Moab restaurant (of 65). It’s currently ranked third.

9

There is definitely a food truck bubble. I have yet to find one that is a must have, but there are a few that come around here that hit the spot in terms of offering some variety that might be less commonly available. For example there is a Gyro/Falaffel truck that I go to from time to time- any decent gyro place is not convenient around here.

10

We’ve had El Ñosh truck in residence on Thursdays at our Bar this month but we have dozens of truly outstanding trucks here in LA.

11

That’s something I could get into. The reason for the OP is in SF the food trucks are getting stale. Nothing new or inventive that I’ve seen come out lately. Was curious what others have come across.

12

I really don’t care for chairman bao, but my sister was bonkers over it when she lived in SF. Curry up now is also just mediocre.

I think I had a better time at the Portland “pods”.

I’m just feeling grumpy in this rainy weather.

13

Cary channeling his inner BW

14

There’s a BBQ truck just south of the Chevrolet Dealership on Soscol.
There is or used to be the healthy food truck parked in front of the fitness center on California Blvd., just south of Trancas.
Somewhere on First or McKinstry was the guy that rallied all the trucks that weren’t “Taco.”
The Pastrami guy on Main St. apparently folded late last year, but I could be wrong. He was about 4 blocks north of 1st St.

15

People already mentioned Portland. There are a couple of large pods of them downtown, but also a bunch pods in SE, but my favorites are at the Mississippi carts in North Portland: Native Bowl and Homegrown Smoker. But Portland has a ton of great carts.

16

The Virginia Alcohol and Beverage Control board recently changed its bylaws allowing breweries to not have to have a dedicated food component, or the standard brewpub/restaurant setup. In the last two years there’s probably a dozen new breweries statewide that are set up essentially like a winery tasting room and have a regular rotation of food trucks stop by for Thursday-Sunday traffic. Richmond and Charlottesville probably have the best combo of quality beer and food. Wife and I did some slammin pulled pork BBQ and a pint each at Three Notch’d Brewery and got out the door for $22 including tip. Date night!

17

They suck.

18

Gary is making a very strong run for the title of most cheerful guy on Berserkers…

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[rofl.gif] [welldone.gif]

20

Another amazing LA truck: