New York Street Food

The now-defunct Marrakech Chefs food truck

While poking around the web, we ran across an article on Yahoo detailing the 5 Most Common Mistakes New Food Trucks Owners Make.  The article was written by Rosie Lee, the author of Concession Connections, a start-up guide for food trucks.

After reading the article, it turned out there were actually 6 items mentioned, so I guess being good at math is not one of the requirements.  But seriously, there are some good points in the article.

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People are always asking me about the differences between food trucks in New York and Los Angeles.

One of the biggest differences is the weather – in LA you can eat outdoors virtually year round, while NY winters can be challenging, to say the least.   This winter has been mild, but last year was snow city.

Even in 40-50 degree weather, walk-up business down, and New York winters are tougher on the trucks themselves.

So how do these guys get through the tough winters?

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Towards the end of 2011, Luke’s Lobster made a stop on Roosevelt Island to try serving dinner to the residents there – and was summarily booted off the island.  Sounds like a bad episode of Survivor.

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) said Luke’s needed to have a special permit, but Roosevelt Island Residents Association Planning Committee Chair Frank Farance says a food truck on a public street may be outside of RIOC’s control.

As with many governmental decisions, the issue was studied and deliberated for 2 months, and this is what they came up with.

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It’s been widely reported how food trucks were in the forefront of using twitter to tell people where to find them.  What’s not as well known is how food trucks are making use of even more hi-tech innovations in running their businesses.

Food Network Canada (via Eat St) has an extensive article detailing the various ways food trucks are using technology for inventory management, CMS (customer management systems), credit card processing and more.

Click here to check out this must-read article for current and future food truck operators. [Food Network Canada via Eat St.]

Square processes credit cards on an iPhone

Wayang House (photo: Food Carts Portland)

Portland is one of the leaders in the street food movement with 696 (!) food carts licensed – but they recently reversed course on the issue of granting liquor licenses to food carts.

After moving forward on this idea, the City Council passed a resolution earlier this week asking the OLCC to postpone granting liquor licenses to food carts.  The City wants clear definitions and rules to be made first.  Mayor Sam Adams, a big supporter of foods carts, was one the biggest critics.

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