People seem to really enjoy New York Street Food Featured Vendor Profiles, the latest of which is our interview with O’Neill Reid of the Jamaican Dutchy.
Along the same lines, Serious Eats had an interview with Alex Chu of the Dim Sum Truck in L.A. In addition to some delectable photos, you get a good idea of what a day in the life of a food truck vendor is like.
Combo platter
Click through for some interesting reading and more delicious photos. Just make sure you’ve eaten first!
The 1st Annual LA Street Food Festival was held yesterday, Sat, Feb 13th. Estimates were that as many as 15,000 people showed up, and if that was the case, about 14,000 went home unhappy. Unless you had a media pass that got you in an hour earlier, chances are you waited at least an hour to get in the only entrance (!) and waited another 1-2 hours for some of the more popular trucks. Even people who paid $60 for VIP tickets were disappointed.
“It’s really a shame that the events success was it’s biggest failure. Everything we ate was good, some things great (pork belly bun from flying pig—oh my) but I would have gladly traded my day back for the $60 spent on VIP tickets.”
“I got there around 11:30, good thing for the media pass!, and it was packed already. It was nice to see this turn out but that was it’s biggest failure. That had to be the suckiest VIP lounge ever.”
“biggest waste of time i’ve ever taken part in, stood in line for 3 hours and ate nothing, what a joke of planning this was.”
“judging by the amount of completely pissed off people wandering all over downtown emptying every restaurant in a 10 block radius of the event i’d say there area lot of people that didn’t think too positively of this event. we tried to eat at 5 different places in downtown and there are hour waits everywhere from people that couldn’t get into the festival. was this thing a total epic failure or what?”
“HORRIBLY planned! As with many others – there was no way we were going to wait in the longest line I have ever seen in my life only to predictably wait in line for each truck. Great idea for a festival.. But one entrance?? It was a terrible disappointment.. Hopefully someone with one day of event planning experience will pick up this event and do it right next time.”
“Can I have the two hours of my life that were spent waiting for the pork belly bun at Flying Pig? We waited in line for an hour and a half and then there was an additional 30 minute wait to get our food. I think I’m going to study Korean cooking…”
There were many more comments like this, but you get the idea. While it was a good thing that so many people wanted to try these great food trucks, festivals are like computers; wait for at least version 1.2 before trying it out. The organizers of the L.A Street Food Festival still have a lot to learn about running festivals.
One thing’s for sure – the gourmet food truck phenomena has moved from the fringes squarely into the mainstream.
With the complaints food trucks have been getting from local business owners in L.A. about parking, littering and the siphoning-off of business, mobile food courts are starting to emerge. Portable food courts are the latest trend in the food truck scene, eliminating the need for the typical cat-and-mouse chases around town. Thursday’s event in front of the loading docks off Traction Avenue and South Alameda Street was a test run that vendors hope will address concerns about the vehicles, such as parking, littering and confrontations with restaurant owners.
“We don’t want to make waves,” said Matt Geller, vice president of the SoCal Mobile Food Vendor’s Assn. Geller, who organized the downtown event and is planning future mobile food courts, said he hopes to find property that’s not too close to restaurants.
In August, food truck vendors were told to leave the Miracle Mile along Wilshire Boulevard. In January, vendors set up shop on a former used-car lot in Santa Monica, but the operation was shut down after one day because of zoning issues.
Alex Rocha, general manager of Spitz in Little Tokyo — not far from Thursday’s mobile food court — wasn’t concerned by the experiment. The vehicles might take some of his business, but they don’t offer the ambience of a restaurant, Rocha said. “You can go to a restaurant, sit down, get out of your head for a second and go back to work,” he said.
The concept, though, appears to be catching on.
Another lot is planned near the Beverly Center, and truck vendors are expected to assemble during the monthly Downtown Art Walk, Geller said.
Dave Reiss, owner of The Brig, a bar in Venice’s Abbott Kinney district, started letting multiple food trucks use his parking lot in the fall of 2008. To Reiss, having trucks in the lot is almost like a built-in restaurant. “It almost is a modern food court,” he said.
Molly Taylor, who sells everything from cookies to cupcakes from various L.A. bakers out of her Sweets Truck, said the lots are an added element in the success of the industry — which, for her, is all about people. “It’s definitely an opportunity for community,” said Taylor, known on skid row as the “sweet lady.”
Back at the downtown mobile food court, four men in teal and blue scrubs munched on barbecue from a truck. “It’s better for us,” said David Stempel, a radiologist. “Competition breeds better business.” [LA Times] We couldn’t agree more.
There must be places in New York that can accomodate a mobile food court. I’m sure some enterprising foodie will read this and bring the concept to New York. Can’t wait.
The organizers of the upcoming 1st Annual LA Street Food Fest on Sat, Feb. 13th have announced additional details. So far, 36 street food vendors have been named, and there will be over 30 local designers and artists in the UNIQUE LA Marketplace. There will be Taco Trucks, Cupcake Trucks, Ice Cream Trucks, Korean BBQ Trucks, Vegan Trucks, Fruit Carts, Hot Dog Carts and loads more. [LA Street Food Fest]
LAist lists the street food and design vendors as follows:
FOOD VENDORS
Komodo Food, Antojitos Abuelita, Antojitos Carmen, Flying Pig Truck, Fishlips, India Jones Truck, Coolhaus, The Sweets Truck, Slice Truck, Piaggio on Wheels, Nina’s Foods, Rudolfo’s Barbacoa, Hello Lupe Sweet Crepes, Buttermilk Truck, Nom Nom Truck, Kabob N’ Roll, Dell’s Lemonade, Fresser’s Pastrami, Sabor de Bahia, Frysmith, Uncle Lao’s Hawaiian BBQ, Don Chow Tacos, Mama Koh’s Korean Chicken, Dogzilla, Monsieur Egg, Tasty Meat, Grilled Cheese Truck, The Franken Stand, King Kone, Louks, Gastrobus, Get Shaved, Yum Yum Bowls, the popshop, QzillaBBQ, Surprise Chef Pop-Up Truck (TBA!)
DESIGN VENDORS
Paper Pastries, Mr Toast, Spicy Brown, Leanna Lin Jewelry, Mincing Mockingbird/Frantic Meerkat, p.o.p. candy co., Punky Bunny Designs, Plastique, Steppie, The Quilting Mama, Blue Dahlia (aka hallo jak), 33stewartavenue, Three Apparel, Make Shop Live, Dip It Designs, Rebe, Baby Eggi, London Manori, Blue Platypus, LOVMELY ACCESSORIES, THE DRAM!, Stylesmith, FLEA MARKET GIRL Jennifer Shon Jewelry, Kiki Designs, Sweet Siren Design, V is for violet, STUDIO ROOT66, Cara Lyndon Vintage Re Crafted Jewelry, JENKINS JELLIES, Suburban riot, My Mishion.
Details
What: the 1st Annual LA Street Food Fest
When: February 13th, 11am – 5pm Cost: Tickets at the door or day of the event.
$5 General Admission entry (entry to the festival, a free drink ticket, cool giveaways) $30 VIP entry (Above street-level patio with a bird’s eye view of the festival, a premium gift bag, luxe street food from a surprise chef guest, a private bar, access to indoor restrooms, and more)
Where: LA CENTER STUDIOS
Enter on 500 S. Beaudry Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017
25 of LA’s food trucks raised over $7,000 on Saturday (23rd) for The Red Cross’ Haiti Relief operations. Organized by the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association, the trucks and patrons lined the streets from 11 a.m to 4 p.m. The turnout was great, with conservative estimates of at least 5,000 people showing up to buy some street food for a good cause. The organizers are still counting the cash, but so far, it is over $7,000.
Participating in the event were: India Jones [LAist Story], The Grilled Cheese Truck [LAist story], Nom Nom [LAist Story], Don Chow Tacos [LAist Story], Buttermilk Truck [LAist story], Asian Soul Kitchen, Slice Truck, Fishlips Sushi, Get Shaved [LAist Story], Dosa Truck [LAist Story], Barbie’s Q, South Philly Experience, Vesuvio, LA FuXion [LAist Story], Calbi BBQ, King Kone, The Sweets Truck, Del’s Frozen Lemonade, Dainty Cakes LA, Flying Pig, Louks To Go [LAist Story], Bool BBQ, Kabob Express, Yum Yum Bowls, and Willoughby Road. [LAist]
