Despite tens of thousands of people willing to wait hours to sample street food and severe overcrowding at the recent L.A. Street Food Festival, Asian Soul Kitchen is the first food truck in L.A. to go under. Asian Soul Kitchen, which debuted in November, announced via its website that it “will no longer be in service.” [Grub Street L.A.]
A second truck, Willoughby Road, was also reported by Grub Street to be closing, but according to their April 9th Twitter feed, “@LAFoodFest http://ow.ly/1wDBL is incorrect! We are coming back. Just doing some upgrades to the truck. Thx”
Asian Soul Kitchen is a cautionary tale for anyone thinking a “gourmet” food truck is an easy road to drive, no matter how well you cook. Although we don’t wish to see this happening to anyone, it is inevitable that more food truck closures will occur. If we want to keep seeing new interesting and creative food trucks and carts, it’s up to us to keep patronizing them and spread the word among our friends, not just when it’s the “in” thing.
