What is so special about food trucks ?

DdBob

DdBob

Dogue in teh desert
it seems you can just have a food truck and people will flock to it. Why is a food truck different than say a permanent building of say for instance an old time "greasy spoon" , that little taqueria in a tiny strip mall or something.

For instance https://www.kold.com/2022/07/31/food-truck-park-pit-facing-multiple-violations-with-city-tucson/ this is one of maybe two places in Tucson where multiple food trucks operate on a regular daily basis and this place in particular is in a very nondescript part of town not real far from where I grew up, it used to be a gas station and the stripmall area it's in has a laundromat, a long standing mexican restaurant of close to 40 years, a barber shop and a couple other things...there's a post office across the street.. I don't see how this is any different than a food court at a mall or a "restaurant row" which every city has where multiple restaurants in building operate other than the food truck version lacks adequate restroom facilities and you have to eat or stand in line in inclemate weather like say chicago in the winter or Tucson in the summer....I don't get it.

Seems like a big part of the draw is to get your badge to help your view of yourself to be a 'foodie" similar to an old time speakeasy in that "i was there when nobody else was"...."I know the secret handshake" type thing.

What say you ? Is the food on a different level just because they dont cook in a permanent structure?
 
The cost to enter the food cart/truck biz is far lower than any brick and mortar restaurant….giving aspiring and up & coming chefs an opportunity to give their own food biz a shot they wouldn’t have had otherwise. It’s a far more streamlined operation without the staffing requirements of B&M. It saying it isn’t a ton of work but it’s not the level of complexity of running a fully staffed restaurant. The menus are often more focused and streamlined than a typical restaurant, which has its advantages in many carts being hyper focused on some specific cuisine.

Pods also offer a turnover of clientele that many stand-alone locations can’t provide.
 
Mostly the secret handshake/FOMO thing, and that it's just fashionable at the moment. But there is also an opportunity to specialize that a restaurant couldn't focus on. So if you have a hankering for Albanian dumplings, there isn't likely a restaurant that has them. But a low barrier to entry, and the ability to move around to new audiences, let's good trucks embrace a weirdness that sometimes works.
 
I'm not a big fan of food trucks. Anything that involves hanging around outside for any length of time in 98 deg wet heat is not for me.

They can offer some interesting and tasty choices. When I was in Portland, I had lunch at one of the pods downtown, it was a most tasty shawarma wrap or something like that. But since I didn't have a nearby office or anything to take it to, I had to eat it standing up and juggling sandwich, fries and drink.
 
Lerxst said:
The cost to enter the food cart/truck biz is far lower than any brick and mortar restaurant….giving aspiring and up & coming chefs an opportunity to give their own food biz a shot they wouldn’t have had otherwise. It’s a far more streamlined operation without the staffing requirements of B&M. It saying it isn’t a ton of work but it’s not the level of complexity of running a fully staffed restaurant. The menus are often more focused and streamlined than a typical restaurant, which has its advantages in many carts being hyper focused on some specific cuisine.

Pods also offer a turnover of clientele that many stand-alone locations can’t provide.
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Yeah I get why the operators do it but I'm talking about the clientele. i remember when we called the food trucks here "roach coaches" as they had no signage, no fany paint jobs, etc and they were just like Ford f250 vans with lean to tarps and a simple table with two chairs or the panelvan type trucks with nbo paint or signage just dirty looking and they all sold tacos or hot dogs...still ahve those around.
 
DdBob said:
Yeah I get why the operators do it but I'm talking about the clientele. i remember when we called the food trucks here "roach coaches" as they had no signage, no fany paint jobs, etc and they were just like Ford f250 vans with lean to tarps and a simple table with two chairs or the panelvan type trucks with nbo paint or signage just dirty looking and they all sold tacos or hot dogs...still ahve those around.
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options, creativity, directly supporting a real small business, pods offer variety for groups, etc.
 
My dad and brother owned a barbecue restaurant and a food truck. Their truck made 3x the money of the brick and mortar. They would go do festivals and make a killing. It was worth shutting down the restaurant to do a festival for the weekend.
Food trucks aren't going anywhere. They are not a niche thing either. They are opportunity both in choice and, as mentioned, for up and coming chefs to get their food out there and have a low barrier of entry.
 
I think the obvious thing is that they have wheels, so you can get that taco/dosa/whatever right outside the bar or the concert or work site or whatever. semi-permanent locations with multiple trucks always seemed a bit weird to me, but I can definitely see the upsides that lerxst mentioned

Lerxst said:
The menus are often more focused and streamlined than a typical restaurant
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this was always a big draw for me - I like places that just do a few things and do them well (or at least they better do them well if they want to stay in business)
 
My son took me to a food truck gathering in Durham a few times. They set up at a park and there’s music etc., you walk around, chill, and have different food. Otherwise I don’t get to use them.
 
Food trucks often aren't afraid to innovate. I think that most of the fusion cuisine (e.g. bulgogi tacos, etc.) were pioneered by food truck chefs, because it's a much lower barrier to entry and you can afford to be more creative.
 
They're not that big a deal here however a guy sells gyros outside Glasgow Uni and it's constantly rammed. The food is OK but he really seems to benefit from internet/ social media buzz about the place.
 
smurfco said:
Food trucks are the fucking best, what’s the matter with you
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can you elaborate please. Is it the placebo effect like when you cook bacon and eggs on a coleman stove outdoors camping....you get that smell of the propane stove and the bacon wafting in the air?

is it any better than Wendy’s ?
 
yabba said:
semi-permanent locations with multiple trucks always seemed a bit weird to me, but I can definitely see the upsides that lerxst mentioned
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In my neck of the woods, many of the best carts are in the pods...before they wind up going brick and mortar.

Those carts will usually function similar to the concept of an anchor store in a shopping center; they will bring people to the pod and the other carts benefit from the overflow.
There used to be a killer Hawaiian/Filipino cart in a near by pod that used to get massive lines that sprawled around the block. Amazing $8 poke nachos that could feed two people. Anyone who didn't want to wait, would generally wind up patronizing one of the other carts in the pod. Most pods have a table area for folks to sit and eat.
 
DdBob said:
can you elaborate please. Is it the placebo effect like when you cook bacon and eggs on a coleman stove outdoors camping....you get that smell of the propane stove and the bacon wafting in the air?

is it any better than Wendy’s ?
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Better than Wendy's? It's (usually) in another league.
 
The town of Castaic at the bottom of the Grapevine has some outstanding authentic Mexican taco/burrito trucks.
The one I stop at has the best habanero salsa. I dump some on the burrito before each bite.
 
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