Several weeks ago, I was at a farmer’s market and overheard one truck owner complaining to another that things weren’t working out like he had planned; in other words, he thought he would just announce on his Facebook page that he had parked his truck somewhere and crowds would show up, and it wasn’t happening. The other vendor explained that it didn’t work that way; he would need to have a schedule and allow time to build up a clientele.
Has anyone here ever worked at or run one? What was your experience?
Food trucks are like alternative music – every so often they become fashionable and mainstream, but even after the glitter fades there’s still a market for them.
Depends on what kind of food truck we’re talking about. My town has plenty of food trucks, but not a single one that I’m aware of is randomly mobile. They’re more like symbiotic creatures who make deals with local businesses and have a set schedule. Both of our local breweries have a different truck out every day they’re open to the public, because they don’t have kitchens on site. The breweries post food truck schedules so people know when to show up if they want particular eats.
Oh, we have “random” food trucks in my neighborhood, and I NEVER patronize them. “Oh, the dumpling truck is here today. Do I want dumplings? Shit, they charge MORE than the brick-and-mortar places! Fuck 'em.” “Oh, the waffle truck is here today. I don’t like waffles. Fuck 'em.”
OTOH, the Halal truck is outside the local bookshop EVERY DAY. And I’ll happily grab a plate of lamb over rice with hot sauce and “Angel Jizz” and salad once a week.
Move to Portland. They are an institution here, and the good ones serve food that’s every bit as good as restaurants with the same cuisine. I routinely patronize Cajun, sushi, Laotion and burger carts in my neighborhood, which are truly terrific and within six blocks of my house. I blame my recent 5 pound gain on the Cajun place alone. The guy has his sausage, tasso and po’boy bread sent to him from NOLA and uses his grandmother’s recipes for beans and rice, jambalaya, etc.
food trucks have never really left they were just mobile taco or hamburger stands really sometimes you could of found one that had a limited diner menu near the construction sites …
Now since there relatively cheaper and easier to open that a traditional restaurant everyone with an idea is opening one
I know they’ve been around in some form for decades, and kind of figure that most of them won’t last very long.
I can already predict that a lot of them are going to think that since the truck serves food for, say, 6 hours a week that this is all they’ll have to work. Um, no.
We have two sorts of food truck that serve businesses over here: those that visit at regular times and those that are static. The latter have a maximum density and have to pay for their pitch. There are also fast food (kebab, burger, etc) vans which pitch up every evening in regular places to serve the evening crowds.
I don’t see what the anecdote has to do with whether food trucks are a fad or not. If the guy had opened a regular restaurant and just expected crowds to show up he’d be just as disappointed that there weren’t crowds.
I agree with this. The number of food trucks will increase and decrease, and the types of food trucks will change, and today’s fad for Sriracha waffles or whatever will die out and another fad will come along, but I think that food trucks will be around for a while.
And food trucks have a lot lower overhead. If I loved making hamburgers, I’d open a food truck first, so that I could get a clientele going, and see if there’s a market for my food. If business is good, I can open a regular restaurant, but if it’s not then I’ve lost less money than if I had started straight off with a storefront restaurant.
I think they’ve been around for decades – my older co-workers talk about old “roach coaches” at construction sites and the like. They’ve just become more popular over the last decade or so, at least in some cities (DC for me). I think they’ll continue for a long time, but their popularity may wax and wane. Parking regulations have a huge impact on them, I think – if they can legally park in a good spot with lots of foot traffic, they’ll do much more business than if they’re not allowed to park there. And the brick and mortar restaurants will want to make such parking more difficult, so there will be politics involved.
Don’t forget about festivals and other special events, which always have plenty of food trucks on site. People come for the event, and while they’re there, they eat something from a truck. They’re a lot easier than event organizers setting up their own food service, and a decent-sized city will have enough festivals to keep the trucks busy pretty close to full time.
No, it’s that you get a rotation of food at work, without having to walk super far. Walk to the same place, get a different set of options than the previous day. In a week, it will be the same options, but day-to-day, it’s different.