What is the appeal of food trucks?

Turtleneck wrote:

Did you get hit by a food truck or something?

Not unless Nucky's mom has a walk-out basement and the food truck could fit through the sliding door.

You've never been to Austin.   The food trucks here are amazing and several B & M's started in a food truck.  They are a great way for people who don't have the money to test the waters before jumping into an expensive building with several employees.  Torchys Tacos is now a pretty large chain that started in a good truck.   Odd Duck and Barley Swine are great restaurants which started in a tiny trailer downtown.   Paul Qui who won Top Chef and I believe is a James Beard nominated chef started in a food truck called East Side King then moved on to Uchi.  He now owns and operates his own restaurant called Qui which is insanely good.

EDIT: Paul Qui is a James Beard winner and his East Side King trucks are now moving into B&M's

The high-end food truck fad is dead or dying but street-food will never go away. In large US cities and most of the rest of the world people were buying food on the streets from small purveyors long before the development of fast-food restaurants,

Phil McCrackin wrote:

I'm not really up to speed on the dining scene in Royal Oak, but are you talking about a counter-service grab-and-go place when you say "people in Royal Oak want to sit down w/ real silverware"? Seems like you are referring to a sit-down waitstaff restaurant, which food trucks generally aren't trying to compete with.

I get that you think food trucks are a (passing) fad. That may be true, but does it really matter?

I'm saying is in RO/Ferndale/Birmingham there is little or no traffic for these trucks to plop down for lunch or dinner. The lunch crowd wants to sit on chairs preferably on their patios not on a curb w/ can of pop and a plastic fork. Same w/ dinner, people do not want to sit on the ground and eat. IMO these trucks should park outside of the high rise towers in Southfield or larger office buildings in suburbia not in downtowns where there are lots of food options,

GirbaudJeans wrote:You've never been to Austin.   The food trucks here are amazing and several B & M's started in a food truck.  They are a great way for people who don't have the money to test the waters before jumping into an expensive building with several employees.  Torchys Tacos is now a pretty large chain that started in a good truck.   Odd Duck and Barley Swine are great restaurants which started in a tiny trailer downtown.   Paul Qui who won Top Chef and I believe is a James Beard nominated chef started in a food truck called East Side King then moved on to Uchi.  He now owns and operates his own restaurant called Qui which is insanely good.

EDIT: Paul Qui is a James Beard winner and his East Side King trucks are now moving into B&M's

I had a good BM after eating at a food truck one time.

Narwhal wrote:

I'm saying is in RO/Ferndale/Birmingham there is little or no traffic for these trucks to plop down for lunch or dinner. The lunch crowd wants to sit on chairs preferably on their patios not on a curb w/ can of pop and a plastic fork. Same w/ dinner, people do not want to sit on the ground and eat. IMO these trucks should park outside of the high rise towers in Southfield or larger office buildings in suburbia not in downtowns where there are lots of food options,

That's the beauty of a food truck, they can go where ever they want.

Never had food truck food once.

A lobster roll, roadside in Maine would be closest thing.

Narwhal wrote:

I'm saying is in RO/Ferndale/Birmingham there is little or no traffic for these trucks to plop down for lunch or dinner. The lunch crowd wants to sit on chairs preferably on their patios not on a curb w/ can of pop and a plastic fork. Same w/ dinner, people do not want to sit on the ground and eat. IMO these trucks should park outside of the high rise towers in Southfield or larger office buildings in suburbia not in downtowns where there are lots of food options,

Seems like the food trucks in RO/Ferndale/Birmingham would just drive somewhere else to where there are more customers (and places for them to sit) rather than trying to sell street food to people who don't want it.

DroppedByADime wrote:Never had food truck food once.    

A lobster roll, roadside in Maine would be closest thing.  

A lobster roll, roadside in Maine would be the same thing.

Food trucks on MSU campus during football saturdays would be a brilliant idea. I'm sure ELPD already has a list of reasons why it can't happen.

Phil McCrackin wrote:

A lobster roll, roadside in Maine would be the same thing.

Food trucks on MSU campus during football saturdays would be a brilliant idea. I'm sure ELPD already has a list of reasons why it can't happen.

PACE would just follow them and write them up all day.

This place = in TC. I've never been but I kinda want to check it out.

The Little Fleet

Phil McCrackin wrote:

A lobster roll, roadside in Maine would be the same thing.

Food trucks on MSU campus during football saturdays would be a brilliant idea. I'm sure ELPD already has a list of reasons why it can't happen.

I agree! Gameday trucks would kill!

Jaheab wrote:The high-end food truck fad is dead or dying but street-food will never go away. In large US cities and most of the rest of the world people were buying food on the streets from small purveyors long before the development of fast-food restaurants,

I agree with you here. There is no reason high end food should be eaten from a truck.