Get Your Food Truck Off My Lawn
The best ceviche in Los Angeles comes off of a roach coach that is routinely parked near the courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles. For twenty years Angelinos in the know have found the taco trucks with the best Mexican, Salvadoran and Guatemalan cuisine that our city can offer. Before RA I used to run to Mulholland Drive every Wednesday and eat burritos at a taco truck that made me feel like I was visiting another country. I loved it, and to a degree I still do.
Then came the fusion trucks and the hipsters. Mike Prasad took the Kogi BBQ truck and convinced LA that coleslaw on a taco is delicious (it isn’t but it does prove that Mike is a genius). Every digital event had food trucks roaming through. Then came grilled cheese trucks, cupcake trucks, dim sum trucks, sushi trucks and now even Canters has a truck. Everywhere you look there is a food truck and they are not parked in communities they support.
When Save Our Taco Trucks launched I was a supporter. I loved the quick food and the obscure locations. The trucks seemed to be near construction sites and industrial zones.
Now there is a truck at my corner every day. They sell salad. Across the street from the salad truck is a salad restaurant. Within three square blocks are another dozen restaurants. The restaurants in my neighborhood do things for my neighborhood. They provide pleasing exteriors, they provide local jobs, they tend to support the local schools, they are part of the tax base, they create a reason for us to get out of our cars and walk around so that we can bump into people.
I don’t know if I’m getting old or if it’s reasonable to not want transient businesses in my neighborhood.
Where are you at on the food trucks? And I swear to all that is holy, anyone who tells you that Korean food belongs in a taco is not to be trusted.
Photo via Flickr Muy Yum Creative Commons