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There was a food truck festival by the Charles today, about three miles from me. I like food trucks — because the setup costs are much lower than a restaurant's, owners can afford to take more risks, which promotes culinary diversity and creativity. They're agile in a way sit-down restaurants aren't. And when you get a bunch of them parked together, you can mix and match your meal.
The way the festival worked was this: there were I-don't-know-how-many food trucks all lined up along the bike path, Roxy's Grilled Cheese and Mei Mei Chinese food and Frozen Hoagies and Redbones and dozens more, with a booth in the middle selling tickets for about a buck and a quarter each. Each truck set its own ticket-to-food conversions, but in general you could get a meal-sized sandwich for four to six tickets, a small bite for two, a beverage for two or three, a side for three, a dessert for two to four. I didn't actually buy any tickets — a kid with leftover tickets came up to me when I was waiting in line, and I bought his sixteen tickets for $15. (He and the two sorority girls he was with didn't set off my scam detectors.) This turned out to be the perfect number of tickets — I got a reasonably good pork bánh mì from Bon Me, an excellent basil limeade from the same place, a strawberry popsicle from Ocean Ave, and a mojito cupcake from the Kickass truck, with one ticket left over for a tip. (I tried to get truffle fries from Roxy's, but they were sold out.) If you go to one of these things, I recommend 30 tickets for a couple. (They sell them in batches of 10.)
I got there about 45 minutes before the festival ended, which wasn't quite enough time — as I was running up and down the long long line of trucks, trying to at least glance at every menu option, I had visions in my head of ending up hungry with sixteen worthless tickets in my hand as all the trucks drove away. And of course the system punishes poor planning, in exactly that way. But it's a great way to sample a bucketload of diverse cuisines, cooked well and cooked to order.
The way the festival worked was this: there were I-don't-know-how-many food trucks all lined up along the bike path, Roxy's Grilled Cheese and Mei Mei Chinese food and Frozen Hoagies and Redbones and dozens more, with a booth in the middle selling tickets for about a buck and a quarter each. Each truck set its own ticket-to-food conversions, but in general you could get a meal-sized sandwich for four to six tickets, a small bite for two, a beverage for two or three, a side for three, a dessert for two to four. I didn't actually buy any tickets — a kid with leftover tickets came up to me when I was waiting in line, and I bought his sixteen tickets for $15. (He and the two sorority girls he was with didn't set off my scam detectors.) This turned out to be the perfect number of tickets — I got a reasonably good pork bánh mì from Bon Me, an excellent basil limeade from the same place, a strawberry popsicle from Ocean Ave, and a mojito cupcake from the Kickass truck, with one ticket left over for a tip. (I tried to get truffle fries from Roxy's, but they were sold out.) If you go to one of these things, I recommend 30 tickets for a couple. (They sell them in batches of 10.)
I got there about 45 minutes before the festival ended, which wasn't quite enough time — as I was running up and down the long long line of trucks, trying to at least glance at every menu option, I had visions in my head of ending up hungry with sixteen worthless tickets in my hand as all the trucks drove away. And of course the system punishes poor planning, in exactly that way. But it's a great way to sample a bucketload of diverse cuisines, cooked well and cooked to order.
