Lunch Trucks

Upscale eateries may be hurting for patrons and quick-food joints slashing their prices, but one sector of the restaurant business is thriving — food trucks, reports Katie McLaughlin in the Wall Street Journal (6/5/09). These are not, however, the "coach roaches" of the past, featuring wrinkly wieners or microbe meat. They are sparkling-clean meals-on-wheels like On the Fly in Washington D.C., featuring "organic, vegetarian or local-ingredient versions of classic lunch-truck tacos and burgers."

Similar ventures, some started by chefs unable to afford the rent on a traditional, sit-down restaurant, are now roaming streets in cities across America. Calexio Carne Asada, in New York, offers "a tasty blend of juicy meat and fresh-tasting sauces." In San Francisco, RoliRoti serves "heritage pork, free-range chicken and local lamb." In New York City, a former Le Cirque pastry sous chef operates the Dessert Truck, where "all the desserts are on par with fancy-restaurant fare and at least a dollar or two cheaper."

One restaurateur, Danny Meyer, "has posted a lunch cart outside his restaurant Tabla … serving less expensive versions of the restaurant’s upscale Indian food." Others, such as Calexio Carne Asada, have turned lunch-truck successes into sit-down restaurants. This emerging class of mobile restaurants also happens to be a perfect fit with emerging media: "Kogi BBQ, a truck serving Korean-barbecued meat inside Mexican-style tacos in Los Angeles, became a media sensation earlier this year in part for its use of Twitter (@kogibbq), on which it currently has 28,000 followers."