Having a Moment: Mobile Eateries

By Amy Flurry
March 23, 2010

A new generation of fast food is sweeping the country and revolutionizing the way Americans dine. Mobile eateries, once designated to city streets and county fairs and dominated by easy options like gyros, hot dogs and tacos, have broken the mold with sophisticated fleets and tech-savvy chefs serving fancy foods such as crème brulee, locally sourced lamb even duck dumplings.

While the costs of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant can be daunting for would-be restaurateurs, a culinary truck takes less capital and requires fewer people to man. The lower overhead and the opportunity to customize everything from the menu to their work schedule to the truck itself have attracted experienced chefs and enthusiastic industry newcomers. And many entrepreneurs are turning to eBay to source their supplies.

For established restaurateur Jenny Levison, who founded the wildly popular Souper Jenny restaurant (a cozy spot featuring her famous soups, along with salads, sandwiches and dessert) in the Buckhead neighborhood in Atlanta 11 years ago, a lunch truck had more appeal than opening another location. “People have always asked me to open in other places, but I really didn’t want to,” says Levison, whose first eBay purchase this past August was a former hot dog truck, 1987 Chrysler Van than runs on propane. “Going mobile seemed more manageable for one or two people and could help me bring soup to the masses!” And, for Levison, the price was right. She won the auction at only $3,000 and had a friend paint the truck in hard-to-miss hues.

Souper Jenny

Levison, who is preparing to take her most popular items like Tomato Basil Soup, My Dad’s Famous Turkey Chili, and Homemade Pita sandwiches to the streets, spent weekends scouting locations and determining what spots would be most accessible to customers. What she didn’t anticipate in creating the new extension of her restaurant was becoming part of a larger movement to legalize food trucks in Atlanta. “Atlanta is one of the few cities of its size without a viable street food business,” says Levison. “At first, I’ll be making appearances at schools and community and residential locations and selling soups by the quart and prepared food made at the restaurant. I have more leeway with the city’s laws and permits [this way]. But eventually, I hope to cook from the truck and, in essence, be able to drive up, set out chairs and create an instant restaurant anywhere.”

Like other mobile operations, Levison alerts hungry fans to the Incredible Flying Soup Mobile’s whereabouts through updates on Twitter and Facebook. Followers can also sign up for a daily email on her website.

The mobile eatery movement spans from coast to coast. in Austin, South Congress Avenue is lined with trailers selling everything from cupcakes, to Mexican food, barbeque and meat covered in hot and spicy breading, wrapped in a tortilla and serving in a paper drinking cone. In New York, traditional street vendors now compete with trucks selling cookies and brownies and dumplings. You can find miso flank steak in Dallas, burgers and tacos in Miami and handheld pocket pies in Houston.

In Seattle, Joshua Henderson, a former chef at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, and a growing staff make dishes, mostly of locally sourced food, and serve them from one of two Airstream trucks. Their "mobile food joints," called Skillet, often run out of dishes, like Kobe-beef burgers with bacon jam and potato onion soup with pancetta and sage, by 1 p.m.

Skillet; photos by Jenni Geel

And in In Los Angeles, curbside dining has exited sub-culture to become such a popular scene that a debut street food festival last month, LA Street Food Fest, drew thousands and sod out before the gates were opened. Molly Taylor of The Sweets Truck was among the participants. She launched the business with the goal of becoming part of the Los Angeles community and outlasting trends. “We created a strong business plan in order to thrive over the long term,” says Taylor, whose chocolate fudge “Crack Bar” and red velvet cookies have created legions of sweet addicts. Like Levison, Taylor turned to eBay to outfit to outfit a new truck, custom built for her operation. “We bought a lot of equipment including an espresso machine and paper products and other miscellaneous goodies.”