Food trucks

LiveEastie.com interviews one of the owners of Shuckin' Truck, which now serves up seafood in East Boston.

We do try to source our seafood from the family of fishing vessels in RI. However, due to the fact that we now operate 7 days a week, it's hard for them to keep up with the demand. Our secondary source is directly from the Boston Pier every morning.

The Daily Free Press reports Boston University is planning a food truck of its own - specializing in Asian fusion food.

"Do Not Serve" posters featuring Andelmans have gone up at the Staff Meal food truck, BostInno reports. It's partly due to an argument over whether food trucks are stealing business from restaurants, but goes back to last year's ugly little incident at Grill 23.

Armed with an April food-truck schedule, David at Limeduck is attempting to sample the offerings from each truck. He starts with a visit to the venerable Savory Food Truck 1, which was dishing up Chinese food at MIT probably long before anybody at Clover was even born:

Yep, that's the stuff. Fried rice, a layer of bulk-adding cost-cutting cabbage, no more than three chunks of not-overcooked broccoli, and tons of would-be-crispy-if-n0t-drenched-in-gloopy-sauce white meat chicken. Bad for the earth styrofoam box, flimsy plastic fork. Piquant without really being spicy, served hot and fast, and filling filling filling. There's nothing Michelin-rated here except maybe the tires on the truck, but it's still a national treasure to me.

Know before you go.

Boston Restaurant Talk reports on an impending addition to Boston's food-truck scene.

Adam Gendreau, co-owner and co-operator of the Staff Meal food truck, has penned an open letter to city officials about Boston's nascent food-truck efforts:

Despite the media portrayal that the food truck industry in Boston is thriving, the reality is that the city hasn’t implemented a system that will allow food trucks to succeed.

The problem, as I see it, is a cultural one. There has never been a street food culture in this city; we’re building one from the ground up. With that in mind, there’s a reasonable expectation that the city would shine a spotlight on this burgeoning industry in order to aid the cultural adoption on the part of both vendors and customers. The model of deciding where food trucks would be successful isn’t currently working well.

Gendreau praises city efforts, but says food-truck operators and the city should be focusing on certain heavily trafficked areas first before spreading out across the city - such as the Back Bay and the Financial District:

At the very least the city should allow multiple trucks to cluster in Back Bay. This would easily help all of us fill our schedules with spots that are known to be prosperous. It also provides multiple food options, which most people would see as being a good thing. Clustering would be a simple solution to help the food truck industry expand.

The state Department of Transportation and the city of Boston today announced a competition for applications that let users navigate between the T and the Hubway bike system and find the location of the nearest food trucks.

State and city officials are hoping the real-time MBTA and Hubway data, coupled with information about food trucks, will lead to the same sorts of applications that emerged after a similar competition in 2009, then based just on data for certain bus routes.

Officials announced three categories of apps: One that highlights "the transit connections" between the T and Hubway rental stations, one that best visualizes "A day in the life of the MBTA and New Balance Hubway" and "Bikes, Lunch and T" to highlight city food trucks.

Apps can be submitted through Feb. 24. Developers of the winning apps will get a CharlieCard LinkPass and Hubway membership good for one year and two free passes to upcoming food-truck festivals.

Hairee Lee interviews the people behind three of our homegrown food trucks - and one homegrown coffee-cart-on-a-bike.

Jacqueline Church samples the offerings at BBQsmith, a food truck that can now often be found parked by the Chinatown gate.

I chose the smoked beef sandwich. Doc had smoked pork. Both sandwiches were fantastic.

Today was scheduled to be the day that 15 food trucks first turned on their grills to serve hungry Boston patrons.

According to Boston.com, however, "at least nine" of the 15 trucks were not in their assigned locations, many of which are located in the Boston Proper neighborhoods.

Delays in permitting and trucks / equipment problems were blamed. The city's point-person on the project reminded people this was just "the launch of a pilot" program that would be rolled out over the next year.

It was just a year ago (July 14, 2010) that City Councilor Michael Ross filed a measure to hold a hearing on how to regulate the trucks.

At Washington and Ave. de Lafayette until 3 p.m., BostInnovation advises. Cupcakes and grilled cheese, anyone?

Councilors Mike Ross and Sal Lamattina propose up to 25 new licenses for food trucks to roam the city, bringing fresh, hot, inexpensive meals to the masses.

The SoWa Open Market announces they'll have food trucks at their 460 Harrison Ave. location every Sunday through October, starting this weekend:

Fillbelly's, Trolley Dogs, Boston Frosty, Pizza Barbone, Concept Carts and more are signing up.

Via the Phoenix.

The city wants to turn City Hall Plaza into a mobile food court - it's requesting formal proposals from owners of food trucks who want to set up shop on the brick expanse:

The City of Boston seeks creative mobile food vending proposals for a multi-round selection process. Selected winners will receive technical assistance, permitting guidance, and assistance applying for low-interest loans from the City of Boston, in order to begin mobile food vending operations on City Hall Plaza by Spring 2011. The focus for selection will be to promote health, community, and sustainability.

If you want to keep on truckin', applications are due by Sept. 13.

Via Lindsay Crudele.

Elizabeth posts some photos from a walk through the South End yesterday.

Fun and Fearless posts photos as well.

The City Council today will consider whether to license the latest culinary craze to hit Boston: Food trucks.

City Council President Mike Ross has filed a measure seeking a hearing on how to regulate the trucks, which are just now beginning to spread beyond their traditional base at MIT.

Ross's proposed order speaks of environmental and zoning concerns.

With any luck, the city could have regulations in place in time to annoy regulate all the trucks scheduled to attend Boston's first food-truck festival on Aug. 8.

If you're getting hungry, mark Aug. 8 on your calendar for the Food Truck Festival in the South End.

Via Grub Street Boston.

Fun and Fearless in Beantown gives a thumb's up to the Clover food truck at Dewey Square:

... Clover Food Truck is obviously a big hit with vegetarians and vegans alike (they can make most orders vegan friendly) but as a meat eater, I was also duly impressed. The sandwich was really filling and hit the spot. ...

At least, that's what's promised by Fillbelly's. Has anybody seen this food truck yet? Their Twitter feed is a bit barren. They claim Roslindale and Hyde Park as part of their route.

Via MC Slim JB.