À La Cart

Written By Scott Joseph On January 9, 2019

alacart sign

The concept of the permanent food truck rally that is À La Cart brings with it one great advantage over other food truck gatherings. Yes, there is available seating, something that is often nonexistent unless you haul your own lawn chairs. And much of that seating is inside a pavilion, which not only offers said seating — at tables! — and shelter from the elements but also has a bar serving an impressive array of craft beers.

Nice things all. But the nicest advantage is something I didn’t realize at first. Something was missing here from other food truck rallies, and its absence makes À La Cart all the more enjoyable. The mostly permanent location allows the participating trucks to operate on electric power and leave their loud, smelly, gasoline chugging generators off.

alacart trucks 1

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Downtown Disney Food Trucks

Written By Scott Joseph On November 20, 2013

Disney food truck

If you needed any proof that the food truck trend has legs — or really big tires, if you will — you need look no further than Downtown Disney, where the WDW culinears have dispatched a new fleet. And not just Disney — Wolfgang Puck Cafe has its own vehicle, parked, oddly, just outside its front door.

I experienced a couple of the new trucks while strolling around the Festival of the Masters (which, on a separate note, was really disappointing from an artistic standpoint this year). The Puckmobile was the first one I came across, though it is billed as Truckeria Rolling Tacos. Compared to the other trucks, which are kind of spiffy and new looking, Truckeria had a plain and slightly worn look, painted in basic black. Yet there was something manufactured about the look, as though slapdash was what they were going for. Maybe it was the vinyl banner with the truck’s name on the side that had a light fixture and an electrical outlet installed over it — that sort of counters the notion that the truck just drove up and a banner was unfurled.

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Local Yolk’l

Written By Scott Joseph On October 1, 2013

local yolkl truck

Although it has changed a bit since its inception, the Tasty Tuesdays food truck event in the Milk District remains a favorite of mine. I stopped in on a recent evening — I’m pretty sure it was a Tuesday — to check out some of the truck fare.

One of the vendors I visited was Local Yolk’l, the cleverly named truck that specializes in breakfast no matter what time of the day it is. I like that sort of thinking.

On the night I visited they had red velvet pancakes, buttermilk pancakes, vegan pancakes, various manners of french toast, and, as you’d guess from the name of the truck, several egg-centric dishes. (And by the way, according to Local Yolk’l’s Facebook page, they use only local (duh) eggs from cage-free chickens. They also claim the chickens are happy, but that’s so hard to verify.)

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The State of the Food Truck Scene

Written By Scott Joseph On September 25, 2013

Swededish truck

It was March 30, 2011. Mark Baratelli of The Daily City was hosting something he was calling a Food Truck Bazaar. I was along as a media sponsor. Baratelli had arranged to take over the parking lot of Discovery Church south of downtown Orlando. Eight trucks had signed on, though a couple of those weren’t legitimate food trucks. But Baratelli was happy to have them so that the parking lot wouldn’t look under occupied.

We didn’t know what to expect.

We certainly didn’t expect the thousands of people who showed up, parking their cars in the strip center across the street and dodging traffic on Orange Avenue to get to the Bazaar. And we never would have guessed that people would stand in lines for over an hour. And that they’d keep coming back for more.

Food truck lineThe line at one of the early Food Truck Bazaars. Off in the distance is Korean BBQ Taco Box.

Now, two and a half years later, the Central Florida food truck scene is still cruising right along. It would be difficult to find a day of the week without some sort of food truck gathering. And that fleet of eight of so trucks has grown to include 80 to 100 and possibly more. (Urbanspoon has 187 listings in its Central Florida food truck category.)

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