Today, I hit up the “Ragin Cajun” food truck for lunch with Calvin. And on my drive home, I got a glance of a Twisty Burger Truck (or some other weird name… basically, their theme seemed to be hamburgers). And that got me thinking; with all this food-truck hype buzzing around LA, what is it that draws hour-long lines to some food trucks, while others seem only to garner the attention of a few loyal fans?
Well, if I knew that answer 100%, I would probably go out and start a food truck business. But I don’t. I do, however, know what I look for when I want to patronize a food truck.
In my view, the most important aspect of a successful food truck is that it must serve UNIQUE food. Let me explain. Why do you think the food truck crazy only exploded recently? I’m willing to bet that, for years prior, there have been hundreds of mexican food trucks all over LA. Yet, the mainstream public never went crazy for them. They usually served the same location, the same patrons, and were essentially mobile restaurants.
What kicked off the craze was the Kogi Truck. Korean food, Mexican style. No one’s done that before! The Kogi Truck went for a unique fusion, and took a well known concept (mexican food from a truck) and Spiced it up, Korean style.
Then you have the Grilled Cheese truck. There’s nothing really unique about grilled cheese, but what IS unique is being served grilled cheese while on the go, and for lunch and dinner. This time, it wasn’t really the food that was the draw, it was the fact that there are rarely any restaurants that flaunt the grilled cheese on their menu. A long forgotten comfort food, the Grilled Cheese truck brought the cheesy sandwiches back into prominence, and reminded people why they loved it so much! And succeed they did, in reminding people, as well as attracting customers to their truck! I’d venture to say that it unique in it’s venture to make grilled cheese popular again!
When I think of food trucks, those 2 are the ones that immediately pop into my head. They are the top tier in both uniqueness and creativity. Almost all the other trucks, I’d say, are a tier below these. They rely on the novel idea of serving different food from a truck. Breakfast food from a truck? Never done before! Dim sum from a truck? Probably also never been done before. But that’s all they really have going for them; it’s just normal food, served from a radically different style of restaurant. But, the public got caught up in the hype and is still high on the idea of expensive food from a large vehicle, so it’s still a great time to be in the food truck business.
Personally, though, most of them are just poseurs milking the hype for all it’s worth. If you’re going to start a food truck, I think you have to come up with a great idea first, and not just hope that people will come flocking to you because “durr…. it’s a restaurant on wheels”. Get creative!
