Topic: Columbus: Food Trucks news & discussion

[Columbo]

I don't know why, but I think this is a great idea...



http://tacotruckscolumbus.com/2009/04/10/taco-truck-tour-april-25th/

[MyTwoSense]

[kingfish out of water]

Taco trucks are the hot thing these days, and twitter is partially to blame.

[MyTwoSense]

Taco trucks are the hot thing these days, and twitter is partially to blame.

You know where they got that idea, don't you?  The BBQ trucks you see in the south.
 
After the club closes at 2/3 pm, those BBQ trucks appear out or nowhere and lines can be 50/60 deep.

[kingfish out of water]

In my day we called them Roach Coaches.

[David]

This screams "Our business is legit!". Is it owned by Mexicans?

I wouldn't be surprised if they're slipping rocks in some of those tacos. Westland is a haven for Mexican drugs. El Cora in Westland mall just got busted; it was the source of a huge drug ring. They were selling bricks right out of the restaurant.
(http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/27/el_cora.ART_ART_02-27-09_B1_CED26IG.html?sid=101 )

It's not just El Cora though. It's everywhere. This is the kind of sh!t that makes me not like illegal immigration. Police always wondered why so much cheap smack was coming out of Columbus. The far west side is gonna get worse and worse.

[kingfish out of water]

I'd like one "Jump To Conclusions Combo" for my friend David here, and an ice water for me, thank you.

[dmerkow]

Umm, Temple Univ. in Philly relies almost entirely on food trucks for campus food - only some of the them seem like the ice cream trucks that roam college neighborhoods at 2:00 AM, selling 'ice cream'. Most of the world has long parts of their fast food market on wheels, about darn time. Well we used to as well, had a great-grandfather who was a food peddler.

[David]

Colleges are the best place to have them. You get about 30 drunk college students in the front of a house, a taco truck could make a killing.

[edale]

The taco trucks are EVERYWHERE here in LA.  They are the LA equivalent of the NY hotdog stand. Between the taco trucks and the 24 hour walk up Mexican joints, you are pretty much guaranteed to get your fill of Mexican food whenever you want.

[WalkerEvans]

This screams "Our business is legit!". Is it owned by Mexicans?

If you're referring to the blog and event, no. It's being put on by fans of the taco trucks.

[David]

How is this an "event"? I just don't get it.  People are meeting up to carpool and check out dfferent taco trucks? What's the point? Discussing the merits and demerits of each truck's tacos? What a weird @ss 'event'. Nerds...

[Columbo]

How is this an "event"? I just don't get it.  People are meeting up to carpool and check out dfferent taco trucks? What's the point? Discussing the merits and demerits of each truck's tacos? What a weird @ss 'event'. Nerds...

...said the guy who has over 9000 posts on UrbanOhio!   

[Avogadro]

That's right, David; all of us Mexicans deal drugs and slip them into food that we serve to you gabachos.  I myself have been responsible for lowering the property values of my white neighbors, what with parking my trucks on my treelawn and housing a couple dozen "relatives" in my place.

Anyway, the taco truck thing has been around forever in Texas.  It's only been recently that the hipsters have "discovered" them.

[drewdrew]

Hello All-

I'm Drew, one of the contributers to the tacotruckscolumbus.com blog and am also helping with organizing the Taco Truck Tour.

Let me respond to a few of the questions/comments brought up here:

As far as I can tell, these taco trucks are as legitimate as any other business - they're regulated to the same standards as any restaurant and are required to display their health inspection stickers (all of which were green!).

We are not affiliated in any way with the owners of these trucks - this blog is the result of a research project done by one of our contributors for an OSU class on Latin American geography.  In going through the research (much of which involved visiting the trucks) we came to believe that they have a unique and high-quality offering that is distinctly underappreciated (largely due to location).

That pretty well explains the impetus behind the truck tour.  It's simply providing an opportunity for people to get out there and see what these trucks have to offer.  It's much more than tacos, btw, and we at least found it interesting to see the wide variety of different specialties and how they related to the origins of the different truck owners.  The tour is structured in such a way as to hit trucks that provide a fairly wide range of unique offerings.

If you'd like to know more, you can visit our blog which provides descriptions of the 17 (and counting...) different trucks currently operating in the area.

http://tacotruckscolumbus.com/

[MyTwoSense]

That's right, David; all of us Mexicans deal drugs and slip them into food that we serve to you gabachos.  I myself have been responsible for lowering the property values of my white neighbors, what with parking my trucks on my treelawn and housing a couple dozen "relatives" in my place.

I knew it!  Damn MessyKans!  Gabacho?  LOL  Why not use Gringo? [thats a perfect example of regional dialetic.  I only here that word when im Texas or LA.]
 

Anyway, the taco truck thing has been around forever in Texas.  It's only been recently that the hipsters have "discovered" them.

Funny you say that, the first time I saw the BBQ trucks was in either Houston or Dallas.  They are super popular in those cities.  I remember going to a club in Houston (on the otherside of the highway behind the convention center) and as we were leaving four or five BBQ and Mexican truck just appeared out of nowhere.

[X]

Taco Trucks?  Why don't we have these in Cleveland?

[MyTwoSense]

Taco Trucks?  Why don't we have these in Cleveland?

Maybe not a market.
 
Avogadro, sounds like a business plan man! 

[David]

How is this an "event"? I just don't get it.  People are meeting up to carpool and check out dfferent taco trucks? What's the point? Discussing the merits and demerits of each truck's tacos? What a weird @ss 'event'. Nerds...

...said the guy who has over 9000 posts on UrbanOhio!   

Yeah, every time I get on here I seem to spur long drawn out arguments  Maybe I revel in my own controversy too much.

That's right, David; all of us Mexicans deal drugs and slip them into food that we serve to you gabachos.  I myself have been responsible for lowering the property values of my white neighbors, what with parking my trucks on my treelawn and housing a couple dozen "relatives" in my place.

Sorry if I offended you. Of course not all Mexicans are drug dealers. Far from it.  However, in the case of this part of town there's a strong correlation. "Correlation" doesn't mean "causation" but it's a general pattern. I'm much more familiar with this area than probably anyone else on the forum. I've lived in the area and have family and friends in the area.

Heroin from Mexico, plied by Mexican dealers, is turning up all over central Ohio. Experts say the potency of black-tar heroin, named for its appearance, almost matches the purity of heroin from the Middle East and that the stronger heroin is leading to more deaths.

The influx of heroin parallels the growing Latino population in Ohio.

"They're bringing with them black-tar heroin," said Michael Sanders, spokesman for the DEA's national headquarters.

Heroin use goes through cycles, said Columbus Police Sgt. Bill Mingus. "It's never been a bigger problem than it is now."

...
These days, deals are arranged by cell phone and completed in the parking lots of suburban shopping centers, preferably ones that offer quick access to an interstate.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Prichard said dealers fill and deliver drug orders with such ease you would think it was pizza.


One deal happened in September outside the Old Navy store at 1852 Hilliard-Rome Rd. in Columbus, near Hilliard, federal court documents say. Busy shoppers apparently weren't aware that 70 balloons packed with heroin, roughly $1,400 worth, had just been sold.

Over on the West Side near Hilliard, federal agents seized $34,170 in cash when they raided the 5577 Millwheel Court apartment. The three people they arrested there admitted that the cash was payment for black-tar heroin.

Some dealers immigrate to central Ohio from Mexico because they know they can make a living selling heroin. Emmanuel Arturo Aguayo Hernandez and Louis Perez Puentes paid a smuggler to help them cross the border, the DEA says. They moved into a Far East Side apartment and sold about $1,200 in heroin a day, according to authorities.


http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/12/10/HeroinOD.ART_ART_12-10-07_A1_QH8NRUS.html?sid=101

The use of the word "latino" is incorrect but you get the point.

[WalkerEvans]

Jesus. This got pretty de-railed.

Anyway, I plan on going to this event. Hanging out with some friends. Trying out some good authentic food.

It sounds like fun to me.

[David]

Report back and let us know how good they are. I'm in that area a lot and if they're really that good I'll start getting them.

[WalkerEvans]

The reviews (and photos) on the website all look pretty awesome to me.

http://tacotruckscolumbus.com/2009/04/06/las-delicias/

[mrnyc]

The taco trucks are EVERYWHERE here in LA.  They are the LA equivalent of the NY hotdog stand. Between the taco trucks and the 24 hour walk up Mexican joints, you are pretty much guaranteed to get your fill of Mexican food whenever you want.

yeah, el lay gets the press for them, but the taco trucks are all over ny too. in fact i've had 10 in a row lined up back to back down the whole block on a few nights -- feeding the meatpacking district club crowds.

and then every sunday morning we have trucks & stands that run down the block because of our mid-block church that co-hosts and alternates mass with a mexican parish that outgrew its home.

anyway, i think this columbus taco truck tour is a great idea and sounds like a lot of fun. in fact it's remarkable and anectdotally it really shows the level of immigration into columbus versus what seems to be the utter lack of it in the rest of the state. when i lived in columbus like 15 yrs ago this tour would have consisted of food at talita's and drinks at garcias on n. high st and that's it. 

[WalkerEvans]

My wife and I attended the tour today and had a lot of fun. The crowds around the trucks were fairly busy (15-25 people at any given time) but the truck owners were notified in advance of the rush and handled it like pros. We only had to wait around 5-10 minutes for our food.

Anyway, we only stopped by #2 (Super Torta II) and #3 (Las Delicias) on the tour.

At Super Torta we ordered two tacos (one adobada and one pollo) and a mandarina jarritos. Super deal at only $1.25 per taco and another $1.50 for the 20 oz drink. Good $4 lunch option for anyone on the west side. The tacos were of the simple meat, onion, cilantro variety with sides of cucumber, radish, and lime. Everything was very fresh, but without any sort of salsa it was a bit dry. Despite the dryness, the pork was pretty tasty, but my wife Anne said the chicken didn't seem to have any sort of seasoning added at all. The drink was great though! Can't recall the last time I've drank a carbonated beverage that was made with sugar instead of HFCS. The taste is so much different.

At Las Delicias we decided to go bigger and order burritos. They were $5 each and I went with barbacoa while Anne got chicken. To my surprise they were larger than Chipotle burritos and extremely filling, which is why we cut the tour short. We both enjoyed these quite a bit, and the flavors were great, but I was surprised to find that the burritos were filled with lettuce and sour cream. I thought that was an american invention? Or perhaps I forgot to specify that I wanted the non-gringo version? Either way, I tried my best to eat around the lettuce (which I don't like) and enjoy the rest of it.

We'll definitely be back for more.

[mrnyc]

great report & taco truck fun!

re the burritos, i know a bit about their history. yes they are mexican, but very much low key down there, you dont see them so much -- vs in the states where they are insanely popular. my understanding is that californians (& texans to a lesser extent) took to burritos and really ran with them. so they that's how burritos got popularized around the rest of the usa, not via mexico. or you can think of it kinda like how thin neapolitan pizza morphed across the usa until it turned into monstrous chicago style pizza. anyway, the las delicias truck may cater slightly more toward those americano preferences -- but this is common among taco trucks.

most traditional mexican taco stands/trucks that i have experienced are more like the first truck you hit 'super torta,' except as you say it was odd that they didn't have any seasoning or worse any salsas. most really seem to pride themselves on their salsas.

oh and i love those jarritos sodas too. my fav are the sangria and tamarindo flavored versions. they are something different and very tasty vs the usual pepsi or whatever. you might keep an eye out for mexican versions of coke too, i think they still use cane sugar.

[UncleRando]

Sounds like lots of fun...if I were in Columbus at the time I would have been all over this.  Thanks for sharing all the details and reviews everyone.

[WalkerEvans]

Great recap here:

http://tacotruckscolumbus.com/2009/04/25/taco-truck-tour-recap/

The word on the street is that they'll be announcing another tour event soon featuring other trucks. Stay tuned!

[Columbo]

Tracking tacos
Blog guides customers to Columbus for authentic Latino fare
Wednesday,  June 24, 2009 - 6:18 AM
By Kevin Joy, The Columbus Dispatch

Like a storm chaser in search of the perfect cyclone, Jim Ellison is seeking a taco.  Surveying a back alley in the West Side neighborhood of Franklinton, he stops at a nondescript lot behind an auto-body shop -- a vague location where Internet tipsters had touted a nomadic taco truck serving "awesome" burritos.  It's all in a day's work for the creators of Taco Trucks Columbus, a blog that provides photos, mini-reviews and addresses of the city's growing cache of Latino mobile-food vendors.  Their discoveries -- a tally that includes more than 30 outlets and is still increasing -- are also cataloged via Google Maps (a link is provided on the site, www.tacotruckscolumbus.com).

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/food/stories/2009/06/24/1_TACOTRUCKS_-_Food_lead_ART_06-24-09_D1_V9E8JTU.html?sid=101

[Columbo]

Because we can't get enough of the Columbus Taco Trucks, here is an audio interview from Columbus Foodcast with the creators of the TacoTrucks Columbus website.



Episode 43 - Taco Trucking
Columbus Foodcast and the great minds behind Tacotrucks Columbus have a chat at Los Potosinos.  Lydia, co-owner of Los Potosinos, was present during the introduction but her full interview was cut due to time constraints.  Lydia will get her due though as she'll have an entire episode to herself in the coming weeks. 

Hungrywoolf, CMHGourmand, and Taco Drew started Taco Trucks Columbus in January 09 "to try and locate, sample, and document the taco truck culture of Columbus Ohio."  The local Latino population has grown to 6% up from 2.5% in 2000 and the number of Taco Trucks has seen an even more pronounced explosion.  Luckily http://tacotruckscolumbus.com is here as a guide with written reviews, a glossary, T-shirts, and an extensive map.

We salute you, Taco Truckers.

Music
R.C. Mob - Hungry
Los Lobos - El Gusto
Los Lobos - One Time One Night
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - El Matador

Duration: 23.58

You can use the player at http://columbusfood.tv/index.php?post_id=494808 to listen to the podcast, or click here to download the mp3.

[David]

I can't believe that that map is the tour. There are well over a dozen taco trucks in that area and beyond. There's even one in the HILLTOP business district. I eat at a taco truck outside the laundromat while I'm washing clothes. The people are really friendly. They gave me free tacos one time because of a small inconvenience (they ran out of propane - big deal lol).

[WalkerEvans]

The point of the tour wasn't to hit every single taco truck in town. The point was to give people a sampling and allow them to try out four places in one evening and hop around.

It would be hard to go to a dozen trucks in a row, even if you only got 1 taco per truck.

[WalkerEvans]

Foodie Cart Brings Japanese Crepes to Columbus
By Walker | August 9, 2010 2:00pm



The Summer of 2010 may officially be known as the Summer of the Food Carts thanks to a wide variety of sidewalk dining options that have exploded over the past few months. One unique offering that has quickly gained a loyal following is “Foodie Cart”, which owners Kenny Kim & Misako Ohba created to serve Japanese-style crepes to Columbus diners.

We recently caught up with Kenny for a quick Q&A about their new business venture and to find out how it’s been going for them so far.

READ MORE: http://www.columbusunderground.com/foodie-cart-brings-japanese-crepes-to-columbus

[Columbo]

Nice overview of the Fusion Cafe street vendor from the website Serious Eats:

Street Food Profiles: Fusion Cafe in Columbus, Ohio

[WalkerEvans]

Yankee Cajun Food Truck Setting up Downtown
By Walker | August 25, 2010 2:30pm



Yankee Cajun is the latest destination food cart to make their Downtown debut, which will take place on September 7th. According to their twitter profile, they are all about “bringing the flavors of the French Quarter and Cajun country to foodies in Columbus”. They will be setting up near the corner of Gay Street and High Street next to the 3 Babes and a Baker Cupcake Truck.

READ MORE: http://www.columbusunderground.com/yankee-cajun-food-truck-setting-up-downtown

[Columbo]

And while were on the subject of mobile vendors, StreetEatsColumbus has an eclectic mix of cuisine which features reviews of the following:

Boston Bert’s Seafood -- Corner of Indianola and Blenheim in Clintonville.

Lucky Ladle -- Wednesdays (11:30am – 1:00pm) Nationwide-Pearl Alley Growers’ Association at North High Street and Nationwide Boulevard in Downtown Columbus and Thursdays (11:30am – 1:00pm) Nationwide-Pearl Alley Growers’ Association on Nationwide's Dublin campus at 5100 Rings Road.

Leslie’s Creperie -- In the Pearl Alley Market on Tuesdays and Fridays and on Broad street near Third on Monday and Wednesday for Breakfast and Lunch.

Rad Dog! -- Vegan hot dog cart operating Tuesday-Friday lunchtimes at Broad & High.

Dave’s Carribbean Food  -- Caters to the crowd at Skully’s Sunday reggae night in the Short North.

My Snappy Wagon -- Located in the parking lot of the Columbus Gold Gentlemen's Club at 5411 Bethel / Sawmill Center, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 9 PM to 2:00 AMish…maybe later depends on business at Columbus Gold.  Egyptian gyros and sandwiches.

Slabadabado BBQ -- 904 South Sunbury Road, Near North Road and Hoover Dam (between Classic Pizza and Old Dutchman Bait and Tackle) on Wednesday and Thursday 11AM-7PM, Friday and Saturday 11AM-8PM, Sunday 11AM-5PM

Skillet: Mobile Rustic Urban Food -- An offshoot of the popular Skillet restaurant in German Village.  The mobile kitchen has most frequently appeared in the parking lot of O’Reilly’s Auto Parts in Olde North Columbus (at N. High Street and Hudson) and more recently, in the Short North.  The adventures and appearances of the mobile kitchen can be followed best on twitter at: @SkilletRustic