Forget Food Trucks, Embrace Trailers
Just when Raleigh gets in the heat of an edgy debate, it remembers that it's not quite so hip. Austin, Texas, has a thriving culture of -- not food trucks, but Food Trailers. Utilizing unbuilt lots, they generate revenue as restaurants and rent for landowners while providing convenient (and oftentimes gourmet) eats for townies and visitors alike.
Food Trailers are real restaurants: kitchens within renovated airstreams, storage trailers and custom built food stands. They avoid many of the problems of both food trucks and actual restaurant buildings -- and they have minimal impact on environment relative to both structures and gas-guzzling trucks.
Austin has over 1,000 of these types of establishments, several of which have been featured on Food Network and Travel shows, and have spawned successful restaurant owners and chefs. Here are a few of my own personal favorites:
Flip Happy Crepes
Featured on Bobby Flay's Throwdown, this trailer is a "true culinary destination." Their savory crepes are the best, and one crepe is as big as a burrito. My favorites are the Moroccan Chicken (pictured below), oozing with fresh veggies, and the Tarragon mushroom stuffed with goat cheese, carmelized onion, spinach, tomato and chives.
Cazamance
This African-fusion food trailer serves up a delicious variety of soups and sandwiches like you've never tasted. Extremely tasty, this very original menu is only the beginning of eating with Cazamance -- atmosphere and delivery is clearly as important to this unique dining experience.
Odd Duck Farm to Trailer
The name sums it up -- fresh, local meats and veggies are prepared in delightfully delectable ways. Try the Pork Belly Sliders (pictured), Parmesan grits with duck egg, grilled squash and mushrooms for only $5, or the Half quail with texmati rice, apple, cheddar and apple cider rosemary vinaigrette.
Hey Cupcake!
Hey cupcake serves sweets, treats and drinks on South Congress Avenue. Some of their tastiest creations include the Red Velvet with cream cheese top and velvet cake,
the 24 Carrot with cream cheese and carrot cake and the Standard -- chocolate buttercream top with vanilla cake.
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Rob
09/02 01:48 PM
Take that Durham!
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Behki
09/02 03:03 PM
I’m pretty sure if this actually ended up being a “thing,” Raleigh city council members would come out with rules stating that the trailers can’t be made of metal, they can only open on MWF between 2 and 4 pm, and they have to corral themselves in the middle of a forest.
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Khaner
09/02 03:35 PM
Interesting!
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LoneVoice
09/04 08:14 AM
It looks like to me that Austin has its own twist to the food truck story. Rather than simply copy Austin, I think it would be great if Raleigh found its own solution to the problem.
As my post in the city council action earlier this morning briefly mentions, I didn’t realize that food trucks were a “must” on the checklist of what makes a city progressive.
Raleigh has abundant food choices, and we have restaurants that people drive from all over to come to. We have our share of holes-in-the-wall restaurants filled with ethnic food served in friendly fashion. No, they may not come directly to your doorstep. Sometimes, you do have to drive a little out of your way (or bicycle out of your way) to get there…but this has always seemed normal to me. I didn’t realize that by my driving to a restaurant made me counter-progressive.
If a restauranteur is going to be successful, then success means knowing how to thrive in the current environment. One should never define success in terms of what others should do first. “If only Raleigh would allow food trucks, I’d be successful” makes for a poor business plan.
In the meanwhile, I will continue to support local restaurants who employ scores of local residents in a local economy. How progressive.
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DPK
09/04 07:04 PM
Food rickshaws anyone? hehe
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WILLNCSU
09/07 02:16 PM
I saw the cupcake one last time I went to Austin. Didn’t try it though. Looked cool. South Congress is a lot of fun.
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Tom likes dim sum
09/12 03:07 PM
Portland Oregon has hundreds of food carts which range from hot dog carts to campers/trailers. They group them together in empty parking lots called “pods”.
One of the things that irritates me about the food truck debate is that both Austin and Portland have vibrant food scenes. Restaurants don’t appear to lose money because of the food cart scene. I found that some of the food cart food was pretty ordinary; some was excellent and some worth the money. That reflects my experience with restaurants generally. My advice to the restauranteurs is rather than spending time at city council meetings fighting competition, they should spend time making their establishments better in some way whether that’s through working with local farmers, training staff to give better service or just being different.
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