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Mobile Food Mania

June 23rd, 2010    •  by Bethia    •   12 Comments »

Columbus is in the midst of mobile food mania. Following the lead of cities like New York, LA and Portland, the trend of gourmet food trucks is hitting the streets of Columbus.

Last year when we started the website tacotruckscolumbus.com, we thought that we might find up to ten taco trucks – we grossly underestimated. Since then, trucks have come and gone, but overall the popularity and number of taco trucks have steadily grown. There are now forty taco trucks, making Columbus the taco truck capital of the Midwest. No other Midwest city can rival the number and variety of taquerias gracing our city streets. They’re not just Mexican either – there are Honduran, Salvadorean and Colombian trucks too.

Rad Dog‘s hot dog cart is a well established vegan friendly street food option, but now, hot dog carts and taco trucks aren’t the only mobile vendors offering good value and delicious food on the streets of Columbus.

Ray Rays BBQ truck opened this winter in Clintonville and has had a strong following ever since, winning hearts and devoted fans with their pork, ribs and brisket. You can keep track of their hours and location on facebook.

Skillet’s mobile kitchen is an off-shoot of their Whittier Avenue location and can be sporadically found at O’Reilley’s autoparts on High Street. They offer such delicacies as short rib sandwiches and pork belly quesadillas. You can find out what’s on offer when and where by following them on @skilletrustic. If you are lucky, you may find The Lucky Ladle soup cart at a farmers market or special event.

Mikey’s Late Night Slice pizza truck is a spin-off of their fixed-abode parking lot location near Bodega. As the name suggests, look for the pizza-slinging truck, late at night, or on facebook.

Columbus has three Caribbean food trucks: El Rincon Latino on the East side, Red Snapper which can be found at Pearl Alley Market on Tuesdays and Fridays during the summer  months, and Dave’s Caribbean Food Truck, which appears outside Skully’s on Sunday nights.

New kid on the block is Three Babes And  A Baker, a cupcake truck, currently displaying their beautiful wares at the junction of High and Gay, downtown. They bake the cupcakes in the truck early in the morning and today were doing a brisk lunchtime trade. Hours and location are updated @3babesandabaker.

Eagerly anticipated is the soon-to-be-launched Japanese crepe cart – Fresh Street. They should make their debut appearance any day now. To be first in line follow them @freshstreet

What did I miss? I’m sure there are more, and I can’t wait to see what other trucks pop up.

What’s on your mobile food wish list?


12 Comments to “Mobile Food Mania”

  1. Watch for the Jeni’s Bajaj on the streets this summer, too. Splits (more than a scoop, less than a pint) and ice-cream sammies. Coming soon!

    http://yfrog.com/2h68866115j

    • hungrywoolf
      June 23, 2010

      It’s a baby truck – too cute! How can we track it?

      • Twitter, mostly. (@jenisicecreams) Maybe Foursquare as a moving target.

        This Sunday, catch it at the Tour de Grandview.

  2. A friend is opening a vegetarian Vietnamese truck soon.

    • hungrywoolf
      June 23, 2010

      That’s exciting! Keep me posted. There was a Vietnamese truck briefly last year but it closed before I had a chance to try it.

  3. hungrywoolf
    June 24, 2010

    Not sufficiently nocturnal to have spotted it myself yet but just saw this:
    Eggfast has a new mobile vendor located on 3rd and Pennsylvania, from 1-3:30AM! After Zeno’s Bar or Harrison’s On Third make sure you stop by for Breakfast Burritos, Tacos, Flapsticks and our famous Hashbrown Casserole!

  4. I think I might have to make a trip over to try out the vegetarian and cupcake trucks:)….Yum!!

  5. Any word on Bert’s (Burt’s maybe) Seafood place on Indianola just north of Weiland’s. Havent tried yet, but seems promising!

  6. 3 Babes and a Baker
    July 11, 2010

    Thank you so much for stopping by Hungrywoolf, and spreading the word about Columbus Ohio’s 1st Gourmet Cupcake Truck :-). Customers can stay in touch, and get daily alerts by following us on Twitter & Facebook @ 3babesandabaker. We appreciate YOU and all of our New Followers. We couldn’t have done it without you 🙂

  7. hungrywoolf
    July 13, 2010

    http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/new-mobile-restaurant

    There’s a new mobile restaurant in town: Fusion Cafe’. We serve Caribbean, Latin and American classics in-fused with a lot of different flavors and ingredients. Our home base is outside Dick’s Den on N. High St. T/Th/F/S/S 9pm ’til we sell out, the Blendon Twp. Farmer’s Mkt. on Thursday 3-6pm and outside Paradise Garage @ 1st & N. High St. Saturday afternoon. here’s some of our menu Rotation’s:
    Jerk Chicken w/Island Salad, Peas and Rice, Cuban-style pressed sandwiches (veggie/chicken/turkey), Jerk Bison Sliders, Grilled Veggie Kebobs w/Sesame-Ginger Sauce, Stewed Pork w/Fusion Slaw, Build Your Own Smoothies–just to name a few.

    We are a “Green” restaurant= Solar panels, battery powered, we cook clean propane gas on a lava rock grill and we use chemical-free and postively ionized water to clean with!! We’ll even wash, rinse and sanitize your plastic utensils, put a # on them that coallates to your name and store them in zip-lock for use on your next visit!! Check us out in person or Facebook..either way we’ll win you over!!

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