Friday, April 29, 2011
Five Fast & Furious Food Trucks
Posted By Austen Diamond on April 29, 2011, 4:12 PM
The show’s premise has seven of America’s finest food trucks embarking to various cities in an elimination challenge. The truck with the lowest sales in each city heads home. Challenges like food procurement, marketing, logistics and more abound as the animated chefs and servers dish out some entertainment along with tasty concoctions. Salt Lake City marks the second location of this season.
Stephanie Morgan, owner of Orange County’s Seabirds--a truck serving exclusively vegan food--chomps down some Vertical Diner grub as part of her “market research” of the local scene. “We are totally stoked on the vegan scene here and all the little diners that we don’t have back home,“ she says.
Morgan began her truck to bring vegan food to Orange County, which was a rarity. A food truck was ideal to allow her to start small, have something manageable and gauge interest.
Seabirds’ three person crew will serve fresh menu items like gluten-free Beer Battered Avocado Tacos, Jerk Jackfruit and Lemongrass Corn Chowder this weekend outside the Coffee Garden at 9th & 9th on Saturday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday is yet to be determined.
To advertise their locations, many of the six remaining trucks have found strategic partnerships. The competing trucks cannot use their own social media to advertise. “We really had to do old school marketing, pass out fliers and go to vegan restaurants,” Morgan says of Seabirds' marketing plan.
Folks can find out where Seabirds Sunday location is by following vegan chef Isa Chandra (@isachandra) and PETA (@peta) on Twitter.
Local food truck Chow Truck (@chowtruck) will also be tweeting its location.
Another truck that talked to City Weekly was San Francisco-based Devilicious. They say they have a huge gay following, and will be partnering up with Torta Truck (@tortatruck) and So Cupcake (@socupcake) to bring attention to the great Utah food trucks. Devilicious and the two Utah trucks will be at the RC Willey parking lot (2301 S. 300 West), from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Competing on the show is not only fun, but an invaluable long-term learning experience, Morgan says. “The challenges they put us through have pushed our limits and make us think on our feet. Already we’re learning new ways to operate and we’re thinking about new menu items for when we get back.”
As an outsider looking in, she says Salt Lake City has a lot of potential for her line of work. “It would be a good challenge to start a food truck here. They’re great on so many levels, like to cater a party--the mess just drives away--and a great way to bring in new cuisine,” she says.
“I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to start a new adventure in their life.”
On Topic...
-
Music Plus: Nov. 22
New music videos from David Lindes, Spirit Machines
- Nov 22, 2024
-
Film Reviews: New Releases for Nov. 22
Gladiator II, Wicked, The Piano Lesson, Blitz, Bonhoeffer, Black Box Diaries and more
- Nov 21, 2024
-
Film Reviews: New Releases for Nov. 13-15
Red One, A Real Pain, Ghost Cat Anzu, Hot Frosty
- Nov 14, 2024
- More Food & Drink » More Culture »
More by Austen Diamond
-
FLASHBACK 2010: How 9 Utahns survived being shot
Nine Lives
- Jul 29, 2024
- More »
Latest in Buzz Blog
