Showing posts with label gourmet food vans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gourmet food vans. Show all posts
Saturday, August 08, 2026
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Thursday, March 19, 2026
SF Gate newspaper just posted the origin story of the taco truck!
In 1969, Mexico City-born husband-and-wife team Raúl and Lupe Martinez arrived in Los Angeles by way of Tijuana. After a few years, the couple grew a fledgling street taco operation that centered around MacArthur Park into a true business, converting an ice cream truck into a fully operational kitchen in 1974. The pair promptly launched the rebuilt rig on the streets of greater LA, setting up curbside to quickly serve smaller, more compact tacos to people at bars or events.
Within a decade of King Taco rolling out on wheels, there were more than 500 different taco trucks in the LA area.
According to L.A. in a Minute, the truck sold $70 worth of tacos on its first night in 1974, doubling that number on its second evening of service. The Martinezes would later grow King Taco into a fleet of trucks and more than 20 standalone brick-and-mortar locations across Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
https://kingtaco.com/King Taco sponsors a Nascar team, and a 24 Hours of LeMans team
Sunday, January 18, 2026
Saturday, August 02, 2025
Saturday, June 07, 2025
compliments to Rebecca McHugh on her success in the mobile gourmet foods business in Wrexham! She's started out small, with a horse trailer instead of a food van, her coffee business is 'Meet me in the Morning'
After achieving a first-class degree in hospitality, founder Rebecca McHugh returned home with the dream of creating something ‘proudly Welsh.’
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
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Thursday, December 12, 2024
Saturday, November 02, 2024
Denver food trucks are officially barred from parking in the prime business area in Lower Downtown on weekend nights to curb downtown violence... through there is no connection between the gourmet food trucks, and crime
The decision was outlined in a notice handed to food truck owners, titled "Food Truck Exclusion Zone." It went into effect on Sept. 5.
DPD said it is part of a broader effort to enhance safety following a series of downtown shootings. DPD contends that the presence of food trucks contributes to violence, as people leaving bars in the LoDo district often congregate around them, leading to altercations.
In July, DPD also implemented designated rideshare pickup zones with similar safety.
A similar measure was implemented after a downtown shooting in 2022, and many food truck owners say they barely survived the fallout. Numerous operators watched as some fellow food truck businesses were forced to shut down due to the impact.
https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/denver-police-ban-food-trucks-lodo/73-3dd44d85-c226-44a9-ac47-d4c354f0e019
officials haven’t provided clear data on the effectiveness of the policy, food truck operators are voicing concerns over declining sales.
"If there is a shooting, they come close the food trucks. If there is a fight, they come close the food trucks. They don't close the nightclubs. They don't close the bars… They have to blame something. Who's the easy target? It’s the food truck,” he said.
9NEWS asked the Denver Police Department (DPD) for crime data, which showed there were 11 fewer calls for service in the area during the same September-October period last year when food trucks were still allowed to park.
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/denver-food-truck-exclusion-zone-crime/73-e211db5a-2d63-4c56-af44-746024d5561f
Here's a theory... lower downtown restaurants don't want the competition from food trucks, and pressured the city to move the trucks out of the prime area for getting walk up customers
DPD said it is part of a broader effort to enhance safety following a series of downtown shootings. DPD contends that the presence of food trucks contributes to violence, as people leaving bars in the LoDo district often congregate around them, leading to altercations.
In July, DPD also implemented designated rideshare pickup zones with similar safety.
A similar measure was implemented after a downtown shooting in 2022, and many food truck owners say they barely survived the fallout. Numerous operators watched as some fellow food truck businesses were forced to shut down due to the impact.
https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/denver-police-ban-food-trucks-lodo/73-3dd44d85-c226-44a9-ac47-d4c354f0e019
officials haven’t provided clear data on the effectiveness of the policy, food truck operators are voicing concerns over declining sales.
"If there is a shooting, they come close the food trucks. If there is a fight, they come close the food trucks. They don't close the nightclubs. They don't close the bars… They have to blame something. Who's the easy target? It’s the food truck,” he said.
9NEWS asked the Denver Police Department (DPD) for crime data, which showed there were 11 fewer calls for service in the area during the same September-October period last year when food trucks were still allowed to park.
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/denver-food-truck-exclusion-zone-crime/73-e211db5a-2d63-4c56-af44-746024d5561f
Here's a theory... lower downtown restaurants don't want the competition from food trucks, and pressured the city to move the trucks out of the prime area for getting walk up customers
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
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Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Friday, December 08, 2023
Danny & Coop’s Cheesesteaks... a new foodtruck which is donating the proceeds to charity - is a project between Bradley Cooper and Danny DiGiampietro, owner of Angelo’s Pizzeria in South Philadelphia
Cheesesteaks were priced at a bargain $10, and the line was long
Cooper and DiGiampietro are donating all proceeds from this pop-up event — scheduled to reprise Thursday — to a nonprofit helping to feed New Yorkers in need.
DiGiampietro would say only that he and Cooper hope to open a cheesesteak shop in New York, where they have been searching for locations for two years. “You know what they want in this neighborhood for 700 square feet?” DiGiampietro asked. “Eighteen thousand a month!” (That’s more than double the price for such a space on Walnut Street in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square.)
DiGiampietro would say only that he and Cooper hope to open a cheesesteak shop in New York, where they have been searching for locations for two years. “You know what they want in this neighborhood for 700 square feet?” DiGiampietro asked. “Eighteen thousand a month!” (That’s more than double the price for such a space on Walnut Street in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square.)
DiGiampietro said he is not leaving his Philadelphia shop, mentioned that Cooper chose Manhattan for the truck “to see if people want cheesesteaks in New York.”
Wednesday, August 09, 2023
in France there is a thing about nougat, a museum of Route 7, and cars
Sunday, July 23, 2023
this upsets me. Seriously, make sense of this if you can, but don't try hard, I'm aggravated at the gall of it, the hypocrisy, the liberal bullshit nature of it
Do you understand why I'm angry? Probably not, so, explanation time:
I walk about 7 blocks from where I park near the convention, in the residential area which does not have parking meters, to get to Comic Con, every day, every year, and the number of homeless and hopeless people living on the sidewalks, grows every year. It's frankly as close to humans in a zoo evvironment as animals are, with no running water, no shade, no public sanitary toilets/portapotties, etc and just like a poor run down zoo with no cleaning crew to keep the cages cleaned out, the muck and stink are pretty bad, the homeless are mentally and physically destroyed, and it's filthy.
A few years ago it was actually declared a county local health emergency on September 1, 2017. This ended in January 23, 2018
The CDC was called in. The 2017 hepatitis A outbreak resulted in 592 cases and 20 deaths. San Diego County officials were able to trace cases back to November 2016.
this year, it's coming to that AGAIN.
Instead of Boxlunch and Entertainment weekly looking away from the convention, and donating meals to the homeless directly, or having an active role in helping the homeless in eyesight distance from this food truck passing out ice cream treats on J street.... it looked toward the convention goers, and asked for social media traffic fucking liberal virtue signaling.
but on a 2nd look, they might not be hypocrites, maybe I read them wrong, they clearly claim to be on site only to get fans, and give fans free treats. Nothing on the van says they'll give the homeless free treats. After all, the homeless aren't trading an email for a free treat, and aren't helping promotions trend on twitter. That seems to be the minimum required. "stop by to get your summer snack and surprise gift when you sign up for #BoxLunch emails on-site! #BoxLunchxEW pic.twitter.com/SubUwcPUjO"
If this is "helping feed others" or "feeding America" it would be facing the other direction OR a block farther away from the convention, and handing out food to the homeless.
Monday, March 27, 2023
a chef with a motokitchen, on a Moto Guzzi Ercole (thank you Kim!)
He became a chef, worked in five-star restaurants in Venice and Dubai, then as a personal chef in villas and luxury yachts before returning home to a small town in the Veneto region.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Coolest thing I learned of today, In and Out has one special food truck that only sells mini Double-Doubles and fries, and only operates at childrens events
The Esther Snyder Cookout Truck will be selling the mini food items as part of its mission to support the In-N-Out Burger Foundation's efforts in assisting children who have been victims of child abuse, it is reserved for children and youth events, and can be reserved by anyone hosting an event that meets the criteria in all of Los Angeles and Orange County, as well as limited parts of Ventura, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties, and limited parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Denver, Colorado Springs and Las Vegas.
What's amazing, is that Esther was in the Navy, co-founded the best double cheeseburger chain I've ever been to, which introduced the drive thru to California, and her grand daughter owns and runs the company, and races a 41 Willys? That's a lot of cool right there
She attended Greenville College in Illinois, and during World War II she served in the WAVES, the women’s branch of the Navy, where her duties included surgical nursing.
She left the military with the rank of pharmacist first class.
After the war, she attended Seattle Pacific University, graduating with a degree in zoology.
Thursday, February 23, 2023
The NFL Players Coalition and Stand Together Foundation teamed up with Café Momentum, to bring a unique gourmet food truck to the Super Bowl, at Radio Row and the NFL Experience, and provided free food samples to NFL Superbowl team members, staff, media, and attending fans
The statistics are stunning: while the State of Texas’ recidivism rate among juvenile delinquents is 48.3 percent, the rate among Café Momentum participants is 15.2 percent.
“When kids exit the juvenile justice system, they lack the support and resources they need to be successful. Our model has proven that when communities build a system of support around a young person, our youth can achieve their full potential,” said Chad Houser, CEO and Founder of Café Momentum and Momentum Advisory Collective. “We are honored to take part in the Super Bowl again this year in partnership with the Players Coalition and Stand Together Foundation. We are spreading awareness of the failures of our nation’s juvenile justice system by offering a better way to transform the lives of justice-impacted youth.”
“When kids exit the juvenile justice system, they lack the support and resources they need to be successful. Our model has proven that when communities build a system of support around a young person, our youth can achieve their full potential,” said Chad Houser, CEO and Founder of Café Momentum and Momentum Advisory Collective. “We are honored to take part in the Super Bowl again this year in partnership with the Players Coalition and Stand Together Foundation. We are spreading awareness of the failures of our nation’s juvenile justice system by offering a better way to transform the lives of justice-impacted youth.”
The partners have hosted previous events with NFL athletes and Legends including a pop-up dinner in Miami for Super Bowl LIV and a pop-up food truck and black carpet dinner for Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.
The Momentum model was co-created with the youth it serves, and the vision is to inspire a new model for youth justice. Of a recent cohort of youth, zero percent have been adjudicated or reconvicted. These youth are gaining life skills, education, and employment opportunities to help them lead lives of meaning and contribution.
“The future of all American youth matters. Too many of our young people don’t have the leaders or support they need for success. This is even more prevalent with our juvenile justice system,” said Shaun Alexander, NFL Legend and Stand Together Ambassador.
“Players Coalition is honored to collaborate with like-minded organizations like Café Momentum to host this event,” said Anquan Boldin, Players Coalition Co-founder, 2015 Walter Payton Man of the Year and Super Bowl XLVII Champion.
This program is proving that, when given the proper support from the community, the sky is the limit for these young and talented individuals. I’m inspired by what the young men and women at Café Momentum have achieved, and by what the program’s model could mean for the many justice-impacted young people across the country.” said Alice Marie Johnson, CEO of Taking Action for Good (TAG), Criminal Justice Reform Advocate, and Stand Together Ambassador.
https://standtogetherfoundation.org/news/nfl-inspire-change-players-coalition-cafe-momentum-and-stand-together-foundation-host-super-bowl-food-truck-pop-up-and-activation-to-build-national-awareness-a/
I learned about this by listening to Mike Rowe's podcast, as he interviewed the multi year Best Chef of Dallas award winner, and restaurant owner, Chad Houser.
The Momentum model was co-created with the youth it serves, and the vision is to inspire a new model for youth justice. Of a recent cohort of youth, zero percent have been adjudicated or reconvicted. These youth are gaining life skills, education, and employment opportunities to help them lead lives of meaning and contribution.
“The future of all American youth matters. Too many of our young people don’t have the leaders or support they need for success. This is even more prevalent with our juvenile justice system,” said Shaun Alexander, NFL Legend and Stand Together Ambassador.
“Café Momentum has created one of the most positive, influential models I’ve seen for justice-impacted youth. They are creating a family for the kids in the juvenile justice system and the results are winning their futures. I believe this can change the juvenile justice system and like I’ve said before, my goal is to have a Café Momentum in all NFL cities. Activating at the Super Bowl is a step closer to making that a reality. ”
“Players Coalition is honored to collaborate with like-minded organizations like Café Momentum to host this event,” said Anquan Boldin, Players Coalition Co-founder, 2015 Walter Payton Man of the Year and Super Bowl XLVII Champion.
This program is proving that, when given the proper support from the community, the sky is the limit for these young and talented individuals. I’m inspired by what the young men and women at Café Momentum have achieved, and by what the program’s model could mean for the many justice-impacted young people across the country.” said Alice Marie Johnson, CEO of Taking Action for Good (TAG), Criminal Justice Reform Advocate, and Stand Together Ambassador.
https://standtogetherfoundation.org/news/nfl-inspire-change-players-coalition-cafe-momentum-and-stand-together-foundation-host-super-bowl-food-truck-pop-up-and-activation-to-build-national-awareness-a/
I learned about this by listening to Mike Rowe's podcast, as he interviewed the multi year Best Chef of Dallas award winner, and restaurant owner, Chad Houser.
It takes about an hour to listen to, but I recommend you stick with it, it's amazing what Chef Houser accomplished when he realized he could enable kids in juvie, in jail, etc to have a reason, purpose, passion, and career path the instant they get out of jail.
Returning to civilian life without a opportunity to avoid the problems that land you in jail, is one reason most convicts are headed back to jail in less than 3 years. 77% do.
For teens, some problems are worse, as they can't get a job (due to age) anyway, and to simply have meals and a place to sleep, some have found it easier to stay in the jail system.
Mentoring works. The apprenticeship program works. It's life changing.
The program started with an ice cream competition, judged by the public, and a teen who was in jail won, OVER the culinary school students. He simply made better tasting ice cream... and so began the interest of this chef, who made it his goal to help the teens, and face it - society in general, because if jailed teens don't get a lifeline out of the problems that put them in jail, they'll create kids with out a parenting team, and those theoretical kids are far more likely to be doomed to all the social problems that will cause them to end up in jail. Parenting is damn important, and my life is an example that being a kid of divorced parents, makes succeeding in this challenging world, much harder than it is for kids with a set of parents who are involved in trying to set their kids up for success in careers, relationships, etc.
Café Momentum gets teens out of the Dallas County Juvenile Department and they stay for a year’s paid internship, which includes employment, education, life skills, and case management and mental health services.
Two examples out of many reveal the power of Café Momentum. One young man, who completed the program in April 2016, became the first-ever, high school graduate of his family. He attended Richland College and won an award from NASA as a summer intern. Now, he is obtaining a degree from the University of Texas at Arlington to prepare him to pursue a career with NASA.
Another young lady was homeless at the time she came to Café Momentum and had no family support. She later graduated magna cum laude at El Centro and is now a medical assistant at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.
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Restaurant work is hard. New employees at Café Momentum often start washing dishes, but Houser insists, “Dishwasher is the most important job—it impacts all of us.”
I believe he stated in the podcast with Mike Rowe, that 85% of chefs started at dish washers, and 90% of restaurant owners did too. It wouldn't surprise anyone that everyone in the restaurant business, got started with washing dishes. (in grade school, 4-8th grades, our school kitchen had a help the cook week, and you know - it was doing dishes, and cleaning tables)
The year long Momentum internship starts with a six day orientation that results in a ServSafe certification. Interns are paired with case managers to identify needs and set goals. While they work their way through all areas of the restaurant, case managers help interns schedule financial education, parenting classes, and career exploration.
Café Momentum has it's own high school, where every single one of the interns, if they have not already graduated through our high school, are currently in this high school and on track to graduate. It went from a 54 percent dropout rate to 100 percent attending and/or graduating high school rate. Yes, this Chef has a high school, and it's more effective than public school!
More than 60,000 youth under age 18 are incarcerated in U.S. juvenile prisons on any given day. About four times that many youth are placed on probation each year. And most of those young people aren’t receiving education and training, work experience, mentors, or even someone who'll be helpful and supportive.
In the state of Texas, it costs $127,000 to lock up a juvenile, with a 50/50 chance that you’re going to do it again in 12 months.
There was a study done several years ago that shows the financial impact is between $1.7 million and $2.3 million.
That doesn’t include the cost of the victim, and it doesn’t include the cost to perpetuate that cycle from generation to generation.
Of the more than 1,000 youth that have been in the Café Momentum restaurant and chef program, it's roughly saved Dallas taxpayers over $40 million by getting teens out of juvie, and jails, and keeping them out by changing the course of their lives.
This is a proven example that shows how money that is budgeted to incarcerate youth in our county, could simply be invested in them instead, at half the amount, and result in something far better and far more enriching for the community, less costly for taxpayers, and game changing in terms of crime, suicide, divorce rate, etc.
No doubt the Boy Scouts have a similar positive impact
is a 6-year-old, award-winning restaurant, consistently been ranked as one of the top restaurants in Dallas since the day we opened our doors. And we take a lot of pride in that, because it proves that our staff can and will rise to whatever level of expectation is set for them, as long as we’re giving them the tools, resources, and opportunity.
Over the course of those 12 months, they end up working their way through every station in the restaurant. They will spend time being a dishwasher, a prep cook, a line cook, a bus, or a server host or hostess, and a food runner.
We ran a special on a Saturday night recently and we told the interns, “Whoever sells the most specials gets a free entrée at the end of the night.” Well, one young man sold us out of every single special we had in the first 45 minutes we were open. Here’s the catch, he wasn’t even waiting tables. He was a busser, and he realized that he was the first point of contact with every table because he filled the water glasses. He would walk over, fill up the water, engage in small talk, employ his sales pitch. At the end of it, he would say, “So, just let your server know I told you to order the special.”
Going into the pandemic, a supporter explained the situation in the Richardson Independent School District. Their students would likely not be returning after spring break and the schools would be shutting down.
Unfortunately over half of the student body, who looks to school as their primary source of food nutrition would be in a bind. While there are programs set up to make sure that there’s food supplemented at home during spring break, there is not a program set up for the week after spring break, and the week after, and the week after.
So, Café Momentum was quickly converted into a food distribution hub and made food and meals for food insecure students and their families within 72 hours of that problems realization.
Over the course of the first 14 weeks of the pandemic, it produced over 350,000 meals for food insecure students in Richardson and Dallas ISDs and several other organizations across Dallas.
https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/state-of-the-american-dream/houser-creating-opportunity-for-at-risk-youth This is President George Bush 43's organization
Now, circle back to the gourmet food trucks. Is there a simpler, small business success story, than a person who owns and operates a food truck? If it's ice cream, coffee, sandwiches, or pizza.... food trucks are just great, and they don't require investors to enable a brick and mortar restaurant. Many cooks get into gourmet food vans just for that reason, it's not as impossible as starting your own restaurant.
Café Momentum is proving that a restaurant and a program is actually a new model for the way the juvenile justice system should operate, a model that says, “When a young person comes from trauma, and hunger, and housing insecurity, they shouldn’t be put in handcuffs and isolated and told they’re bad. They should be wrapped into an ecosystem of support. And provided tools, resources, love, an opportunity to truly achieve their full potential in life.”
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
on the 40th anniversary celebration for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the franchise makes is way to Comic-Con with ice cream brand, Coolhaus, in a food truck offering free custom ‘Wrath of P’Khan’ ice cream!
The truck will be located in the Petco Park Interactive Zone (across the street from the convention center at the foot of the pedestrian bridge) to bring the celebration and custom ‘Wrath of P’Khan’ ice cream to Star Trek lovers for the heritage event.
Saturday, June 04, 2022
well, damn. I didn't know I wanted to find an aluminum (they existed? !) milk truck to make into a gourmet food (breakfast burritos and omelets, that's my thing) truck until now
http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2022/05/its-alive.html
FYI, Mercury Aircraft made aluminum busses http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-super-rare-mercury-aircraft-all.html
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
the Shawarma Guys food truck (San Diego based) was ranked #1 on Yelp's Top 100 Places To Eat in the U.S. list for 2020, and now their first brick and mortar restaurant is opening
Within its first year of business, the wildly popular mobile eatery that rolled onto a vacant lot at 3012 Grape Street in San Diego's South Park, received a perfect five stars in nearly all of their 500 food reviews and earned themselves the top spot on Yelp's national food review.
With three years of success under their belt, they've begun work on their first restaurant, located in La Mesa (across from Grossmont Center) at 5525 Jackson Drive, Suite B. They also plan to open a restaurant in Mira Mesa and a 2-story building with rooftop seating at the Grape Street lot where they've been operating in South Park.
the good news about the food truck was posted in 2020 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-food-truck-in-san-diego-is-rolling.html
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