Food Trucks

Arkansas side paving way for more dining options

Arkansas side paving way for more dining options One feature of living in larger cities like Austin or Dallas is being able to choose from a wide variety of food offerings from mobile food trucks.

Everything from authentic Cajun or Mexican to exotic Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern fare are available fast and fresh. And for those with less adventurous palates there are always good old American choices like burgers and fries.

Food trucks and carts have long been a |staple of large cities such as New York and Los Angeles, and they have become very popular down South in recent years. There are even outdoor food courts like you would see in a mall made up of nothing but mobile vendors.

We have had a few in Texarkana over the years, often serving crawfish in season. But tougher regulations—inspired, many believe, by opposition from brick-and-mortar restaurants—made many shut down or find locations outside the city limits.

The Texarkana, Ark., Board of Directors is looking for a way to make mobile food trucks once again a part of the Texarkana dining scene. The city’s board and staff held a workshop last week to come up with regulations and licensing that, hopefully, both mobile and fixed restaurateurs can live with.

The Texas side already has rules in place. We don’t know if we’ll see a boom in food trucks here in the Twin Cities. But we like the idea of more options. We hope the final ordinance is both practical and reasonable so that mobile vendors will be able to make a living and those who operate fixed-location dining establishments can still thrive despite the added competition.