FOOD TRUCKS
County embraces roving restaurants craze
PALM BEACH GARDENS — The days of the “roach coach” are over, and the era of the gourmet food truck has arrived.
The wildly popular roving restaurants that serve everything from cheese curds to doughnuts pull into Palm Beach County municipalities at least once a month, plying their sweet and savory treats. Many of the food truck roundups are organized by outside companies that cities hire.
Palm Beach County has 228 food trucks that serve everything from fancy hot dogs to Hong Kongstyle egg waffles, according to the state department that regulates them. In Florida, only four counties have more food trucks. Miami-Dade County leads the way with more than 650, according to a recent analysis by The Palm Beach Post.
Joe and June Robidoux of West Palm Beach are always on the lookout for weekend food truck events where they can bring their dog.
“It’s just a novelty, that they have different choices. If you go to a restaurant, you can’t necessarily afford it, but if you go to a food truck, you can,” June Robidoux said.
Florida ranked third on a Forbes list of states with the most food trucks, trailing California and New York.
Fried food, fine cuisine
Trendy mobile kitchens have come a long way since the traditional hot dog carts and ice cream trucks of yesteryear. They have their roots in the years immediately after the Civil War, when cowboys ate three meals a day from traveling chuck wagons, according to the History Channel.
In cities, garment makers and construction workers got their lunches from the trucks.
The modern food truck craze has its roots in Los Angeles, where a now-famous Korean BBQ truck launched in 2008, according to the National Food Truck Association. Customers were looking
for good food cheap as the economy slumped. Entrepreneurs who wanted to get into the business started scooping up old taco trucks that had lost their construc- tion-site clientele when the real estate market crashed.
Social media sites such as Twitter allowed food truck owners to update followers on their whereabouts in real time.
Locally, food-truck event planners use those tools to post which trucks will appear at their regular roundups.
Redd Johnson owns four food trucks, including PS561 (hot dogs), Dough Dough’s Donuts and Best French Fries. He says there are two types of trucks: those that serve gourmet fare and those that heat up frozen food from a wholesale store.
Operating a food truck is a 16- to 18-hour a day job. People who treat it like a parttime gig or a hobby usually don’t last long, he said.
October is his busiest month, with 119 fall festi- vals, carnivals and Halloween office parties. He averages about 25 events a month.
Lack of exposure can kill a brick-and-mortar business with a bad location, but that’s not a problem for Johnson’s food trucks, which are always on the move. Dough Dough’s Donuts has a reach as far north as Sanford and as far south as just north of the Florida Keys, he said. The doughnut truck also goes to Fort Myers on the west coast, he said.
Food trucks have paid off for the wildly popular Tacos Al Carbon restau- rant, which sells its tacos through seven trucks, one of which is parked near Palm Beach Atlantic University and the Norton Museum of Art, owner Eloisa Gonzalez said. A food truck can generate more income in three hours than the restaurant makes all day, Gonzalez said.
At a food festival, car show and outdoor concert at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, Joe and June Robidoux said they gravitate toward BOYNTON BEACH
Music on the Rocks: third Friday of each month, November through June. 6 to 9 p.m. at the Ocean Avenue Amphitheatre, 129 East Ocean Ave. Outdoor concert and cocktails
JUPITER
Food Truck Invasion: second Friday of every month at Downtown Abacoa’s Town Center Drive. 5:30 to 10 p.m. DJ spins in the Abacoa Amphitheater
Lake Worth
Food Truck Invasion: second Monday of the month at the Cultural Plaza, 414 Lake Ave. 6 to 10 p.m.
NORTH PALM BEACH
Food Truck Frenzy: in January, April, August and October Cruisin’ Food Fest: car show and food truck festival at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park the second Saturday of each month, Noon to 4 p.m.
PALM BEACH GARDENS
Movie Nights & Food Truck Bites, check City of Palm Beach Gardens Recreation page for dates for customers, it’s dangertrucks at lunch breaks, Fire p.m. The Feast of Little Italy, ous for the trucks to be on Marshal Dave DeRita said. ArtiGras, the Jupiter Jubithe move when it’s very wet Fire Rescue officials want lee and several other Jupior windy, said Johnson, the to see to the safety of those ter events feature an assortfood truck owner. who eat food truck fare as ment of food trucks.
“Weather is our worst well as those who prepare Single food trucks must get enemy. Florida only has two it, he said. Inspectors check a special, $700 permit from seasons. It’s either wet or the range hood suppression the Town Council, which sets dry,” Johnson said. “When system, make sure there’s no the hours, according to Juit’s too hot, people are not buildup of grease that could piter records. coming out either. If it’s not catch fire and keep an eye The Boynton Beach City raining, we stand a better a out for leaks in the propane Commission relaxed the chance.” lines, he said. rules for food trucks in March
Then there’s the challenge Propane tanks should 2015 to allow the trucks to of following all the rules. Brobe outside the truck, surpark in more areas. The only ward County has the strict- rounded by crash-protecapproved sites are associatest regulations, Johnson said. tion bollards. They must not ed with breweries or special If he gets his trucks to combe tied on with rope or bunevents such as Music on the ply with their standards, gee cords, DeRita said. Rocks, an outdoor concert he’s usually in the clear to A surveillance video of a at the Ocean Avenue Amphioperate anywhere else, he food truck explosion in Phil- theatre, Director of Develsaid. The permits he buys adelphia three years ago ex- opment Andrew Mack said. cost $25 to $150. plains why. The propane tank Unlike other cities that hire
In Palm Beach County, was inside the truck, and a an outside company to put regulations vary from city white vapor leaked from the on the invasions, North Palm to city. There is no one-size- truck before it burst into Beach staff coordinates food fits-all permit. flames, DeRita said. truck frenzies four times a
“The biggest problem I’m “A food truck is basically a year. Families can also watch Challenges: Wet finding is that people think restaurant on wheels. We’re a movie at the frenzies in Ocweather, hodgepodge you make a million dollars going to inspect it just as we tober and January when it of regulations a day,” he said. “Everybody do any other restaurant in gets dark out earlier.
Fickle weather discour- wants to put their hand in the city,” he said. The village charges $50 a ages customers and threatthe pocket. That’s what it’s The city inspections are truck, Recreation Superinens to force coordinators to becoming.” strictly for fire safety; the tendent Nancy Hensler said. cancel food-truck events. Palm Beach Gardens re- health department handles On a good day, about North Palm Beach had to call cently changed the rules to the food safety checks. After 4,000 people will show up off a Halloween Food Truck require food trucks to apply a truck passes the inspec- — depending on the weather. Frenzy in October because for a decal and get a fire in- tion, the city issues a stick“That’s the whole key,” of heavy rain and a tornado spection once a year. The er that changes color and Hensler said. warning. Rain put a damper whole package costs $85. design every year. on a monthly Cruisin’ Food It’s cheaper than the $110 Two weeks into October,
Fest at John D. MacArthur special-event permit and 20 food trucks had already
Beach State Park. An hours$50 code enforcement fee gone through the procedure, long downpour didn’t stop a the trucks previously paid DeRita said. food truck festival at Down- for each appearance. Jupiter requires food truck town Abacoa in November, The city’s previous code event coordinators to have a but it didn’t help attendance. made it difficult for large of- $100 permit, and the hours
Not only is it unpleasant fice buildings to host food are limited to 8 a.m. to 10
ROYAL PALM BEACH
Movie Night & Food Truck Invasion, or Concert in the Park & Food Truck Invasion. Check website for dates
WELLINGTON
Food Truck Invasion: typically 2nd Thursday of the month. Check Food Truck Invasion Facebook for dates
WEST PALM BEACH
Food Truck Invasion: second Tuesday of each month in Howard Park, 1302 Parker Ave. 5 p.m.
Lunch on the Shore: Wednesdays on Flagler, across from 501 South Flagler Drive, through Feb. 28. 12 to 2 p.m.
Food Trucks at the Shore: last Wednesday of every month on Flagler from Fern Street to Lakeview through Feb. 28. 6 to 9 p.m.
comfort food and barbecue trucks. The fried Twinkies the Fry Daddy food truck was serving at the Cruisin’ Food Fest were a hit. A group of friends sharing a picnic table with them was devour- ing fried Oreos.
June Wilson, of Hobe Sound, found the sausage, pepper and onion sandwich a bit spicy for her taste. She said she doesn’t normally eat at food trucks, but because there were several at the car show and outdoor concert, she decided to take advantage.
“You just pick out the truck that you like, the food that they’re offering, and you go to it,” she said.
PGA National Resort & Spa invested in a food truck at the beginning of the craze in 2013, its public relations director Karen Cantor said. Guests can hire the iTRUCK as part of a gourmet catering package for meetings, wed-
dings and group events. It never leaves the resort prop- erty, she said.
The menu includes pork sliders, shrimp, truffle fries, crab fritters and fish tacos. Other foods are available through custom orders, she said.