Here's another idea that makes sense.
As is especially evident in downtown St. Louis, more and more food trucks (the current count is 33) have been chasing fewer and fewer permissible individual parking spots, resulting in a proliferation of food truck roundups, where groups of trucks band together for one, big centralized event.
Sauce magazine's Food Truck Friday, held once a month during spring and summer in Tower Grove Park, continues to gain in popularity. Fifteen trucks (plus Schlafly beer) in a beautiful park setting have translated to long lines for the curious. This is an event that is still gaining traction, so to speak, one that could easily be held twice a month.
Last October, the St. Louis Food Truck Association organized ArtFeast, at Crestwood Court (the former Crestwoood Mall), where artists displayed their wares along with a dozen food trucks. That event was repeated in November and December.
This spring, Eliott Harris, owner of ChopShopSTL, organized a series of Food Truck Meet Ups in the Koken Art Factory. The advantage here is that these events could be held indoors during inclement weather: a maximum of eight trucks can fit in Koken's warehouse space, their on-board propane generators being vented to the outside. That series of events will on as Food Trucks at the Factory, held once a month (outdoors, this time) until October, again with Sauce as a sponsor. The inaugural date in June 16.
Another such event just appeared on local radar: Food Truck Tuesdays at Tilles, held at Tilles Park in Ladue. Sponsored by St. Louis County Parks and Recreation and St. Louis Food Truck Association, the first will be held today from 5 to 8 p.m. and repeated the second Tuesday of each summer month (June 12, July 10, August 14, September 11). According to this website, there will also be wine, live music, and special pricing on half-orders (a first for local food truck events). The line up of trucks has not been publicized, but our guess is that since the inagural event has been somewhat on the down low, today may be the perfect day to see what the whole food truck phenomenon is all about.
As summer progresses, look for gatherings of trucks to appear at art fairs, weekend festvals, county fairs....it sure beats trying to ace out your competitor for one of those coveted downtown parking spots.
Follow the whereabouts of all 33 local food trucks here, complete with live Twitterfeeds.
