The next phase of the food truck revolution: restaurants (and menus) that are here to stay
Something crazy happened in Las Vegas in the spring of 2010 — something organic, hopeful and real amid rising unemployment and foreclosure rates and an all-around dismal business environment. A wave of friendly, casual, neighborhood eateries started opening up all across our city. Somehow, as the Strip struggled and fine to mid-level dining destinations considered closing, a group of entrepreneurs — seemingly out of nowhere — stepped up, took risks and sparked something.
Gourmet sliders. Korean tacos. An entire menu of spicy stuff based on New Mexico Hatch chiles. Their food was fun, cheap and sometimes completely new. Their approach was fresh. Unlike the rest of the aggressively competitive restaurant biz, these operators frequently worked together and produced their own community events to spotlight their businesses. They moved fast, they used the Internet to spread their delicious gospel instead of paying for advertising, and they found success.
The crucial part of this movement was that it was completely local. It had nothing to do with the Strip, and therefore was a breakthrough for the community’s food culture. It was another inch to be marked in the continuing Las Vegas grow-up. And it was served on wheels.
In other cities, the concept of mobile eats is either deeply ingrained (see the New York City hot dog cart) or a fashionable extension of a diverse dining fellowship (see hip food trucks in L.A., Austin and Portland). In Vegas, the food truck scene might be more meaningful because of the times, and because it defies that old stigma that we lack culture and community. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll find it’s really just an innovative branch growing from the food and beverage industry tree, and much too interesting to be dismissed as just a trend.
“It gave an opportunity to some really creative operators with fresh ideas, a place for them to experiment and then parlay that into a traditional restaurant experience,” says John Arena, co-owner of the local Metro Pizza chain. “In this economy, there wasn’t going to be that opportunity for a lot of people.”
The second wave: Successful operators using the surging popularity of food trucks to build their brands with an eye on creating permanent, stationary, traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants. Arena is an experienced restaurateur who jumped on board by creating Lulu’s On The Move, a mobile operation that serves as a tasty tease for what’s next — a Lulu’s bakery and café next door to Metro’s northwest location, set to open this spring. The baker on board Lulu’s truck, Chris Herrin, is making his own mark with Bread & Butter (10940 S. Eastern Ave. #107, 675-3300), a neighborhood breakfast and lunch joint near Anthem that opened in late 2011.
We’ve already seen the first wave of food trucks transitioning into restaurants. Slidin’ Thru, credited as Vegas’ first gourmet food truck, also struck first when it comes to brick and mortar, taking over a kitchen in an industrial-area video poker bar last spring. In December, the slider truck crew opened a location with a drive-through window at Durango Drive just off the northwest Beltway (6440 N. Durango Drive, 645-1570), with plans to open another restaurant in the southwest valley in May.
“I don’t think I really knew, when I started, where this would go,” says creator Ric Guerrero. “The overall goal was always to get into the business somehow, and I saw my opportunity to do that with the truck. It was something that was starting to resonate around the country, and there was nothing like it in Vegas.”
After its local truck built tremendous buzz behind Japanese-influenced burgers, Fukuburger opened its first restaurant in Hollywood in October. After piloting his Asian café concept on a truck, veteran Strip chef Sheridan Su opened Great Bao (4965 W. Tropicana Ave. #105, 900-2168) in a hair salon on Tropicana Avenue. Grouchy John’s, a yellow trailer serving some of the valley’s most carefully crafted coffee drinks, is set to open a storefront this month at Maryland Parkway and Wigwam Avenue (8520 S. Maryland Parkway, 608-5195).
John Ynigues is the completely non-grouchy operator behind Grouchy John’s Coffee, perhaps the most mobile of these mobile vendors. After losing his tech industry job in 2009, he decided to create his own gig, and a store was always the objective. “One of the things you do when looking for jobs is go to coffee shops, to get out of the house and sit for a while and look for jobs,” he said. “So Sunrise Coffee was my hangout, and that’s where I realized how good coffee was. I learned more about it and decided to take the leap, and that was the same time the trucks were getting hot. So it all coalesced.”
Ynigues believes the main reason the Vegas food truck revolution may have cooled off is the fundamental handicap local operators have to work around: “We can’t go where the population is. In other cities, trucks can go downtown where everyone works and park and serve the people. Right now, there is nowhere on the Strip where we can go.”
Heavy traffic
There may never be a home for food trucks on the Strip, where casino competition overwhelms all, but the City of Las Vegas has been holding meetings to address simplifying licensing issues. There’s even a proposal on the table to create food truck-friendly zones.
“Food truck hot spots would be cool,” Guerrero said. “I’ve heard objections that it takes away from the spontaneity of it, the renegade approach, but that isn’t really a big part of it. We’ve definitely seen that trucks do better when there are more of them together.”
Not surprisingly, downtown is emerging as the new hub for food truckage. It is home to the monthly Vegas StrEATs festival, a collaboration between Slidin’ Thru and the El Cortez, and the revamped First Friday includes a wide variety of street food offerings. Local truckers know special events can provide that elusive big payoff, the closest thing to guaranteed success for this vagabond business model. That’s why they love to congregate; it also creates a laidback festival vibe for followers who enjoy sampling the goods from different trucks.
Hitting the streets was the first step to restaurant success for Jolene Mannina, too, but the creator of Sloppi Jo’s Roving Eatery had a very specific plan in mind. What she didn’t have planned out was how much she’d learn from the food truck experience, and how many other doors would open. “It was a two-year plan for me, a chance to learn as much as I could and see if I had enough motivation and push to make it happen,” she said.
A true Vegas veteran and longtime server at N9ne Steakhouse, Mannina ran the Sloppi Jo’s truck for about a year, selling lots of those Hatch chiles and building quite the following, before selling the truck. But she got everything she wanted out of her tasty road trip, and then some. Today she continues to host the Saturday Night Truck Stop weekly food truck festival at Tommy Rocker’s, just kicked off a monthly pop-up dinner called ChowDowntown at the Lady Silvia bar, and is creeping closer to opening her dream restaurant with chef partner Joshua Clark.
“I’m very lucky. I worked really hard and it’s starting to pay off,” she says. “I met so many amazing people in the last year, and compared to working so long at restaurants, it’s a totally different scene.” Mannina’s restaurant will be downtown. “It’s funny because what everyone thinks I’m doing is not what I’m doing. I started working on this concept six years ago, and I started looking downtown six years ago. For what I want to do, the time is right, and I’m ready.”
Just because food truckers are adapting and expanding doesn’t mean the street food scene is dying. New trucks are popping up. Ichi Mas uses guest chefs and cooks up a wild take on Latin-Asian fusion. Chi-Town Hustler serves Chicago dogs, Polish sausages and Italian beef sandwiches. The Rusty Pickle does fresh salads and sandwiches, mac and cheese pot pies and Cajun fried pickles.
Operators who decide to get out of the game are finding anxious buyers ready to hit the streets. The Philly’s Famous Italian Ice truck was sold to Pop’s Cheesesteaks last year. The red cart in front of Lee’s Discount Liquor on West Lake Mead Boulevard, once HanShikTaco, is now Roamin’ Dough. Ben’s BBQ and Smokehouse has been sold to the crew that runs the Sin City Wings truck. And on it goes.
“Street food is part of any real city’s food culture. It’s vital and it’s something that Vegas has always been missing,” Guerrero said. “Of course people want to say that ‘the fad’s died off.’ It’s not true. People always gotta eat. If you make it convenient, if you bring a party, there’s always gonna be a need for that. You can’t tell the hot dog cart in New York that he’s just a trend.”
May we recommend…
PB&J Brioche at Bread & Butter. It is impossible to pick a favorite pastry at Bread & Butter. Owner Chris Herrin has baked for Bouchon and Lulu’s On The Move, so he’s got refined but playful baking on lock. Hopefully this nostalgic, decadent treat is situated in his display case when you visit, a sweet and savory treasure in an ethereal egg-and-butter wondercloud.
Buffalo Soldier at Slidin’ Thru. This spicy-creamy mini-sandwich worked its way from a daily special on the truck to a regular menu item at Slidin’ Thru’s northwest drive-through spot. A tender chicken filet — slider-size, of course — is breaded, fried, smothered in Frank’s hot sauce and topped with lettuce, tomato and melty provolone. It’s about a four-biter, and each munch is packed with addictive amounts of crunch and zing.