4.11.2010

Lunch Truck Mania!

It all seemed to start with that ever-elusive Kogi truck, belting out Korean BBQ/Mexican fusion to hipsters en masse. People could lock down the truck's whereabouts via Twitter.

Now following this model are countless trucks catering to those with a sophisticated palate, whether serving organic salads, sashimi or breakfast all day. Gone are the days of the roach coach; these days on Wilshire's Miracle Mile, media types and entertainment industry bigwigs line up along the sidewalks to catch the newest lunch truck craze. If someone spots a new and obscure lunch truck, it earns them bragging rights at the office.

Things have gotten so crazed at the epicenter of the Miracle Mile lunch truck scene (5700 Wilshire by E! and Screen Actor's Guild), that the strip of restaurants started complaining to the City of Los Angeles that it was hurting their own businesses. Apparently, Marie Callendar's, Baja Fresh and Johnny's tried to scoot the trucks out to boost their own sales, and the foodie entrepreneurs found themselves harassed by local police, determined to muddle up the lunch truck business with red tape.

But this is a free country, and we have the right to variety. We created and signed petitions, and now our street is rife with delicious options. All this lunch truck brouhaha has even inspired a potential television show. Courtney Cox and David Arquette are developing a series called Eat Street, and it touches upon this stuff.

While I'm here, some of the best lunch trucks out there (complete with websites and Twitter whereabouts) are:

Kogi (the father of lunch truck mania)

Buttermilk (breakfast all the time - yea!!!)

Green Truck (organic)

India Jones (Indian street food - like walking the streets of Mumbai sans the risk of food-born illness! That's right I said it.)