Sweetbites

The Big One. Expected this month is Sweetbites Cafe and Bakery, the first brick-and-mortar location from the owner of Sweetbites Mobile Cafe. While the food truck is being taken off the road at least temporarily, the Washington Post and Northern Virginia Magazine report that fans of the food truck can get cupcakes, plus an expanded menu of cookies, fruit tarts, cakes, brownies, and more, from the cafe in McLean, Virginia.

In May, Rito Loco plans to bring tacos and quinoa bowls to its first brick-and-mortar location at 606 Florida Avenue N.W. in Shaw. According to Eater DC, Rito Loco hopes to expand beyond D.C., to South Florida, San Francisco, and even Europe.

Pleasant Pops

Second Time Around. The second location of Pleasant Pops is coming in June to the Woodward Building at 731 15th Street N.W. The Supreme Cart reviewed a homemade ice pop – a guac pop – one summer past.

Third Time Lucky. TaKorean has two locations in Union Market and Navy Yard and is expanding further with a third location at 13th and F Streets N.W. this summer. According to the Washington City Paper, the food truck that started it all is still up and running, but on a limited schedule at festivals and events.

Z-Burger has expanded its six brick-and-mortar locations to a food truck (@ZBurgerMobile). The truck, which serves burgers, hot dogs, potato chips (no fries), and shakes, hit the streets of D.C. last month. While the truck may soon serve Montgomery County in Maryland, Northern Virginia is not yet in the plans.

And Back Again

Pan con Lechón

El Floridano is coming out of retirement. The sandwich truck will open its window once again after brick-and-mortar eatery Mothership closes later this month. The truck retired and the restaurant opened about two years ago. The Supreme Cart reviewed El Floridano’s pan con lechón back in 2011.

A study from the University of Michigan and Northwestern University explores various factors that contribute to the growth of food trucks in cities across the United States. According to the study, food trucks are more likely to be found in larger cities that have high rental costs and diverse populations. One factor that doesn’t matter? Bad weather.

Stationary Trailer near the National Mall

Food Trucks Spreading to the National Mall?

The Washington Post reports that the stationary trailers that for decades have supplied hungry D.C. tourists with hot dogs, pizza, and egg rolls will not be the only street vendors eligible to set up along Constitution and Independence Avenues. The lottery system that assigns the spots near the Mall will open up to food trucks in late October.

Food Trucks Spreading into the Brick and Mortar Scene

More food trucks are going brick and mortar. Captain Cookie and the Milk Man, Sweetbites, and Rito Loco are set to join a growing list of over 15 food trucks with brick and mortar locations. A recent Washington Post article compiles a list of food trucks that have already launched restaurants, permanent pop-ups, or kiosks.

The Supreme Cart has reviewed an ice cream sandwich from Captain Cookie and cupcake from Sweetbites. A review of a burrito from Rito Loco is expected in October Term 2014.

Washingtonian reports that a medical marijuana truck is coming to D.C. on September 30 courtesy of Magical Butter, the maker of a gadget for medicinal butter, oil, sauces, and more. Licensed medical marijuana patients can expect marijuana-infused dishes like a “Danksgiving” turkey sandwich with gravy.

Four Seasons is bringing hotel food to the street. This fall, the Four Seasons Food Truck is traveling down the East Coast to serve “gourmet street food” created by chefs at Four Seasons hotels and resorts. The truck will hit the District on October 13. During the truck’s six-day stay, street diners can expect dishes that “highlight some of the best flavours” that D.C. has to offer. An example: a Grilled Kimcheese sandwich.

Another new truck this fall comes from Starbucks. Starbucks has launched a truck at Virginia’s James Madison University to supplement the multiple cafes already on campus. The mobile launch is part of a pilot program on three college campuses this fall. While one might expect the truck to move throughout the day to the highest concentrations of coffee-deprived students, it appears this is not the case. JMU’s Starbucks truck parks in the same spot; as one student explained, “Parking in one place negates the convenience the truck is supposed to bring.”

Food Trucks Win Local and National Attention

Arepa Zone

The winners of the DMV Food Truck Awards were announced on September 6 at the Curbside Cookoff festival. Arepa Zone, a Venezuelan food truck serving arepas and cachapas, was named Best New Food Truck and Food Truck of the Year. Readers can expect the Supreme Cart’s take on the truck in October Term 2014.

Two more names catching attention are dumpling truck Yumpling and Indian food truck Naan Stop. The trucks made a Buzzfeed list of 17 food trucks across the country that “are having too much pun” with their names. The Supreme Cart reviewed Yumpling’s dumplings—though made no mention of its punny name—last year.

BBQ Bus

Eater DC reports that BBQ Bus will open a restaurant at Denizens Brewing Company in Silver Spring, Maryland. BBQ Bus plans to expand its menu to include “deep-fried items, wings and items previously only offered seasonally, like a chicken pot pie.” Chief Justice Jeremy reviewed the BBQ Bus Sampler, including pulled pork, spiced chicken, and sliced brisket, last year.

B&Ms Get Food Trucks

Eater DC reports that a food truck from Nutella will be coming to the District this weekend. The truck is celebrating Nutella’s 50th anniversary. The hazelnut spread has already proven to be a handy ingredient in mobile treats. Earlier this year, Justice Cattleya tried a Nutella doughnut made by Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken.

The TGI Fridays food truck is also coming to Washington, DC. The truck will stop in the District at the end of the month as part of its Summer of Fridays Road Tour. The truck will serve up free tastes of “handcrafted goodness,” including Ahi Tuna Crisps and American All-Star Sliders.

Fojol Brothers, circa 2012.

Washington City Paper reports Fojol Brothers, which we reviewed in 2012, closed the last of its three 60-something-year-old trucks this past Friday after the transmission finally died. The business’s other two trucks went off the road earlier this winter due to hefty repair costs and difficulty finding replacement parts. “The amount of money to keep them all running, we’re just not seeing the return,” founder Justin Vitarello told WCP. But the business isn’t closing up for good. Vitarello plans to experiment with a line of Fojol Brothers-branded products, including “lassipops, spiced rice flour chips, and jars of sauces and chutneys.”

Movie poster courtesy of ‘Dog Days’ documentary.

Washington-based filmmakers Laura Waters Hinson and Kasey Kirby have released a well-received, partially-Kickstarted documentary, Dog Days, about “a novice entrepreneur and an immigrant hotdog vendor tak[ing] a joint leap of faith during the recession to keep the American dream alive.” The film has already been screened at several festivals and has been chosen as an official selection at the Atlanta Film Festival, which runs March 28 through April 6, 2014.

As Tim Carman writes in a profile in the Washington Post, the film tracks “Siyone, a refugee from East Africa who supports her family with a sidewalk cart, and Coite Manuel, an unemployed engineer who launched Food Chain to help vendors like Siyone expand their menus beyond dirty-water dogs, chips, cookies and candy.”

From the film’s press kit:

Plunging into the colorful, micro-entrepreneurial world of street vending in the nation’s capital, Dog Days follows two unlikely business partners as they challenge the status quo by offering a gourmet alternative to the ubiquitous hot dog. Coite, an unemployed industrial engineer with no kitchen experience, enlists his idiosyncratic, harp-playing Aunt Deane to launch a new business, “Food Chain.” Staking his meager life savings on the new venture, he hopes to help the city’s 300 remaining street vendors appeal to consumers in a competitive culinary market. In the process he must battle the DC government’s regulatory stranglehold over his industry. The stakes intensify when Coite starts working with his first vendor, Siyone — a former refugee from East Africa, hot dog vendor, and mother of four. She takes a risk and sells Coite’s jerk chicken wraps, straining already tense relationships with her suppliers. Will Coite’s gastronomic vision turn into a street-food sensation? Or will hostile regulations and a tough economic climate put his dreams on hold? Will Siyone’s desire to build her small business be enough to provide for her growing family? Filmed over the course of four years, Dog Days journeys to a world within a world where the underdogs of DC street vending speak for a nation wondering if the American Dream can still become a reality.

Watch the official trailer below:

Seoul Food

Seoul Food and Rolling Ficelle Are Out

After three years on the road, one of our favorite food trucks, Seoul Food, is closing down on March 1. The owners of Seoul Food opened a restaurant of the same name at 2514 University Boulevard West in Silver Spring, Maryland. Over the years, we’ve loved their winter soups, their mushroom and pork donburi, and especially their steak bibimbap, which we selected as one of the best of mobile gastronomy. We wish Seoul Food luck with their brick-and-mortar.

Another favorite, Rolling Ficelle, closes tomorrow, February 28. Two years ago, Justice Cattleya raved about their Gorky ficelle.

And CapMac Is Back

We reported back in December that CapMac was closing. Now it turns out CapMac is coming back under new ownership. Washington City Paper reports the new owner has the old recipes and doesn’t plan to “change a thing” but may add a few new touches, including regular specials that showcase his own culinary tastes, including a love of Latin cuisine.

And Further Afield

Outside the area, IBM and the Institute of Culinary Education have a food truck serving up computer-generated recipes. IBM’s calling it “cognitive cooking,” a form of “computational creativity” that seeks to devise new flavor combinations based on a database of recipes and software models of the psychology of how we perceive taste. As a profile in the New Yorker put it, “[t]he goal of this computer isn’t to retrieve what is already known but to discover something new.” Sounds pretty cool. Check it out on IBM’s website.

Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken

Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken Launches A Food Truck

Eater DC, the Washington Post, and Washingtonian all report Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken (1308 G Street NW) has launched a food truck serving coffee and donuts — sorry, no chicken — for breakfast in Rosslyn and Clarendon. Though not in DC yet, they hope to expand in the future. For locations, check out the restaurant’s Twitter feed.

Austin Street Eats Consume Toki Underground

Eater DC also reports the guys of Austin’s East Side King — including Springfield-local Paul Qui of Top Chef fame — plan to take over H Street favorite Toki Underground this Friday, January 24. See the full menu at Eater and on ESK’s website.

El Rey Opens on U Street

Shipping container restaurant El Rey opened on U Street on January 10. Executive chef Jorge Pimentel formerly helmed now-shuttered food truck Sabor’a Street.

Peruvian Brothers

Food Trucks Adjust to New Regulations

Over the last few weeks, we’ve reported on DC’s new food regulations, especially the new monthly food truck lottery that went into effect December 1. Washington City Paper checked in with food truck owners to see how the new system is affecting them. Read more over at WCP.

Another Food Truck Closing

After a spate of food truck closings over the last few weeks — CapMac, Cirque Cuisine — the Washington Post reports PORC is also closing down so its owners can invest more time in brick-and-mortar spinoff Kangaroo Boxing Club. We reviewed PORC in 2011.

Now Accepting Bitcoin

WCP and DCist report that the Peruvian Brothers food truck, half-owned by a rowing mate of the Winklevoss twins, is now accepting Bitcoin in addition to paper and plastic. The press release is here.

Red Hook Lobster Pound

New Food Truck Lottery’s First Few Days

Last week, we reported on the implementation of the new DC food truck lottery, which began December 1.

Passed by the City Council in June after a protracted, four year-long fight and made final in September, the new regulations led to the establishment of Mobile Roadway Vending (MRV) locations and require that, to vend in a designated MRV location, a food truck must participate in a monthly MRV location permit lottery administered by the DCRA. Food trucks not selected in the lottery for a specific MRV location are permitted to vend elsewhere in the District subject to other requirements, including the requirement that they not be within 200 feet of a designated MRV location.

This week — the first under the new scheme — we’re beginning to see feedback from food truck owners and operators.

The Washington Post reports that, no longer fighting for parking, vendors are “praising” the new regulations. Lily Habtom, owner of Lilypad on the Run, remarked she no longer has to “stress at all about tickets.” And Doug Povich, chairman of the DMV Food Truck Association and co-owner of Red Hook Lobster Pound, was quoted as saying, “The trucks I’ve spoken with today say it’s a much better way” of doing business.

A report by Washington City Paper is less rosy. Food trucks are often forced by the lottery to operate in areas they’d never before and had no established customer base. Those trucks that didn’t win licenses for every day of the week have to scope out alternative locations at least 200 feet from an MRV location. “We’re glad to see the D.C. government getting involved,” said TaKorean manager Elizabeth Cramer. “My only hesitation is that . . . food trucks came about because it’s a great idea to take good food where people want it. So when you restrict that, you’re restricting business potential.”

Some food trucks worry about how to alter their business plans, or at least retrain their customers, another Post piece says.

But Robert Estep, owner of Burgorilla and What the Pho?, guesses that any loss from the inability to sell near an established customer base may be balanced by savings on parking tickets, Washingtonian reports.

What have you observed? How will the new system play out? Let us know in the comments.

Pepito de Iberico.

José Andrés Opens a New Food Truck…

…on a golf course in Puerto Rico. Eater reports the truck will offer a burger, a hot dog, a club sandwich, and “some tapas-esque appetizers” to patrons of the Dorado Beach Resort and Club, where Andrés already operates a restaurant. No word on whether the truck will offer the $20 Pepito de Ibérico, which we reviewed last October.

PORC

DCRA Releases December Food Truck Lottery Results

On November 15, 2013, the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) released its final December 2013 Vending Lottery Results, which go into effect December 1.

Passed by the City Council in June after a protracted, four year-long fight and made final in September, the new regulations empower the DCRA to establish Mobile Roadway Vending (MRV) locations and require that, to vend in a designated MRV location, a food truck must participate in a monthly MRV location permit lottery administered by the DCRA. Food trucks not selected in the lottery for a specific MRV location are permitted to vend elsewhere in the District subject to other requirements, including the requirement that they not be within 200 feet of a designated MRV location.

The December results assign 116 trucks vending rights at eight popular Downtown locations — Farragut Square, Union Station, Franklin Square, L’Enfant Plaza, State Department, George Washington University, Navy Yard, and Metro Center — on specific days. For example, the holder of site permit VSP-00029 will be permitted to vend at Farragut Square on Mondays and Fridays, at Union Station on Tuesdays, at Metro Center on Wednesdays, and at Franklin Square on Thursdays.

As Food Truck Fiesta reports, however, this figure is far less than the estimated 200+ trucks currently operating in DC.

The DC Food Truck Association‘s website continues to raise its concerns with the new scheme:

The new regulations include designated areas for food trucks and a lottery system; however, the rules don’t say how this will work. Without transparent and objective criteria, lottery-assigned locations could be created where there is no demand for food trucks. Or we could be boxed-in to lottery-assigned spaces, limiting our ability to roam and meet customer demand throughout the District. Together we will need to help ensure that the implementation of the new rules is fair, objective and transparent so that you will continue to enjoy food trucks all throughout the District.

But while the full effect of the new monthly lottery system has yet to be seen, at least one truck, “organic extravaganza” Cirque Cuisine, has already decided to close up shop citing the new regulatory scheme, writing on its Facebook page: “We are moving on and upward…much thanks to this government and its new regulations and inability to support its small businesses… It is with a heavy heart that I announce this…”

“[T]wo of the five days of the week, they were assigned to locations (Farragut and the State Department area) where they had never really gone to and had never built a following. Fridays, they didn’t even get a spot in the assigned vending zones, meaning they have to stay at least 200 feet away from the zone,” Washington City Paper reports.

Cirque Cuisine served its last lunch rush Friday, November 21, at L’Enfant Plaza, offering up a spinach, caramelized onion, and fontina quiche. Fans of the truck, which Supreme Cart unfortunately never got to sample, took to Cirque Cuisine’s Facebook page to lament the truck’s closing and thank its operators. “This is the saddest news ever,” wrote one commenter. “My foodie lunch life is over,” wrote another.

We’ll keep you updated as the food truck lottery saga plays out.

CapMac is gone. And Cirque Cuisine is closing up shop.

TaKorean Goes Brick & Mortar

See here [Eater]. And see our review of TaKorean here.

Alexandria Hops on the Food Truck

Our jurisdiction nominally extends to Alexandria. But, until now, that’s been moot. That may change soon, as City Council considers allowing food trucks on its streets.

Bao on a Truck

Seriously? Yes, please!

25 of the Coolest Food Trucks

From Forbes. I hate these lists. But have at it. Local favorite Rito Loco makes the list, as does other favorite (and one of our favorites) Red Hook Lobster Pound‘s New York sister ship.

Alka Seltzer, What Is This?

From Washington City Paper, TaKorean, already with a stall at Union Market, becomes the latest food truck to open a storefront. For our review of TaKorean, see In re TaKorean, 1 Catt. 4 (2011).

Food Trucks Can’t Park Near Arlington Schools

Starting today, Arlington police will block two food trucks from parking next to Yorktown High School due to a county ordinance which bars food trucks from parking within 100 feet of a school, ARLNow reports.

Food Truck Regulatory Wars in Chicago

“Food truck vendors dig in for a piece of street turf against brick-and-mortar restaurants,” the ABA Journal reports.

Are Food Trucks a Good Investment?

Fox Business asks Shark Tank success story SoCal-based Cousins Maine Lobster.

As reported a few days ago, some food trucks are having a hard time of it during the government shutdown. For more recent information, see this article from Washington City Paper and this video from the Washington Post.

New Food Truck Regulations

We’re now 11 days into the new food truck regulations, which were published late last month. The lottery begins November 1. Read more from Tim Carman at Washington Post.

Sit-Down “Street Food” Experience

We at the Supreme Cart have struggled to define what is “street food.” Maketto, a pop-up at Hanoi House on 14th Street from Toki Underground veteran Erik Bruner-Yang, purports to offer an Asian “street food” experience in a sit-down atmosphere (Asian Fortune). We’ll let you be the judge.

Mayor Gray Proposes Ban on Styrofoam Food Containers

Washington Business Journal reports.

Around the World

“Food Truck Pioneer Battles Food Deserts with High Cuisine.” NPR reports on the newest effort from the chef behind LA’s Kogi. Locally, the Washington Post recently reported on a similar effort in Prince George’s County from Everlasting Life (@EverlastingLyfe).

Somehow we missed the inaugural World Street Food Congress, which took place in Singapore in May and June. Even Bourdain was there, proclaiming, “Street food, I believe, is the salvation of the human race.” We affirm. Until next year, here are the 2013 World Street Food Award winners. Nothing from the DC area (yet).

While the Supreme Cart continues its business through the lapse of appropriations, food trucks have not been so lucky.

Washington City Paper reports PORC instructed its crew not to “go anywhere near a government building.” Even at Franklin Square, PORC only did “about half of the business it normally does, ultimately losing money for the day,” leading PORC to “shut down the truck for the duration of the shutdown.”

PORC is shutdown along with the gov’t. Thanks for taking away all of our business, congress. We’ll be back up when those morons do their job

— PORC (@porcmobile) October 2, 2013

The Washington Post (AP) reports BBQ Bus has “experienced a 40 percent drop in sales, while “[s]ales at several gourmet trucks are down 50 percent or more.” Many trucks have had to lay off employees or cease or decrease operation for the remainder of the shutdown.

For more information, read an interview with Che Ruddell-Tabisola, BBQ Bus co-owner and Political Director for the DC Food Truck Association, at InTheCapital, and watch interviews with Leeland Morris of Red Hook Lobster Pound and Christopher Lee of Cirque Cuisine [UPI].

Questions and press inquiries may be directed to supremecartblog@gmail.com or posted in the comments to this post.