Food Trucks - Your Catering Alternative?

With wedding hindsight being 20/20, I question some of the trends that are out there and whether or not I coulda/shoulda/woulda. Some are easy. Bunting? No. I am not a bunting kinda girl, but I do think it's pretty. Photobooth - totally wish we'd had the cash for that. The list goes on and on. There's a wicked-cool trend out there now that gives me cause to pause: The Food Truck.

You know, the scary sorta mobile taco trucks you see in just about every city? They look good and smell good and you wonder, should I eat there? Is it safe? It certainly smells safe. In fact, they can smell down right divine, particularly if you're hungry. And who doesn't get hungry at at a wedding? I know I do. So are food trucks on your radar? I think there should be a few things to consider:

• Are you doing it because it's cool and trendy or to save money? Check out the prices, you might not be saving as much as you thought.
• Cool and trendy and cheap doesn't always equal "tastes good." Make sure you taste test and discuss all your food truck catering options.
• Is it legit? Mobile food trucks get inspected too and need to post their scores based on your state's display laws. No one wants food poisoning.
• Lines: waiting for your taco at 3am outside a club is a whole lot different than waiting for a taco at a wedding. Make sure the truck is properly staffed.
• Zoning. Make sure your truck can park where you want it to park. Lots of new city ordinances are prohibiting mobile food trucks in certain areas.

Like all things regarding wedding and vendors, just make sure you do your homework. That being said, I think we should explore all that is fine and fabulous about food trucks. Tt's probably a good thing that I'm not in Nashville because a new truck has made it's presence known: The Grilled Cheeserie. I can just see myself driving and checking their tweets to see where the hell they were, just so I can get a grilled cheese sammy. Do not underestimate the power of a well made grilled cheese. The Candyman likes them so much, they were a part of his wedding poem to me.  It's true.

The Grilled Cheeserie

But fear not, there are PLENTY of food trucks in this nation to supply you with endless yummies. Don't believe me? Here, check it out.

Minneapolis and it's Smack Shack seving lobster rolls, shrimp sausage and more. Yum.

 LA has like, a bazillion food trucks. In the mood for Koren BBQ? Try the famous Kogi.

Need something sweet? How about Philadelphia's Buttercream Cupcake Truck?

 

Milwaukee's Street-Za dishes out slices of pizza topped with Wisconsin mozzarella and locally grown produce.

Turkey to Go, operated by the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. Apparently, they even make ice-cream sandwiches with turkey. After my peanut butter bacon cookies? Hell yeah, I'd try it.

In the mood for egg sammies? The Big Egg in Portland, Oregon.

And check this out....

Because there is no better marriage than pizza and wings, the Holy Matrimony food truck right here in my new town of Charlotte!

So maybe a catered food truck isn't your thing. That's OK. It wasn't mine. But you have to be honest, these seem like they might be a lot of fun to check out and try to find (ya gotta folllow on Twitter to find them). I mean, I'd eat at any of these places. But then again, I've eaten street food in mainland China and India - I've pretty much experienced every type of bodily food rejection there is. What's cool is that the majority of these trucks support local growers - and that is ALWAYS cool and trendy, if you ask me.

So I know Becca from A Los Angeles Love is doing her thing with a Taco Truck. Anyone else looking into mobile food resources as a means to a catered wedding? If so, what lead you to that decision? If not, is there a reason? And going back to that 20/20 vision post wedding, I might have looked into this as a wedding cake alternative - specifically if there was a mobile cup cake truck like the one in Philly! Did you have mobile catering? Any 20/20 hindsight tips and trick sot share? Do tell.

Comments

[Sarah]

We're not using mobile food, but we are using a restaurant's Take-Out services instead of formal catering. It's not quite as cool, but still off kilter enough to make my mom wrinkle her nose in disgust and change the subject. Our reason: (1) cost of catering versus cost of ordering take-out and hiring someone to pick it up and serve it for us; (2) it's Tony's favorite restaurant. Ever. And it was the one thing he specifically requested.

[Louise]

@Sarah - That is a BRILLIANT idea. I mean, why NOT order take out for 100 people, have it delivered and pay a few waiters to dish it out. Brilliant.

[lizzie [love your way]]

LOVE this post. I always thought food trucks were ADORABLE (we have one here that's a double decker and sells fish'n chips - they're from London, so it's legit). However, I always wondered...how good is the food, really? A lot of times a gimmicky business is making up for something else that might be lacking...although I've heard a lot of great reviews from people who used cupcake trailers and taco trucks, so maybe I'm just making a general assumption.

I wanna see more vendor carts at wedding, that would be the coolest. A hot-dog vendor cart...a gyro and falafel vendor cart...RIGHT? c'mon...

[Dancy]

Great post. There's an awesome food truck outside our favorite little string of Irish pubs in the Bronx. They make all the regular stuff too but since it's a big Irish enclave, they cater to their customers. "Chips, cheese & garlic" is a HUGE favorite. Perfect, homemade french-fries topped with metly cheese & garlic sauce. No one said it was diet food, but it's awesome happiness. The rule is everyone has to eat it though - this way we all stink. LOL

[Becca]

LA actually has such a large food truck scene that legitimate restaurants now have trucks and many of the trucks are VERY experienced at catering buffet style, so you don't need to wait in truck lines. Our truck is actually associated with a fancy schmancy restaurant (Top Chef Masters Susan Feniger started the restaurant) and we're getting Border Grill food at 1/3 of the price, plus we can hire serving/bartender/cleanup staff through them. It's all sorts of amazing. For $5000 we get incredible food for 150 people, trendy-yet-efficient food fun, and all our staffing needs are taken care of.

We also sampled a number of food trucks before we made our decision to really make sure the food was wedding worthy. They range from greasy street food to gourmet amazingness. And all are more affordable than traditional catering (I think Bowie Bride paid about $2000 for her food from Kogi). You can get also hire staff through event staffing agencies to help supplement the truck service.

Yes, there are definitely some trucks to avoid, but there are also great options out there.