Having recently been down into Los Angeles several times, I’ve come across the periphery of food truck culture. This seems to me something that I am simply not hip enough to participate in. It’s a gigantic tease — the interesting, trendy, high-quality food everyone is talking about moves about like a band of guerilla warriors around the city, showing up unannounced in unpredictable places, dispensing (that is, selling) to the masses, annoying the hell out of established local restaraunts, and vanishing into the mid-afternoon when their stocks are depleted. There is no way to know when a given truck is going to be in a particular location or even if where you’re going to be will have a truck at all.
The things that bring me to Los Angeles are a) court, b) depositions, c) mediations, and d) meeting up with friends, typically on the weekends and typically for meals. Option d) renders food trucks not an option. I’ve not noticed a lot of food trucks near a), and b) and c) have unpredicatable times for breaks, and often are in locations not graced by food trucks on the random days when I am there. The Wife and I went to a food truck event in Santa Clarita a few months ago and it was so packed with thousands of suburban people hoping for a taste of this hipster treat, police were needed (but absent) for crowd control. There are, of course, no cool food trucks up here at the ass end of Los Angeles County, just the old roach coaches servicing construction sites (and not very many of those anymore, either, since there isn’t a lot of construction going on).
I just think I’m going to have to let the phenomenon of the high-quality, fashionably evanescent food truck pass me by completely while listening to hipster friends and foodies wax rhapsodic about how great they are. Pity.
The question arises about how well these gypsy food trucks are regulated by licensing bureaus and health departments. Barrister Likko, could we find them to serve them with a lawsuit if they inflicted ptomaine or some other dreaded disease? And do they carry sufficient liability insurance to cover our damages? I’m just asking.
Yes, suing them would be possible. Many such trucks are affiliated with restaurants. The problem is how to prove that the plaintiff’s sickness came from a particular source. Most victims of food poisoning do not think to, ahem, preserve samples.
The fact that they’re so hard to get to is part of the appeal. Every child loves the notion of being in a secret club, and they love simple games like “tag” and “treasure hunt”, and these food trucks hit all three of those things (with the added bonus of “naughty” food like bacon and hot dogs and other stuff you’re not supposed to eat.)