You are in luck! The monthly Vegas StrEATS festival takes place at Jackie Gaughan Plaza, in front of the El Cortez hotel (a major sponsor of the event), from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the second Saturday of the month, which happens to fall on April 14 this year.
The inaugural event took place March, 2011, and is about to celebrate its one-year anniversary tomorrow night (it's really been a year already? wow!) We attended the first StrEATS event and here's what we wrote about it in the April issue of the LVA newsletter:
We’ve written a lot about the Las Vegas food trucks. It’s an interesting phenomenon and the food they serve is generally very good. But there’s a fundamental problem in that you have to get to the trucks to get to the food. That problem is solved with a new monthly event that brings several of the trucks together in one place. The inaugural Vegas StreEATS Festival was held last month across the street from the El Cortez and it was a big enough success to make it ongoing, running on the second Saturday of every month from 8 pm to 3 am.
It’s not just food. A downtown square just west of the casino houses the trucks, along with live music and vendors selling art and streetwear. It’s a vibrant scene with lots of young people hanging out. By young, we mean teenage, but there’s also plenty of security to keep order. Last month’s gathering featured Slidin’ Thru, Fukuburger, Sloppi Jo’s, Tasty Bunz, Curbside Café, Snow Ono Shaved Ice, Island Breeze, and Cheese Steak. The biggest problem is lines at the trucks, but you can seek out one that’s less popular to avoid them. That’s what we did and had an excellent meal of noodles and kim chee from Island Breeze.
As noted above, the hours have changed since then, and the event has gotten bigger with every passing month, not least because of the exploding mobile eatery scene here, which now features some 37 food trucks, covering all manner of sweet and savory delights of different ethnicities. The event also features live music, DJs, local streetwear vendors, and more. We haven't had a chance to make it back yet, but intend to soon (perhaps tomorrow?). It's really fun, although expect to find yourself waiting in line for the most popular trucks (which is pretty much all of them).
For those who can't make it to the next Vegas StrEATS (or, indeed, those of you who can), there's also the weekly Saturday Night Truck Stop event at Tommy Rockers on Dean Martin Dr. Organized by the former owner of the now defunct Sloppi Jo's truck (which is in the process of morphing into a new brick 'n mortar restaurant, currently been test driven via a number of "pop-up" dining events at downtown's The Lady Silvia bar, in Soho Lofts), it features several food trucks dishing up their culinary wares from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., sometimes with a cook-off between different local chefs, so you can actually attend both events, if you have any room left after your sojourn downtown.
To stay in the food-truck loop, the best thing to do is follow your favorite vendors on Twitter, where you'll learn about their weekly schedules, daily specials, and occasional mechanical breakdowns. We have a dedicated "List" for food trucks at @LVA_Tweet, so you can tune into all their latest posts in one collective feed (let us know if anyone's missing).
