It was back in the summer of 2010 that we started becoming aware of the new food truck trend, which had originated (to the best of our knowledge) in California. Unlike ice-cream vans, or the derogatorily-referred to "roach coaches" that were already a familiar site in certain neighborhoods, this new breed of mobile eatery tends to specialize in high-end fast food and ethnic delicacies, including interesting fusion concepts and family recipes -- gourmet sliders, exotic tacos, home-made Italian or Hawaiian ices, and the like.
The rise of these new enterprises was made possible by the parallel growth of social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which allow the vendors to keep in touch with their followers and fans in real time and let people know where they're going to be or on occasion, where they're not going to be, on account of traffic snarl ups, mechanical disasters, family drama, and so on.
Over the past years, we've seen some ideas and businesses succeed, while many of the pioneers have long since bitten the dust (Relish, Guinea Pigs Street Meat, Scratch Foods, Flow Rider Truck, Sloppi Jo's, Great Bao, etc.) Some entrepreneurial types have used the relatively low start-up cost of a food truck to test drive and market their culinary concept, prior to launching into the grown-up world of bricks-and-mortar; others have ceased aimlessly wandering the streets and now cater only to pre-arranged events.
Still, while the numerous failures demonstrate clearly that launching and sustaining a food-truck business is no picnic, that same bricks-and-mortar establishment, particularly in the downtown area, became increasingly unhappy with what they saw as an unfair threat from businesses with much lower overheads parking outside, or down the street, and poaching potential sit-down customers with the aromas and price tags of cheap street food. It all came to a head in 2012, with a string of proposals that pushed for buffer zones between the two business types of up to 1,320 feet.
These more draconian measures were toned down and when the ordinance was introduced earlier this summer, it featured a buffering distance scaled down to 150 feet, while three experimental designated food-truck parking zones were introduced downtown, with spots up for grabs on a lottery basis via a system that's administered by the city's business-licensing department. Approved trucks are now able to lease one of these reserved parking spaces from the city for $5 per hour, alleviating the logistical problems posed by 30-minute parking meters. Fifteen trucks were granted licenses under a temporary six-month trial period, which runs through January 2014, with the city operating an interactive Food Truck Map detailing the immediate upcoming schedule.
While we're not aware of any similar regulations governing the Strip and its environs, it's almost irrelevant due to real logistical issues, in terms of the difficulty of being able to park anywhere desirable on the Strip that isn't private property owned by a hotel or other business, but we did come across a private initiative that attempted to introduce a similar food-truck zone at the south end of the Strip a few months back. It turns out that the "Eat Outside" initiative never got off the ground, however -- when we noted that what had billed itself as the "only gourmet food truck lot on the world-famous Las Vegas Strip" hadn't tweeted since September, we dropped 'em a line and by return heard back that, "We have been unable to secure a consistent group of trucks committing to the spot." Oh well, nice idea.
Hence, you won't find an organized gathering near the Strip as you currently can downtown, but many of the established trucks operate a pretty set schedule, which you can find on their websites, plus there are regular events like the Saturday Night Truck Stop at Tommy Rocker's (a weekly late-night food truck social that often features a "back of the house brawl" between some top chef talent). Several of the larger gentlemen's clubs regularly feature catering by one or more popular food trucks, while it seems that not a week goes by without another food-truck event or festival -- look out for the big annual Las Vegas Foodie Fest shindig coming to Silverton this weekend, for example, plus there's the regular Vegas StrEATS event downtown on the second Saturday of each month, which features a revolving line-up of gourmet mobile eateries from among the valley's current quotient of some 40+ active food trucks.
The only other specific laws we're aware of relating to food trucks are the Food Establishment Regulations that govern Mobile Food Units, which come courtesy of the Southern Nevada Health District and mainly govern issues of sanitation, hygiene, and permitting requirements.
Our advice to everyone interested in sampling the wares of our mobile food army is to follow the trucks you're interested on via your/their preferred social media outlet(s) (including downtown's dedicated and free Food Truck iPhone App), so you can stay in the loop both about future events and with the immediate whereabouts of your favorite munchies, should you happen to find yourself hungry and in the vicinity of one that tickles your tastebuds.
