LA Street Food Fest 2010
The Roach Coach Craze in LA began when Kogi's started making waves among the late night crowd, with some unfamiliar truck food. Korean tacos? Who'd have thunk - thus sparking a wave of various food trucks/catering companies mixing the traditional roach coach affair with some ethnic flair. Soon, there was a truck on every corner doling out gobs of upscale truck food that Angelenos willingly follow with a passion. Which leads us into this pinnacle event - the LA Street Food Fest.
The Los Angeles Street Food Festival occurred this past Saturday and brought together a good amount of LA food trucks in one spot for about 6 hours. Located at the LA Studios Center in Downtown LA, there were the familiar Fishlips Sushi Truck and the Grilled Cheese Truck, to the not so familiar India Jones Truck and CoolHaus Truck. Entry was $5 and most food samples ranged between $1-$6, from what we saw, so you could pretty much taste the best of a couple trucks for the amount of a full course meal at a local restaurant. Wonderful concept and for the most part did not disappoint with the amount of options available to the local foodies (30+ food vendors present!!!).
After spending the better portion of our morning here trying to fill up our bellies, we realized that the biggest gripe of the festival were the lines. The line to get in was already wrapping itself through the parking lot before the gates opened at 11am. By the time we left, it was snaking around the entire block and they ended up turning away folks hours before closing time. As if the line to get in wasn't enough, the lines inside became somewhat confusing and unbearable. Even more unbearable than just following a truck to some bar parking lot on a Saturday night. With an estimated attendance hitting far north of 10,000 people, most lines stretched 2-3 trucks past where you wanted to go, with most in line having no clue what they were in line for. Ask the internet - anything that has been posted in reference to this Food Fest will no doubt bring up the situation with the lines.
Next time this event does come around, which is said to be again later on this year, be sure to bring all of your friends and start early (before the doors even open). Each person takes a truck and orders for everyone else. Meet up in the middle and share war stories over Chinese Tacos from Don Chow's, Japanese Hot Dogs from Dogzilla and fried chicken from Ludo's. This is the only way to circumvent missing out on a truck you wanted to check out, it'll cut down your overall wait time, and will not spread out your munching time to every hour or so.
Surprisingly the truck that "started it all," the Kogi Truck, didn't join the festival. Asking around, no one really could tell us why. That, along with the absence of the infamous Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog Carts was a small let down also. Well, hopefully the good folks at the LA Street Food Fest crew can squeeze those guys in the next time around...that'd make me happy enough to go again.
-Tanker
More pics after the JUMP!
