OPINION: Hey chain restaurants, stay off of my streets!! Leave Food Trucks Alone!

Some cities like Los Angeles, New York and Portland have rich food truck histories. Their food trucks are part of their food culture. In the past several years, the food truck craze has been spreading across the country. Seattle is a good example. The number of food trucks keeps multiplying each year. So much so, Seattle has been the host of several Mobile Chowdowns, which even featured food trucks from Portland. I'm a huge fan of food trucks and have attended a few of the Mobile Chowdowns.

Now some of the chain restaurants want to get in on the food truck action. Jack In The Box introduced its Jack's Munchie Mobile back in March in Southern California. Does Jack In The Box really need to get into the food truck business? Jack In The Box has over 900 brick-and-mortar restaurants in California alone! Do we really need a food truck like this showing up at food festivals, block parties and neighborhood blocks when you can find a Jack In The Box restaurant just about wherever you go?

Jack In The Box Munchie Mobile

Applebee's in Colorado rolled out its first food truck at its Colorado Burger contest. The Applebee's food truck is going to travel across Colorado. Yet again, do we really need an Applebee's food truck? Just like Jack In The Box, there are plenty of Applebee's restaurants throughout the country. In my opinion, any chain restaurant should stick to their brick-and-mortar restaurants. Chain restaurants and fast food chains make mass produced, processed, unoriginal food. Most of the food is bland and very unhealthy. It's bad enough that a lot of people drive to these places and eat this food, but now these chains are going to be driving through our neighborhoods trying to sell this slop to us? Most Americans are overweight as it is. Do we really need to make the access even easier to this fatty food? I think not.

Applebee's executive chef Shannon Johnson in front of Applebee's Colorado's new food truck.

Seattle has a lot of great food trucks: Maximus/Minimus, Marination Mobile, Skillet, Where Ya At Matt, El Camion, Pai's, Rancho Bravo Tacos, and many, many more! These food trucks offer fresh ingredients that are turned into amazing, original, and very tasty meals. Not to mention, they are all local businesses. Last month, the Seattle City Council approved a bill that allows food trucks to do business on the street. Previously food trucks were only allowed on private property. The bill also allows food carts to sell more kinds of food. This is all good news to food truck owners in Seattle. Hopefully this will spur on even more food trucks, just not already established fast food chains and other restaurants who have no business moving into town with their own food trucks.

Skillet

Maximus/Minimus

Marination Mobile

Mobile Chowdown Rundown

Yesterday was the Mobile Chowdown at Interbay. This was the first, of I hope many, street food vendor gatherings in Seattle. The street food vendors included Skillet, Maximus Minimus, Marination Station, Gert's BBQ, Parfait Organic Ice Cream, El Camion, Dante's Inferno Dogs, and Kaosamai Thai. I had the pleasure of attending this event with my best friends Shay, Penny & Scott. The event started at 11:00am and was scheduled to go until 3:00pm, or until they ran out of food. I'm pretty sure all the vendors ran out of food before the 3:00pm deadline.

When we arrived shortly after 12:00pm, there were already long lines snaking from each vendors' trailers. I'm not sure the organizers of the event nor the vendors themselves expected shuch a large turnout for the event. Seattlites love their street food! When we approached the crowd of people it was hard to determine where any of the lines ended for any of the vendors. All the lines seemed to all be blended together. So we just stood behind some people who looked like they were in line and hoped it led us to some good food.

As we slowly advanced through the line, we found out that we were in line for Skillet. This was good news as I have always wanted to try their food. When we approached the Skillet airstream trailer, we were able to get a glimpse of their menu offerings, which just so happen to be written on the side of the airstream trailer with a black marker. Shay and I chose to go with the Skillet Burger and French Fries. Penny selected the Thai Chile Burger.

Now I must say, I love hamburgers and I have had my share of bad burgers and great burgers. I would have to say that the Skillet Burger was by far one of the best burgers I have ever tasted! The hour and a half wait was well worth it! The Skillet Burger isn't just a burger, it's an experience. It consists of grass fed beef grilled and topped with bacon jam (yes, bacon jam!!), arugula, cambazola and served on a butter toasted macrina soft roll. The hand-cut french fries were tasty too! Shay agreed with me that the Skillet Burger was very good. Penny also really enjoyed her Thai Chile Burger. If you haven't checked out Skillet yet, do it! They have a weekly calender on their website of where the airstream trailer will be located. Scott decided to try out Dante's Inferno Dogs and he seemed to really enjoy their hot dogs.

I would have loved to have tried out some of the other vendors food, but waiting another hour or longer in line didn't seem like all that much fun. Although after seeing some people walking around with the Parfait Organic Ice Cream, it was very tempting. This event was a huge success. I'm sure this will become an annual event. There's already a rumor that next year they will offer a beer garden and live music. I'm guessing next year there will be even more street food vendors participating. This event was sponsored by Seattle Magazine, Sorrento Hotel and Tilth Restaurant.