Well, I thought that Popped Republic was going to be DC’s first popcorn food truck, until Stella’s Popkern showed up at Franklin Park today!  More info is on their page.

Thanks to Amy for the tip!

Just a little footnote: marketing a food truck prior to launch definitely pays off! Popped Republic has nearly twice as many Twitter followers as Stella’s even though Stella’s has already launched.

Organizers of The Fourth Estate’s Wine and Food Truck Pairing Dinner at the National Press Club just informed me that they made more tickets available for the event after making sure the trucks could handle the extra capacity! So, if you missed out on the first round of tickets, this is your chance! More info on the event is in my earlier post. The 6 course meal with wine pairing will be held on Feb 28th, 2012 from 6-9 pm at 529 14th St NW. Tickets can be purchased here.

That is the question that Food Truck Fiesta reader, David, asks.  And, he took things a step further by keeping a log of the packaging that each food truck uses!  The obvious winner is the Fojol Bros food truck that uses compostable containers and even compostable cutlery.  How do other trucks fare?  Check out the matrix.  And, if you have any additions to make, please feel free to email them in!

What the Pho? is a new food truck coming to DC!  Their expected opening date is in the spring of 2012 and they are currently getting their truck built. Menu offerings include Bahn Mi, Pho and Asian fusion.  More info is on their page.

It seems that 2012 will be the year of pho for DC as PhoWheels also expects to launch in the spring.  This is great news considering that in 2011, DC Phonomenon launched, but abruptly closed after just 1 month of service leaving a lot of pho fans unsatisfied.

Cirque Cuisine starts serving in DC today @ Farragut Square (17th & K)!  Earlier this month, they spent a few days serving in Loudoun County, so it seems like they will be ready that all of DC’s food truck fans can demand from them today. 🙂  The menu seems to be changing from the one posted on their facebook page.  The owner tells me that they will have pollo con molè on the menu for today!  More info (including the older menu) can be found on their page.

The Fourth Estate Restaurant (529 14th St NW) at the National Press Club is pleased to announce The Fourth Estate’s Wine and Food Truck Pairing Dinner at the National Press Club, Feb 28th, 2012 from 6-9 pm. Tickets can be purchased here.

I spoke with manager of the Fourth Estate Restaurant and got a few more details!  The food trucks will be parked outside and vendors will bring their food, either pre-prepared or made in the Fourth Estate’s kitchen, into the restaurant where attendees will be served.  They will serve six courses, and each vendor will showcase their respective cuisine with a wine pairing, save for Curbside Cupcakes; they will pair the cupcakes with a chocolate malt from Chocolate City Brew.

Sounds like a fun evening and tickets are only $35!

While the original public comment period was set to end tomorrow, DCRA decided early this week to extend the deadline (PDF)  to March 1, 2012 at 5pm.

If you haven’t sent your comments in to DCRA yet (email  DCVendingRegs@dc.gov), please make sure to personalize your message and perhaps cite some specifics from the proposed regulations. My favorite document is the redlined version of the vending regulations that just shows you the proposed changes made to the regulations from its current form (PDF document).  It only takes a few minutes to read the changes!

While the DC Food Truck Association is advocating changes to provisions that limit Sweets Trucks to 10 Minutes, Zoning of Food Trucks and Shorter Hours for Food Trucks Than for Restaurants, there are some other points that we all can weigh in on, even positive ones! For example, section 554 addresses customer lines:

A vendor shall ensure that waiting customers do not completely block the public sidewalk. A vendor shall comply with this subsection by asking customers, through verbal communication and signage on the vehicle, to not impede pedestrian access along the public sidewalks.

Sounds reasonable to me!  I know that some of us veteran food truck patrons complain about how some customer lines organically form to block pedestrian traffic.

Lastly, Tim Carman has a nice post summarizing the 1400+ public comments up until this point.  The main takeaways are:

• only about 80 of those comments are against food trucks
• DCRA appears to place less weight on comments that are form letters that were just copied & pasted
• DCRA pays particular attention to comments written by industry groups, like the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) and the DC Food Truck Association

 
Redline_of_06.25.10_NPRM_to_01.20.12_NPRM[1]

I’m happy to announce that brick-and-mortar shop, Crêpe Amour (located in Georgetown on M Street), is launching a food truck!

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to try their sinful crêpes at the Georgetown location, your chance is coming curbside in Spring 2012.  The decision of going mobile apparently was being considered for a while and in early February 2012 they officially announced on their site that they are developing the food truck concept.

All of their crêpes will be made-to-order in front of customers on traditional, cast-iron griddles using fresh, locally sourced ingredients. They will also be serving LavAzza Italian coffee and freshly squeezed-to-order orange juice.

Crêpe Love by Crêpe Amour will begin serving breakfast onwards and also operate as a fully equipped catering unit for their private event services, which recently received honorable mention from the Washingtonian. They are expected to be operating in DC/VA/MD by Spring 2012.  More info is on their page.

Can you feel the love today? 🙂

All of the dessert food trucks are super excited about today: Curbside Cupcakes, That Cheesecake Truck and the new Cupcake Blvd hits the streets in Montgomery County today (likely Bethesda).  Even Basil Thyme is in the Valentine’s day spirit with a Chocolate Strawberry cannoli.  I’m sure there are many more things that food trucks are doing to celebrate Valentine’s Day, too!

Other news for today:

• Lemongrass received their Fairfax County permits and plan to be in Reston & Tysons Corner next week
• Mighty Dog Acai posted more menu details and expects to open on Feb 27th
• The DCFTA has a new Change.org petition to help support the new food truck regulations

The folks at Maple Ave Restaurant announced that they are retiring their food truck, MAX (Maple Ave Xpress), in favor of spending time expanding their family!  Their 2nd child is due in July – congrats! 🙂

Maple Ave Xpress was the mobile unit of the Maple Ave restaurant located in Vienna, Virginia.  MAX primarily served in Fairfax county.