Mobile Island Caribbean Cuisine plans on serving the District in a couple of months!  The menu focuses in on Caribbean style curried, jerk and mango chicken + jerk bbq wings, with a more intriguing option to turn any of those mains into a fusion pizza.  More info and links are on their page!

As many of you know, the DC government has proposed new regulations for food trucks. Public comment time is open until Feb 18, so the DC Food Truck Association released a press release/toolkit to help fans show their support. I’m just going to copy & paste the press release (minus the header & footer info) so that you have all of the information:

WASHINGTON, DC – The Washington, DC Food Trucks Association (DCFTA) today released an online toolkit for supporters of Mayor Vincent Gray’s proposed new vending regulations. The toolkit can be downloaded at www.dcfoodtrucks.org.

“The time to talk with your friends, family and co-workers about the threats facing food trucks is now,” said Che Ruddell-Tabisola, Executive Director of the Washington, DC Food Trucks Association (DCFTA). “The deadline to submit comments about Mayor Gray’s proposed new rules – Feb. 18 – is fast approaching.”

The toolkit includes background information, a poster, handouts and suggested steps food truck supporters can take, such as:

1. Voicing their support at www.PassNewRegs.org.
2. Sending a personal letter about why they support the proposed new regulations to DCVendingRegs@dc.gov.
3. Printing and displaying the “Pass New Regs” poster at school and/or work.
4. Printing and distributing the “Pass New Regs” handouts to friends and co-workers.
5. Letting everyone know over Twitter and Facebook why they support the proposed new regulations and how others can support them too.

On January 20, 2012, Washington, DC Mayor Vincent Gray proposed new rules to update the 30-year-old regulations governing food trucks.

Overall, the proposed rules issued by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs are a significant improvement over the current regulations, which state that food trucks must close and leave if no one is waiting in line. The proposed regulations would allow food trucks to remain open without being hailed and without a line. However, the proposed regulations also have rules that threaten these new and innovative small businesses:

• Limiting Sweets Trucks to 10 Minutes: The proposed regulations allow dessert trucks to be open for only 10 minutes if there are no waiting customers. Sweets food trucks should be allowed to be open as long as savory food trucks.

• Zoning of Food Trucks: The new regulations propose to create Vending Development Zones. The goals of these zones are worthy. However, Vending Development Zones must not be manipulated by special interest to create “Food Truck-Free Zones” that eliminate consumer choice or fair competition.

• Shorter Hours for Food Trucks Than for Restaurants: The proposed regulations require food trucks to close at 10 pm on weekdays and 1 am on weekends. Food trucks should be allowed to be open the same hours as restaurants.

The Washington, DC Food Trucks Association supports passage of Mayor Gray’s proposed new regulations with these issues addressed.

Montgomery County is about to receive a new cupcake truck! The planned launch day is Valentine’s day 2012.  The Cupcake Blvd truck is interesting because it is basically a van, but when the sliding door opens, it reveals a serving window and display case.  The cupcake designs are just as innovative.  From the Oreo cupcake topped with Nutella to the Margarita cupcake, Cupcake Blvd is definitely one to keep an eye on!  More info is on their page!

Coming in Spring 2012, PhoWheels will serve a modern interpretation of traditional Vietnamese cuisine. Forealz!  More info & links can be found on their page.

PhoWheels DC is a welcome development after DC Phonomenon closed abruptly last year after just 1 month of service.

Grids Waffles brings sweet and savory waffles to the District!  They started serving sometime around January 2012 exclusively in the American University area.  Just a few days ago, they branched out to serving the downtown area.  Today, it looks like they will be back at AU.  If you think their truck looks familiar, you would be interested to know that it is the former Fry Captain truck.  For more info and menu details of Grids Waffles, see their page!

I’ve been wondering what happened to Tasty Kabob’s 5th truck ever since it was spotted operating on January 4th & 5th, 2012.  I can only assume that the 5th truck was re-branded as a bright red truck, named Tasty Fried DC.  Also demonstrated last year by the Sauca enterprise, it would seem that no one food truck company can operate more than 4 identical food trucks without saturating the market.

Tasty Fried launched on Feb 2nd at GWU, serving up fried chicken and fish.  Could Tasty Fried be a good substitute for the now closed Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A of GWU’s Marvin Center?

Thanks to the folks at Mobile Island (another upcoming DC food truck) for sending in the tip!

More brick and mortar restaurants are getting into the food truck game!  Today, Amorini Panini launched a food truck at L’Enfant plaza.  Their brick and mortar store is located in Penn Quarter at 906 F St NW.

No word yet on a truck twitter account.

Photo courtesy of Coleman who also notes that paninis are in the 6-7 dollar range.

Mayor Gray promised to release the newly drafted DC food truck regulations on Jan 20th – and he did.  The DCFTA generally likes the proposed new vending regulations and is asking the public to join them in support. You can show your support by filling out this online petition. But, all is not 100% rosy, as Che Ruddell-Tabisola (BBQ Bus), Executive Director of DCFTA outlines some negative points of the newly proposed regulations:

• Limiting Sweets Trucks to 10 Minutes: The proposed regulations allow dessert trucks to be open for only 10 minutes if there are no waiting customers. Sweets food trucks should be allowed to be open as long as savory food trucks.

• Zoning of Food Trucks: The new regulations propose to create Vending Development Zones. The goals of these zones are worthy. However, Vending Development Zones must not be manipulated by special interest to create “Food Truck-Free Zones” that eliminate consumer choice or fair competition.

• Shorter Hours for Food Trucks Than for Restaurants: The proposed regulations require food trucks to close at 10 pm on weekdays and 1 am on weekends. Food trucks should be allowed to be open the same hours as restaurants.

Some of you may have heard that Borinquen Lunch Box had a less than ideal first day of service.  Just as they were to open their window for service, truck issues prevented them from continuing.  It is not unusual for brand new trucks to have to work out the kinks of their operation during the first couple of weeks, so in my opinion, an apology is not necessary.  But, they asked me to post an open letter to fans and I am happy to oblige!

Dear Customers:

We sincerely apologize for the frustration and inconvenience that you experienced during our truck open day in L’Enfant Plaza. You deserve only the best, especially when you take time from your busy day to enjoy a delicious Puertorican meal.

This morning we encountered a glitch in our sprinkler system that, unfortunately, forced us to close for the day. Safety, Quality, and Customer Service are three company values that we will never compromise; e.g. like discarding burned ‘pan sobao’ because it didn’t passed our quality assurance processes. We also learned that our customers want/need to be informed about truck locations and status. We missed this important step; we were tweeting but forgot to update Facebook, leaving a lot of our customer looking for us.

Todays problem will not go unnoticed. We have adjusted our procedures, wrote some lessons learned documents, and we are actively working to improve our service.

We look forward to serving you more efficiently in the future. Again, our sincere apologies.

Sincerely
Borinquen Lunch Box

In Washington DC, few food trucks retire. But when they do, the physical truck is quickly snatched up and developed into another culinary venture.  Such is the case of Fry Captain which used to deliver delicious shakes and fries with a variety of seasoning and dipping sauces.  I will introduce the new truck owners, Grids Waffles in a follow-up post!