Spring may be officially here in the DC food truck universe.  Pleasant Pops just tweeted that they’ll be serving once again starting tomorrow (March 17).  District Taco just started serving recently as well.  I wonder if Fry Captain will make an appearance?

I just received word that Austin Grill’s first food truck will be serving on March 16!  They plan on starting out at Georgetown Law at 600 New Jersey Ave NW, then migrating towards Gallery Place / Chinatown (7th and H St NW).  Read more about the truck website, twitter and facebook pages on the Austin Grill page!

Tasty Kabob is a sidewalk cart with two static locations in Arlington, VA. I got word that they were working on an actual food truck which is now due for a DC launch next Monday! Look for them on the sidebar of Food Truck Fiesta for more information. Their twitter username is TastyKabob.  And, of course, they’ll be on the map once the truck announces its locations.

Cupcakes have become all the rage among hipsters and urban dwellers. Maybe they hearken back to a simpler era or to childhood delight, or maybe they represent some marvel of engineering—compressing a buttery, cakey confection to such a small handheld form. Maybe they’re just an ongoing fad to add to the list that now includes specialty muffin and donut shops. In any case, cupcakes have instead become the battlefield for a turf war in metro Washington, D.C., that would make these other patisseries blush. Home to a half dozen cupcakeries, the invasion of the larger chain cupcakerie Sprinkles led to sugary pandemonium and retaliation by local small business owners afraid that the commerciality of the L.A.-based Sprinkles brand would vacate the novelty and popularity of the local cupcake offerings.

Jana Erwin describes how the introduction of the chain has led to local community backlash in an ongoing series she calls Sprinklegate.

In the latest episode, the store offered free samples of its delectable snacks at lunchtime through its mobile food truck, but local shop owners were hell-bent on sabotaging the efforts. The elusive mobile truck would appear only for moments before its wares had been fully depleted, the only clue being the momentary warning from its Twitter feed. How perfect to capture the postmodern nonsense of it all!

Read more about Sprinklegate.

Reference:

• Official Sprinkles website
• Sprinkles food truck twitter feed (Los Angeles)

DC United announced that at least four DC food trucks will be serving before their home opener against Columbus Crew on March 19th at 5pm.  The food trucks that have committed so far are Eat Wonky, DC Slices, BBQ Bandidos and Dangerously Delicious Pies.  Each truck will be giving away tickets during the course of the next week as well!

It is becoming Sauca’s modus operandi to test new food trucks by soft-launching them into the busiest environment possible: Farragut Square on a Friday. Today, Sauca’s 6th food truck, named La Gloria Mexicana, made an appearance at Farragut Square and was observed handing out free Mexican fare. Find out more information on La Gloria Mexicana’s page!

Here is a fun note for today: Ambassador Namik Tan from the Turkish Embassy just tweeted that there is a discussion over at the embassy on which DC food truck is the best. I’ll keep you posted if they publish the results. 🙂

The owner of Carnivore BBQ just got in touch with me to chat about his new food truck. They actually soft launched on March 2, 2011, but are ready to serve the masses starting today! Check out more info on the Carnivore BBQ page.

Some Chef Spike fans wrote in to let me know about Chef Spike’s new food truck plans. As a bit of background, Chef Spike owns Good Stuff Eatery and We The Pizza in Capitol Hill and placed 5th in won Bravo TV’s Top Chef (season 4).

The plans are for a food truck, called Sixth and Rye, to serve on Friday’s at lunchtime outside of the 6th & I Synagogue. The cuisine? That would be a Jewish deli on wheels, of course! Here’s to hoping that the deli on wheels will bring a taste of Chicago or NYC delis to DC.

I was walking over to Farragut Square today and happened to notice a lot of random SUVs driving around with those short stubby antennas on top.  You know, maybe something was going on in the area, but not super unusual.  Flash forward about 30 minutes and I’m hearing reports that Federal Police have shut down all of the DC food trucks that were parked around Farragut Square!  DC food trucks have served at Farragut Square ever since DC Slices opened up (i.e. years).

DCRA is investigating, DC food truck fans are irate and DC food trucks are trying to make sense of it all..  More info to come as I receive it!

UPDATE: DCRA informed me that Officer Steinbeck from MPD has spoken with the Feds and that DC food trucks ARE allowed to park next to Farragut Square Park.  The nicest part about this story is that Officer Steinbeck is not even on duty today. Thanks MPD!