Meals on Wheels: Capitalizing on the Food Truck Trend

As America’s finances plummeted throughout the great recession beginning in 2008, food trucks offering creative — and affordable — cuisine thrived in Los Angeles. Armies of trucks hawking all sorts of culinary delights, often overseen by well-trained chefs, rolled onto the city’s streets, alerting customers via Twitter or Facebook where they were parked. 

The phenomenon that began in Los Angeles has now exploded in cities across the United States, and it has made its way into meetings. Tyler Florence, host of the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race, calls food trucks “the new answer to American fast food,” and hotels and resorts across the country are offering gourmet food trucks for groups both outdoors and in. Properties such as The Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes and JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes have rented food trucks for group events. The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain, in Tucson has its very own food truck. 

The Fairmont Newport Beach in California created a food truck lunch for a group recently, and it was such a hit that it’s being offered for the foreseeable future. 

Attendees dine on items like pork belly sliders and yellowtail tuna tacos while milling around in a casual environment conducive to low-key networking — all for the price of a regular lunch. “People get excited because it offers a unique experience,” says Donna Bauer, director of catering and conference planning at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, adding that a food truck event is ideal “for the group looking to bring some light humor and fun to their meal.”

The website Roaming Hunger tracks food trucks in cities across the country and can book a food truck or any number of food trucks for a meeting or event. 

One event that put food trucks at the center of a meeting was iLead, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts’ annual sales meeting for 2012. For the event, the company held a food truck lunch that brought nine different food trucks right into the exhibit hall where the company had umbrellas and picnic tables set. 

“The group of 400 had the opportunity to network as they waited in line at the different trucks,” says Allison Jacques, associate director of catering for Hyatt Regency Atlanta. “Everyone absolutely loved it.”

The meeting, attended by Hyatt’s directors of sales and catering, led many attendees to bring the concept back to their properties. 

Jacques worked with the Atlanta Street Food Coalition to get the proper mix of trucks. 

Lamb stew and fish and chips were the featured dishes being served from The Mobile Marlay. This truck is reminiscent of the “fish and chips vans” popular in Ireland. 

Paying tribute to the South, chicken and waffles were being whipped up in Nana G’s Chik-n-Waffles truck. Hail Caesar, a healthy food truck, featured salads with fresh ingredients sourced close to Atlanta and four types of homemade Caesar dressing. Its salads were served in cones and paired with polenta shortbread. A recipe for a Hail Caesar salad is included at right.

Yumbii, said to be Atlanta’s first food truck, was serving tacos, quesadillas, and sesame fries. The Good Food Truck featured dishes like grilled cheese and a curry cone with vegetables and chickpeas in it and the W.O.W.! food truck was serving slider-sized pork arepas from South America. The Munch truck, which serves a mix up of Asian classics, was also on hand serving Vietnamese-style banh mi sandwiches with either chicken or pork and pickled vegetables, cilantro, and a mayonnaise-based sauce on fresh baguettes.

Two trucks serving sweets were on hand: Honeysuckle Gelato, with unique gelato flavors like ginger molasses and mint julep, and the Yum Yum Cupcake & More truck.