By Eric Sandler | Culturemap
MF Sushi isn’t the only member of Houston’s restaurant community that suffered a fire this weekend. Lulu Blues, a new food truck that serves French crepes, suffered an engine fire on its first official day of service.
Chef Laura Duffey and her husband have been working to open the truck since February. When she noticed white smoke coming from the truck’s engine, she pulled over to the side of 610. “The white smoke turned to black smoke, and I saw the flames . . . to see it all go up in smoke was beyond belief,” she says.
Duffey’s not sure what could have started the fire. The truck had a brand new engine with only about 200 miles on it. She had to replace the starter that morning, but her mechanic told her that the starter isn’t in the engine bay. Her insurance company will investigate and determine how to proceed.
For now, Duffey isn’t sure what the future holds. “Now what’s sunk (in) is what do I do now?” she says.
Thankfully, members of the food truck community have already reached out to support one of their own. “I got a wonderful call from Reuben at Liberty Station,” Duffy says, and there might be a benefit at the bar if she needs the help. That community certainly understands the difficulties of operating a food truck. They use the twitter hashtag#trucklife to document all the various things that go wrong with attempting to operate a mobile kitchen on the Houston streets.
For now, diners will have to wait for a chance to sample the truck’s intriguing menu of sweet and savory crepes that includes the option of adding ice cream from Fat Cat Creamery.
As Duffey says, “It’s all very heartbreaking.”
