Tag: Pittsburgh

From falafel to the Sultan of Swat to ice cream and kettle corn, more than two dozen vendors serving from food trucks and tents had offerings to tempt any palate.

When the temperatures get warmer, Il Pizzaiolo‘s mobile brick oven will join the dozens of food trucks delivering its wares to hungry customers around the city.

Food trucks provide variety and convenience in areas or at events that lack good dining options. They also cast Pittsburgh in a more cosmopolitan light

The truck, from Bar Marco’s chef (and James Beard-nominee) Jamilka Borges, features Puerto Rican street food, and serves up two beers and two different cocktails each day.

Upper St. Clair resident Mike Baughman, along with his wife, Kristen, and young children roll through Bridgeville and nearby areas in their Rolling Cones truck selling Penn State Berkey Creamery ice cream.

The trucks also un­dergo a yearly ve­hi­cle in­spec­tion re­quired by the state Depart­ment of Trans­por­ta­tion, but Rich Kirk­patrick, a PennDOT spokes­man, said, “The in­spec­tion looks at the safety of the ve­hi­cle it­self, but not any­thing sup­ple­men­tal like the ad­di­tion of a pro­pane tank.”

The Brighton Heights Citizens Federation office was in Joan and Pete Bellisario's house for years until May 2012, when the all-volunteer board moved into a former hair salon on California Avenue.

Food trucks are not a common sight in the Pittsburgh market, due to a variety of restrictive laws that make it hard for them to do business. According to Pittsburgh Mobile Food, which advocates for Pittsburgh's mobile food industry, city requirements that food trucks move every 30 minutes, stay at least 500 feet from any business with a similar product for sale, refrain from parking at metered spaces, and not sell food after midnight, severely limits where and when a food truck can operate.

Pittsburgh is a far cry from Los Angeles in most respects, but we're finally starting to adapt the food truck to our own peculiar topography and our own walking, working and dining preferences.

The first ever “Fuel the Fans Food Truck Festival,” sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods Marathon and the South Side Chamber of Commerce is planned for Race Day, May 5.