Tag: MiamiNewTimes

Confused yet by all the street food court change-ups in the last couple weeks? In a nutshell, here's what's going on

Some of Miami's most popular food trucks will be tooting their horns at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum this Saturday.

Owned by Steve Berry and chefs Kurtis Jantz and Chad Galiano, the company started offering food packages for NFL Sundays (dubbed Sol Sundays) in November.

Recently launched FoodTruckLocater is a labor of love for food truck fan Artie Ayala, who owns the web design company Omni Media Group by day and whose wife works for Food Cart U.S.A.

It's powered by Gables Juice Bar and Protein Pizza, a calorie-controlled favorite on the downtown Coral Gables lunch circuit.

One of the brighter stars is Miso Hungry. In a sea of burgers and tacos, the bright blue truck has stood out with a fresh take on casual pan-Asian fare, in which bright flavors and crisp vegetables abound.

With the animal fat freely a-flowin' on most local food trucks, what's a meat-eschewer to do? While Miami's mobile food scene continues to grow, it's still behind other cities' in its lack of vegetarian options. The Raaga Cart showed promise during Art Basel especially, but its owners have day jobs and it hasn't been seen around much since.

Proving that food truck owners, a pretty independent lot, don't need an outsider to organize them, two participants in past Pinecrest rallies took over. "Wing Commander and I decided that it was important to keep this South Miami site alive for our customers," says David Pastrana, co-owner with Kimberly Kilmer of the Miso Hungry truck.

How will the success of these mobile food courts affect Miami's brick-and-mortar establishments? In recent weeks hundreds, or perhaps thousands of people have been tweeting about and lining up at food truck courts to grab a dinner comprised of varied street foods.

Organizers should rent a Port-O-San, or some sort of portable restroom. Most of the truck roundups take place in out-of-the-way locales. When you gotta go, you gotta go, and right now that means you gotta go away from the event altogether. Not smart.