Midtown Lunch

Sad news from the LA Food Truck Lots twitter account yesterday: “The Alameda lot [at Traction] didn’t make the cut…. We have a new lot opening in little Tokyo in 2 weeks on Judge John Aiso St. Stay tuned.”  Unlike the Santa Monica food truck lot, which opened to huge crowds on day 1 before being closed on day 2 by a zoning issue, the Downtown lot seems to be closing because it didn’t work for the vendors.  It’s not completely clear if it was a lack of customers, the rent being charged by the owners of the lot, or most likely a combination of the two.  (One truck owner described it to me last week as a “petering out”.)  The new location will be closer to the Civic Center, and perfect for those days when the line at Daikokuya is too long (aka every day).  But, sadly, parking will probably be more difficult.

One thing is for sure… despite all the hype, and initial crowds, food truck lot survival is not a given.  If you like the trucks that park near your office, you’ve got to get out and support!  (They cannot pay the bills from twitter alone.) If not, they’re going to find somewhere else to park…

Midtown Lunch: LA has been up and running for 2 weeks now, and not a single post about street food? Embarrassing… so on Friday I set to rectify the situation by heading to the new Downtown food truck food court on S Alameda and Traction run by the SoCal MFVA. I was excited to try India Jones, which had been recommended by Lunch’er Damara during my last week of lunching in NYC. I’m a huge fan of the kati roll (an Indian burrito/soft taco of sorts popular on the streets of Kolkata), and was worried that moving to L.A. would end my affair with the Indian street snack I had come to know and love.

Is there anything this city doesn’t have!?

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