Midtown Lunch

If you live and/or work in Culver City you’ve likely noticed the new Westside Food Truck Central lot on Washington and Culver.  In fact it’s become such a popular lunchtime destination that they’ve extended their lunchtime schedule to 5 days a week, 11am to 2:30pm (they also have trucks out there for dinner on Mondays and Wednesdays.)   I’m a huge fan, and whenever I’m in the mood for some gourmet food truck action, near where I live, I now know where to go without even checking twitter (although they do have a twitter account to let you know their daily schedule.)  But that’s not the only place for a truck lunch in the area, and if old school loncheros is more your thing  it turns out one of the best trucks in the city parks on Venice and Jasmine (right in front of Smart & Final.)

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Over the weekend LA Taco’s 3rd Annual Taco Madness came to a close, and in the closest vote of all time Mexicali Taco & Co (in Westlake) was crowned the champ of Los Angeles tacos.  Only one problem for this lunch hunter…  they’re only open at night!  In fact, sometimes it seems like most of the great taco trucks are only open late at night (Leo, I’m looking at you.)  So when I saw that the Taco Madness Runner Up, Mariscos Jalisco was *only* open for lunch I got pretty excited.  Add to that the fact that they’re pretty close to Downtown, and dispatched (the amazing) Ricky’s Fish Tacos (1400 Virgil, Hollywood) in the semi finals, and I couldn’t resist heading over Monday to check it out.

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It seems that these days more and more food trucks are getting into the brick and mortar business.  It might appear to be a prestige or legitimacy thing to some, and I’m sure there are food trucks chefs who always saw a restaurant as their end goal.  But at its core, having a storefront is one of the best financial moves a food truck owner can make.  For one thing it gives your fans a static location to enjoy your food (a necessity for running any kind of retail establishment), but more than that it gives you a home base for your operations that actually generates revenue. It doesn’t guarantee success, and I wouldn’t recommend opening a restaurant to anybody. But if your concept is good, having a brick and mortar business spreads the overhead of your truck out and gives you a better chance of being profitable over all.

What many people don’t realize is that food trucks don’t really operate rent free.  In addition to the cost of running the trucks themselves, they also have to pay rent at a commissary or commercial kitchen to do all the prep work (and in some cases, a lot of the cooking.)   Having a self sustaining brick and mortar restaurant to utilize for prep is a great way to place less of a profit burden on your truck, and it’s part of the reason that it is far more economical for a restaurant to launch a food truck spin off, then it is for a food truck to launch on its own.

And that’s the main reason why you’re seeing so many food trucks going brick and mortar these days. Flying Pig has plans to open 3 restaurants, Coolhaus is opening a shop in Culver City this summer, and Komodo recently opened a storefront on Pico and Robertson- which I went to check out the other day.

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For those who are interested, Manila Machine posted a response to my article on their blog yesterday.  It misses the point of my post, and twists some of my words around, but in a one hour conversation I had with co-owner Nastassia yesterday apologizing to her for any grief I might have caused them and explaining my editorial in detail, I told her I would post any response they had and promote it with just as much vigor as I promoted my own words.  But just for the record, I still stand by everything I wrote yesterday- and know that it is 100% true.

What I really wanted people to get out of my post yesterday was that running a profitable food truck is way more difficult than the media and food trucks themselves (who want to protect their reputations for future endeavors) would lead to you believe.  As somebody who has spent the past 4+ years supporting so many of these new food trucks (both in New York and Los Angeles) I’ve read too many of these rosey, “closing to pursue other opportunities” PR announcements.  Food truck owners need to realize that their actions effect the whole community of street food vendors, old and new.  And if you’re considering jumping into the street food world for any other reason than to create a sustainable, long term food truck business, you should reconsider, because it ends up hurting those who rely entirely on their food trucks to pay their bills.

I know that Marvin & Nastassia didn’t get into the food truck business for the wrong reasons.  The passion and love they brought to their food was clearly on display every single day, and it’s why I loved the truck from the beginning.  In fact, as one of their biggest supporters, and somebody who wants to see great food trucks like the Manila Machine succeed, it’s their continued insistence to spin Friday’s announcement as “good news” (or a “wonderful end”)  that makes me so sad.

Related:
LA Food Fest Tasting Event Makes Me Super Excited For The Manila Machine
Manila Machine is a Great Gateway to Eating More Face

We here at Midtown Lunch have always believed that $10 is the most you should have to spend to get a delicious lunch near where you work. Of course that often puts things like good sushi a bit out of reach, and lobster rolls?  Well, let’s just say I don’t eat a lot of lobster rolls. As amazing as they are, there is something about spending $15-29 for a sandwich whose only effect on your appetite is to make you want another one as soon as you finish the first. So, when the Lobsta Truck launched a few months ago, serving up $12 lobster rolls, I had mixed emotions.

Emotion #1. Screw that.  I don’t care if they’re serving foie gras topped with caviar pearls individually wrapped in gold leaf.  Lunch from a food truck should never cost more than $10.  Cheapness is half the reason people love street food.

Emotion #2. $12 is actually not bad for a lobster roll.  I do love lobster rolls.  If I pay the extra $2 from change that’s scattered around my house, then that count as a $10 Midtown Lunch right?

I suppose I could try it just this once…

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It was almost exactly 1 year ago this week that I first hit up the India Jones Truck.  I was fresh off the boat from NYC, and hungry for a West coast equivalent to my beloved kati roll- a Calcutta street food that is very popular in Midtown Manhattan.  I really loved their butter chicken (you might say the secret ingredient is butter) but their frankies and stuffed “paratha” left me a bit disappointed.  Admittedly the frankie and kati roll are two completely different treats (the frankie comes from Bombay, and features an egg washed bread) but I was still hoping for something a bit more traditional than the Mexican flour tortilla they were using for both items.

Well, recently I heard an unconfirmed rumor that they may have changed their bread to something a bit more roti-like.  Excuse to try the India Jones Truck again?  Don’t mind if I do!

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If you work in Culver City the lunch options just got a little better thanks to Westside Food Truck Central, a parking lot for food trucks on Washington just East of Overland.  It operates for lunch every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11am to 3pm (and dinner on Mondays from 5-9pm.)  Lomo Arigato, India Jones, Lee’s Philly, Jersey Grub and Coolhaus will be parked there for lunch today, and another 7 trucks will join them for dinner tonight.  Track the schedule via Twitter @FoodTrukCentral