Photo by Caitlin Abrams
Food trucks in downtown Minneapolis
Feels like a fair question: will there be a food truck season in 2020?
Because I had to run to my office yesterday, in downtown Minneapolis, and I parked at a meter right out front. Usually, on a sunny day during lunchtime, those meters on 2nd and 6th would be nose to tail with big colorful food trucks and the sidewalks would be peppered with people waiting for their boats of sambusas and grilled cheese sammies. Yesterday, obviously, nothing.
Also, there are no music festivals to feed, no beer festers to fill, no overflowing taprooms, no catering gigs for late night wedding drive-bys on the horizon. And even though they are not classified as dine-in spots and have the green light to operate, is it safe for them? Will food truckers even dust off the old vehicles and make a go for it?
I think, optimistically, yes? With plenty of caveats.
Jon Wipfli, of Animales BBQ, is relaunching this weekend. Granted, his situation is a bit different than most. His smoky good-time barbecue truck is permanently anchored at Able Brewing. People know where to find him, he doesn't have to go angling for pockets of activity. "We got a lot of calls and requests to open, but we were worried about how to make it work. I don't want to be responsible for a line," Wipfli told me. Instead of offering a general menu, Wipli's team will offer a few set meals that people will have to order online ahead of time. Then, they can come to the truck and pick it up. Ribs and chicken are on order this week (Friday and Saturday are sold out, but there are still smoky treats available for Sunday!!), but they'll change the menu as they go.
"We're figuring out how to keep us all safe, how we're going to work in the truck together, and just be as clean and safe as possible." They'll also offer smoked beef ribs that are chilled and vacuum sealed as a take-and-bake option from the nifty Able Brewing beer pick-up window.
For Carrie Summer and Lisa Carlson, the Chef Shack duo who helped pioneer the food truck game in town, it will be a new game when they launch their truck at the Mill City Farmers Market on May 2nd. "The public might be a bit shocked to see us in masks and gloves, but this is what it means to be in food service going forward, " Summer told me. "If anything, it shows that we care about our people." The truck will take it's usual place at the market with minimal staff, but they too will be taking pre-orders online instead of just offering walk-up. "I don't think the market wants us to encourage hanging out and eating there, so it will have to be a take it and go deal."
Chef Shack has had success with larger orders, family style kits that might be able to feed people for a few days, which isn't what a typical truck business model would have been built on. With the loss of frenzied volume, these bundled meals for $100 work well to help sustain the truck and help people stay home more often.
But what of the non-market days, of which there are six a week? Can trucks afford to load up on freshly prepped food and hope to find business like before? "We're not going to go trolling for business, we can't try to bet on which streets people might gather, everyone's patterns are so off right now. But we have some ideas, we're talking with our friend Hannah at Eat Brava food truck about partnering up, maybe flier a few neighborhoods ahead of time and pop-up together." The duo will be splitting time between trucks up here and their Bay City, WI restaurant which is doing great drive-by wood-fired pizza pickups on Fridays. And because WI: drinks.
Another reason to hope for a good season: new trucks. Brothers Kamal and Arif Mohamed launched a new truck just last week. Nashville Coop is out there doing the hard work of opening a new eating venture in the middle of a pandemic. I know! "We've been overwhelmed by the response! I think it's a bright light in dark days," Kamal mentioned. Arif, who also runs the Alimama's food truck says it was already planned, "we were going to launch this hot chicken truck this year, so we decided to keep on moving forward as best we could. The reception has been amazing." They've parked at the Commons in front of the US Bank stadium, in the shadow of Wells Fargo and many apartment buildings, and have seen more business than they expected. Granted, there's not a lot of competition out right now.
The brothers think part of the reason people are showing up is because their hot chicken is actually, fully hot chicken. While a spicy fried chicken sandwich isn't new to these parts, it is underrepresented in the food truck world locally. "Everyone underestimates the Minnesota palate, people love hot flavors! We've had some eaters say they can't finish the hottest sandwich, but they want more."
Today you'll find this truck parked outside of Children's Hospital on Riverside (posted on their Insta stories). Kamal says one of the best things has been feeding essential workers, "they are all so happy to see us, to eat something different and have a break in the day. We are going to try to stay out for longer hours than is typical in order to help feed people coming off of shifts. That was from a suggestion that a nurse sent us, so we're happy to do what we can to serve this community."
I'm not sure if we'll get an Uptown Food Truck Festival this summer, although they say all events are moving forward. Maybe it will still happen on a smaller scale, I can't imagine trying to jam in with all those people. I wonder about what the downtown landscape will look like if all those office workers realize they can operate remotely without city rents. But I don't think we can count out this segment of our food service population. Nor should we. Remember that the food truck boom came on the heels of the 2008 recession. They tend to be nimble and creative by definition. Food trucks might be that bright spot for all of us again.
