Each Monday I recap food truck news as it relates to the Triangle area (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill). Bringing news that impacts food truck owners, fans, or those curious.
ROAM is coming to Orlando, Florida
Circle your calendars now for ROAM 2015 in Orlando. The dates are October 25th and 26th with the host hotel still being locked down. This is the only food truck industry conference that brings owners and industry-specific people together. I’ll have a special post just on my experience here in San Antonio. But in short, if you are someone in the food truck business, I think you need to be here. The dates are October 25 and 26th, which is Sunday and Monday. Hopefully, those are admin days and only 8 1/2 hours (by car) between the Triangle and Orlando. I hope we can exponentially expand our representation for this one.
Local Food Trucks featured in National Cookbook
Behind the Food Carts, a West Coast mobile food blog, is releasing a cookbook based on a road trip they did visiting various food trucks. One stop featured the Triangle area. The Triangle food trucks featured are American Meltdown, Barone Meatball Company, CJ’s Street Food, Deli-icious, Pie Pushers, and Porchetta. The release date on the sites show 11/11/2014 and the book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound and Indigo. An awesome opportunity for the area to be shown.
The above links go directly to retailers without affiliate links. Though, I have attached an Amazon affiliate link, Food Truck Road Trip–A Cookbook: More Than 100 Recipes Collected from the Best Street Food Vendors Coast to Coast
Caffe Bellezza organizes a Throwdown for its One Year Anniversary
For those in the coffee circles may know that Tim Morris, owner of Caffe Bellezza, won a recent Throwdown at Bittersweet in Raleigh. Well, he’s organizing one on his turf, the truck, and he’s getting Will & Pops and Belgian Waffology to be on-site to serve food. The event will be Thursday, November 13th at Cafe Driade is 1215 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill.
Czech This Out: Ethnosh event
For those not familiar with Ethnosh, it is an event that focus on ethnic restaurants owned by ethnic owners. I was lucky to be selected as the writer for the story behind Czech This Out. I hope you can me it this Wednesday evening. Because they need a space to have the event, the event will be at Lucky B’s in the Glenwood South district in Raleigh. Please RSVP if you can make it to the event.
Halal Bros follow Halal Haven handle
Halal Bros (@halalbros) fans may have noticed last week a tweet to follow Halal Haven (@HalalHaven). The reasoning is Halal Bros is looking to do a brand refresh as Halal Haven. In the next couple weeks, fans will also see a new wrap with the new brand.
Trucks Opening Locations
Coming Soon
Sol Tacos (with a Sol Tapas concept) – estimated early 2015, Downtown Raleigh
Deli-icious: no date set, but expected soon in Clayton.
Captain Ponchos: location in Southern Village, Chapel Hill. Got word they are looking forward to February 14, 2015. So tell your date (I guess my wife will find on this post), you are going here for dinner. They are not holding back and they will a mariachi band there.
* NEW * Chick-N-Que: 420 S. Main Street, Rolesville. Anticipating December/January 2015.
Big Mike’s BBQ: 1222 NW Maynard Road (High House and Maynard / across from Kroger) in Cary. Got an update on this one. Few things still need to be wrapped up, but as soon as that happens a couple weeks. So it could be a few weeks before the storefront.
Recently Opened
Iced Cupcakes: 5911 Poyner Village Pkwy #103, Raleigh
Olio and Aceto Cafe: 400 S. Elliot Road, Chapel Hill
Sarge’s: 400 Southtown Circle, Rolesville
Sweet Traditions: 12516 Capital Blvd, Suite 106, Wake Forest (not pictured… still need to wander over)
New Trucks
Here are some of the new trucks with the last few months.
Cock-a-Doodle Moo
Need to bring out the tape measure to confirm a comment of “Longest Food Truck in the Triangle” by a guest, but Big Red is huge. This truck is deceiving in, “Oh, another BBQ truck.” It can do more than that and it does. Check out the global fusion and local, farm-sourced cuisine. They are at Raleigh Brewing (Monday) and Nickelpoint (Tuesday). Check out the Raven one of the items currently on the menu. Follow them on Twitter @CADoodleMoo.
SoomSoom Pita Pockets
After Anthony of Baton Rouge Cuisine, Oren has to be the tallest food truck owner in the area. Extremely nice and very talented, the food here is outstanding. The focus seems to be on fresh taste with an open kitchen concept. I am not familiar with Isreali cuisine, but the hummus and beef ragu had lots of flavor. Follow them @SoomsoomPita to catch them at their next stop.
Arepa Culture
Chef JP gave me the heads up on this and before you know I found them on Twitter. This truck looks to be located in the Northwest Raleigh area, but I haven’t been able to catch them. They have been posting tweets on the days they are open. You can follow them @arepaculture.
King’s Philly Cheesesteaks
The Triangle new Philly Cheesesteak truck the focuses on the authentic Philly experience. The husband and wife team are Philly-natives that are bringing the taste they loved from their hometown. While Philly Cheesesteaks are their focus, they will hopefully bring the Pork Roll and Pork Sandwich to the Triangle. They are very active on Facebook, so be sure to like their page.
Czech This Out
A unique truck hitting the scene featuring Czech cuisine. Had an opportunity to try this past weekend and the food is delicious. I’m also happy to report that Ethnosh Raleigh has picked them as their November location. The event will be Wednesday, November 12th at Lucky B’s in the Glenwood South district. Follow them @Czechfoodtruck.
Please RSVP at the Ethnosh Raleigh Facebook Page.
BullCity Street Grill
This truck was reported late last month, which looks to be staying around the Green Room in Durham. You can follow them on Twitter (@bullcitystfood) to see which days they will be open.
Amigosan Food Truck
One of the trucks at the Wake Forest Rodeo, you can also catch them at Nickelpoint and Raleigh Brewing this week.
If you haven’t seen them, follow the truck @AmigosanFood and check out their schedule at Amigosanfood.com.
Bam Pow Chow
Bam Pow Chow has been hitting the streets, too and making appearances in the Northwest Raleigh. They have been spotted at House of Hops, Lonerider, Gizmo Brewworks, and Person Street Bar. Their website has posts scheduled events bampowchow.com and you can also follow the truck @BamPowChow. They have also were featured on Behind The Wheel.
KocinA Food Truck
Hopefully you caught their Behind The Wheel. This truck focuses on South American tapas and cuisine. You can catch them on Twitter: @kocinafoodtruck
Little Mama’s Truck
H/T to Triangle Explorer for finding this truck. The truck is now on Twitter (@YumLittleMamas), but also has a Facebook and Instagram profile. The truck shows a base in Hillsborough, so maybe a far west Triangle coffee truck. Keeping it on my radar and will post updates as I find them.
Hao About Chinese / Hao’s Kitchen
Looks like the name behind Hao’s About Chinese recently secured a trailer and getting ready to setup a mobile food truck business. This is still very new in the phase, but wanted to alert those looking at Chinese cuisine in the area.
Big Events Coming
World’s Largest Food Truck Festival III coming
Awhile back Generation Food Truck down in Tampa, Florida organized the largest food truck parade in March 2014. Looks like they want to organize another one this March 2015. The goal is to have over 200 food trucks at the State Fairgrounds outside of Tampa. If interested, email the organizer at Generationfoodtruck (at) gmail (dot) com. I did hear they will provide power for this event.
Brewgaloo
This event has been around, but this year was my first time. For beer (and spirits as local TOPO Distillery was here this year) and food truck fans, this is a prime event. Two stages on both ends of Fayetteville Street with beer and food trucks filling the asphalt in between. The date set is April 25, 2015 and is from 2-10pm. I know a bit early, but you might want to circle it and tell your family this is a great weekend to visit.
Downtown Raleigh Food Truck Rodeo 2015 Dates announced
The day after the last one Sunday, already 2015 has been announced. Be sure to catch them May 3rd, June 14th, August 9th (evening rodeo), and October 11th. Their dates are very similar to the 2014 Rodeo and are all Sundays.
ROAM 2015
October 25th and 26th in Orlando, Florida. Follow the blog as I will release details as we receive them.
Trucks looking for stuff
- Saw that Caffe Bellezza is looking for a talented, affordable painter for their truck. You can find them and contact information @CaffeBellezza.
Truck and Equipment For Sale
Green Olive Deli is selling their truck for $32,000 OBO. If interested, contact Hugh at 919.815.8451 or email him at greenolivedeli@gmail.com.
The Wandering Sheppard Top Local Food Truck Blogger based on Mobile Cuisine poll.
The results are not official yet, but we should see them today. However, with polls nearly closing and The Wandering Sheppard winning 300+ votes and 50% of the vote – WE ROCKED IT! I was noticed at ROAM by some attendees for this contest, so I think we have brought positive exposure to the area. With San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Miami, and Austin recognized as top food truck markets, I hope Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill will start to grab some of the spotlight. My strongest social media asset is Twitter, so I want to thank those that Retweeted and Favorited my vote tweets. I apologize for the tweet fodder, but wanted to bring home a win. I also want to thank John, Triangle Explorer, f0r writing a post about my “campaign” and Not Just Icing for the initial nomination and helping passing the word via stickers. If I missed you below, I extremely apologize, because my Notifications stopped at after the first tweets. So I tried to recall others that helped get the votes rolling.
Triangle Explorer, Ethnosh Raleigh, Hinessightblog, Jillian McRose, BulKogi, CockADoodleMoo, The Humble Pig, Jack Nales, Laura Eischen, Belgian Waffology, Jenny, Chick-N-Que, Manna, Iced Cupcakes, Jennifer Martin, Midtown Grille, Trish W, Raleigh What’s Up, Baguettaboutit, Kristen Baughman, Todd Griffin, Sharon A. Dawson, Valentino’s Food Truck, Beer Durham, TriangleLife.tv, King Creole, Sarge’s Chef, Gussy’s Greek Truck, Jay Jones, George Campeau, Bo’s Kitchen, Chez Moi, Jessy Harrington, The Lushers, Killer Cook, Paul Prause, American Meltdown, Gail L., NotErock, Food Truck Pages, River Run Club, Nam Pham, CookEatLife, Loudmouth Lorrie, Brewgaloo, Shop Local Raleigh, Bam Pow Chow, Metromonk, King’s Authentic Philly, CJ’s Street Food, WRAL Out and About, Mac-Ur-Roni, Gretta Handley, Wake Forest Food Truck Rodeo, Virgil’s Jamaican, Czech This Out, BeerandRacing, Olio and Aceto, Kathryn Turner, Ryan A. S. Jones, Ashley Korizis, Captain Ponchos, Felicia Trujillo, Rebecca Dupree, Sara Michael, Tailgator Toby, Das Beer Show, Sassool Cafe, Fairview Garden Center, Hurricanes Blog, Sarah J, Jason Smith, AmigoSan, Eat Raleigh, Cherish Magnum, Byron Snider, Dump Pho King, Michelle Stotesbury, and of course, Not Just Icing (it all started here with the first nomination).
If you got news, let the blog know. This is a weekly post summarizing food truck information in the Triangle area.
The Wandering Sheppard 