Judging by the diners standing 20 deep at the trailer shaped like a giant pig, Tacoma’s first mobile food truck meet-up Sunday was a success.
Thousands of diners converged on Cheney Stadium for Moveable Feast, a gathering of about 30 mobile restaurants serving everything from Filipino to Southern food, from fried meat pies to fry bread.
Among the most popular attractions – if only for quirky photographs – was Maximus-Minimus, a Seattle-based food truck that is a converted Airstream trailer molded into the shape of a giant pig. It served pulled pork sandwiches in a variety of spicing levels. Its appearance was a chance for South Sound diners to get a taste of the burgeoning mobile food scene in Seattle, a city with hundreds of mobile food trucks.
Restaurants on wheels are not new to the South Sound – taco trucks have been roving Pierce County for many years – but other than a handful that show up at festivals and farmers markets, there’s really no gathering place for mobile food trucks. That’s why Alyson Jones and Odette D’Aniello created Moveable Feast.
The two met at a fundraiser, and Jones, director of media and events for the Tacoma Rainiers baseball team, began talking with D’Aniello, owner of Celebrity Cake Studio, about D’Aniello’s Cake Mobile, a lavender truck that delivers sweets all over the region. That grew into a conversation about creating a one-day festival for all of Tacoma’s mobile food trucks, carts and mobile restaurants.
And business was brisk.
Lumpia World, a Renton-based truck that serves Filipino eats Thursdays at the Tacoma Farmers Market, had a line 30 deep within moments of the noon opening. Servers offered lumpia, rice and noodle soup. A new Tacoma business, Hilltop Pop Shop, ran out of a few flavors of its frozen popsicles by 2 p.m. Rico’s Tacos, a popular Mexican food truck permanently stationed near Fircrest off Orchard Street, didn’t seem fazed – servers churned out burritos and tacos by the hundreds.
Will Moveable Feast become a regular meet-up festival? Organizer Jones is hoping that the event either will build enthusiasm for a centrally located food cart lot similar to the type found in Seattle and Olympia or that it could become a regular festival at Cheney Stadium.
Local mobile trucks
Find local trucks, mobile restaurants and food stands at these locations:
Burrito Boy truck: Puyallup Farmers Market on Saturdays.
Celebrity Cake Studio/Cake Mobile: 314 E. 26th St., Tacoma, 253-627-4773.
Choripan: A cafe and catering company inside Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock St., Tacoma.
Fleischkuechle truck: Every September at the Puyallup Fair.
Hilltop Pop Shop: Tacoma Sixth Avenue Farmers Market on Tuesdays, South Tacoma Farmers Market on Sundays.
Ice Cream Social: Sixth Avenue Farmers Market on Tuesdays.
Lumpia World truck: Tacoma Broadway Farmers Market on Thursdays.
Pampeana Empanadas: Sold at Burning Cupcakes, 4316 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays.
Rico’s Tacos truck: Permanently stationed at 5015 S. Center St., Tacoma, 253-683-9073, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.
Find out more about the Moveable Feast meetup event at www.tacomafoodtruck.com.
sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com
253-597-8270
blog.thenewstribune.com/tntdiner
@tntdiner
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