Food Truck

24th April 2015 - by Chris Saizan

When I saw eight food trucks in the Lowe’s parking lot in West Sac, I thought “How did I not know about this?”

Every fourth Wednesday, you’ll find a wagon train of food trucks here from 5pm to 8pm. The organizer, SactoMofo, provides the tables and chairs, portable restrooms, music and lights. It’s a great family outing or friend meet-up because everyone can get something different from one of the gourmet trucks and then sit down and eat together.

And these aren’t your regular roach-coaches. Kevin, with SactoMofo, explained to me how they vet each truck to make sure they are clean, unique, and serve food quickly. “They have to be able to fill every order within ten minutes, but we try to get them to shoot for five to seven minutes.” The trucks are rotated every month for variety.

According to Kevin, SactoMofo will host about a thousand of these food truck events in the Sacramento area just this year alone. There are about 40 trucks on their roster, some coming from as far as the Bay Area to participate in events such as the SactoMofo 8 Food Festival, taking place this Saturday.

Food trucks are a great alternative eating style. They are small enough for start-up chefs to branch out on their own, and a great investment for brick-and-mortar restaurants who want to take their food to new customers instead of waiting for them to dine in. They are also a great catering option for events. Some of the breweries in West Sac rely solely on food trucks to feed their customers so that they can focus on beer for the time being.

It was really hard to decide, but I finally ordered a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich with garlic tater tots.

Chris with Smokers Wild said the food trucks really appreciate having SactoMofo to organize events. “For health and safety reasons, we’re not allowed to bring tables and chairs. These guys take care of that, plus the music, they get our insurance to the right people. Every time we do an event, we’re dealing with the same guy instead of a different guy at each event.”

Chris said that food trucks do well in Sacramento because it’s a foodie town.

“This town lends itself very well to food trucks. A lot of great chefs – not cooks, but actual chefs – have started out here. All of these trucks are owner-operated, they are real chefs with their own recipes. It’s all heart and soul.”

Smoker’s Wild started out as a competitive BBQ team that grew into a food truck enterprise.

Aside from BBQ, burgers and tacos, there were also a couple of dessert trucks – shaved ice and gelato – and a toy booth selling light-up carnival toys.

I also met Brian at Flavor Face, who describes his food as “international fusion food.” The Peruvian Fries were unreal.

This guy has served food for the Nobel Peace Prize selection committee and private dinners for big names like Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson. I felt like I had just met a celebrity… and he was making me fries!

“Flavor Face is that face you make, and you know the one I’m talking about. The face when you bite into something and the flavor just hits you and takes you away. Wherever we go, whenever we serve our food, we watch our customers for that face.”

I totally had that face he was talking about. Every fourth Wednesday from now on, this is where I’ll be, getting my flavor face on.

-Cheers!