National Food Truck Day
When: June 30
The modern food truck movement began around 2008 in Los Angeles and transformed street food from a working-class institution into a culinary art form. The business model has always been harder than it looks, and the best trucks are as serious about food as any restaurant.
The food truck changed American street food — and the change is more recent, and more complicated, than it looks.
The food truck changed American street food — and the change is more recent, and more complicated, than it looks.
The Chuck Wagon was invented in 1866 by Charles Goodnight, a Texas cattleman who needed to feed his crew on the long drive north to Colorado. He retrofitted a Civil War surplus army wagon with a hinged lid on the back that opened down into a work surface, drawers for supplies, a water barrel, and a chuck box — a cabinet that unfolded into a full kitchen. Goodnight solved the same problem every food truck operator faces: limited space, no fixed infrastructure, and people who need to eat right now. Mobile food vending had existed in American cities before Goodnight — pushcart vendors fed immigrants on the streets of New York's Lower East Side in the 1890s, and the "roach coach" industrial canteen truck served construction sites through the 20th century. But none of these had cultural cachet. Food trucks were practical, not aspirational. That changed on November 2, 2008, when chef Roy Choi sent a Twitter message with a location and parked a truck he called Kogi BBQ at a street corner in...
More to explore
- KUNC — NYT Excerpt: A Food-Truck Mystery [Article] (story)
Adam Davidson's New York Times Magazine column investigates why New York City food trucks haven't become as ubiquitous as expected.
Read
- American Business History Center — Fast Food Before Fast Food: The Original Food Trucks [Article] (history)
Gary Hoover traces the history of food trucks back to 19th-century lunch wagons in New England, starting with Walter Scott's horse-drawn night lunch wagon in Providence in 1872.
Read
- Nulty Insurance Agency — Food Trucks Are Making a Comeback - History of Food Trucks [Article] (history)
Traces food trucks from 19th-century chuck wagons and lunch wagons to the modern gourmet revolution sparked by Kogi BBQ and social media.
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- Institute for Justice — A Brief History of Food Trucks [Article] (history)
Food trucks trace their lineage to 19th-century street vendors, but their modern renaissance began during the 2008 recession when chefs like Roy Choi used social media.
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- Dan's Papers — Ditch Witch, Etcetra: Hamptons Food Trucks at the Beach [Article] (story)
A whimsical history of beach food trucks in the Hamptons, centered on the beloved Ditch Witch truck.
Read
- Cheapism — The History of Food Trucks in America, From Chuck Wagons to Wienermobiles [Article] (history)
A chronological history of mobile food in America from 1691 New Amsterdam street vendors through chuck wagons, hot dog carts, ice cream trucks, and the Kogi BBQ revolution.
Read