Food Truck Lots

Food Truck Lots

Food Trucks Serving Los Angeles

Los Angeles food truck lots continue to be a popular destination for Los Angelenos.  From the one truck lunch lot in front of an office building to the evening event lot in a hip neighborhood, food truck lots provide consumers with a variety of food choices.  The consistency of lots provides consumers with some certainty when going out to eat at food trucks.  Instead of tracking down your favorite trucks, you can check the schedule at your closest lot.  Sure bet that your favorite trucks will make an appearance.

One truck lunch lots rotate trucks every day.  The rotation provides the Los Angeles workforce with constant variety.  Gone are the days of limited cuisine choices in walking distance. Todays hungry workforce has the luxury of having a different cuisine every day.

Evening lots typically have five trucks or more.  They operate as a weekly, or monthly community event.  Communities get to hang with neighbors and friends while enjoying some of the best trucks in the City.  It’s easy to find something for everyone at an evening food truck event.

If you’re interested in getting a food truck to your office building everyday, please contact us at socalmfva@gmail.com.  We can set up a regular rotation of food trucks at your office building quickly and easily.

To see many of the Los Angeles Food Truck lots, go to LOTMOM!  

Here are some of our favorite lots (with schedules):

Los Angeles Mart(LA MART)

  • 1933 S. Broadway Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90007
  • Schedule
  • Runs daily from Monday through Friday, 11am through 4pm for lunch.
  • Once every 21 days

Hollywood Production Center(HPC)

  • 1149 N. Gower St Los Angeles, CA 90038
  • Runs daily from Monday through Friday, 11am through 4pm for lunch.
  • Once every 13 days

 Santa Monica/Victorian Lot

  • 2612 Main St. Santa Monica 90403
  • This lot runs on Tuesdays for dinner, 5pm to 9pm.
  • 7 food trucks and 1 dessert truck.

Century Lot – 

 

History of Food Trucks (check out 2010)

History of Food Trucks

History of Food Trucks

RIVERSIDE COUNTY:

Supervisors ease food truck restrictions

BY JEFF HORSEMAN

Food trucks, a streetscape fixture in other parts of Southern California, can open daily and roam throughout Riverside County after county supervisors eased decades-long limits on the rolling restaurants.

The 5-0 vote made Tuesday, Dec. 10, sets up a framework to ensure mobile food vendors follow the latest health regulations as they travel. Cities can restrict where food trucks can go, and they may eventually be barred from Temecula Valley Wine Country and Idyllwild.

Previously, the county allowed food trucks to operate only as part of festivals. The restrictions dated back to the 1980s, when county officials dealt with reports of unsanitary conditions from what were derogatorily referred to as “roach coaches.”

Since then, the mobile food industry has changed to embrace a foodie culture eager to sample such diverse cuisine as crabmeat tacos, gourmet grilled cheese and bacon-flavored cupcakes from colorful trucks. Two food truck festivals held this year outside the County Administrative Center drew diners who waited in lines that stretched around the parking lot.

Leading the push to change food truck rules was Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who took office in January after promising during his campaign to “free the food trucks.” Allowing food trucks the same flexibility enjoyed elsewhere will boost the economy and give residents more dining choices, said Jeffries, whose district includes most of Riverside, Lake Elsinore and Wildomar.

Matthew Geller, CEO of the SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Association, said food trucks don’t go where they’re not wanted and provide a way to enter the restaurant business “for guys that don’t have $500,000.”

Riverside County is breaking new ground because its trucks will be subject to California’s strict new food-safety standards, Geller said.

Trucks will be subject to inspections in the field and will need a permit from the county Department of Environmental Health. There will be a one-year phase-in period allowing trucks to continue operating at festivals while they adjust to the new regulations.

The new rules faced opposition from owners of traditional restaurants, who fear food trucks could offer unfair competition by parking near their establishments.

Read the rest of the article here: 

Eating LA

Eating LA event, December 15, 2013

The SoCalMFVA is very excited to be a part of the Eating LA event: 2525 Michigan Ave, Santa Monica 90404 on Sunday, December 15, noon-5pm.

The Eating LA marketplace features a variety of handmade delectables by some of LA’s finest cottage and artisan food makers. The forum offers 2 panel discussions (1PM & 3PM) about ways to grow our local food system and features change-makers such as Larry Santoyo (Earthflow Design Works), Rick Nahmias (Food Forward), Elliott Kuhn (Reedley St. Farms & TreePeople), Mud Baron (Muir Ranch), Rafael Quezada (The Waters Wheel), Megan Hanson (RootDownLA), and Erin McMorrow (Kiss the Ground),Matt Geller (SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Assn.) plus restauranteurs and chefs such as Flynn McGarry (teenage protégé and chef of Eureka), Tom Elliott (Venice Alehouse), Stefano De Lorenzo (La Botte Ristorante), Matthew Geller (SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Assn.), and Cristina Urioste (Rasa Foods).

 

Chef Gino will be cooking with the kids and the Master Food Preservers will teach you how to make preserves at home. Plus, Ray Cirino will be baking pizza in his dragon pizza oven.

 

EarthWE will screen the new documentary Growing Cities at 5:30, so stick around for a movie and popcorn. La Botte Ristorante will offer a special menu that evening highlighting local food from LA’s urban farmers, gleaners, wild-food foragers.

 

The event is free but seating is limited. Please RSVP at:

www.earthwe.com/events/detail/eating-la

Event site:

https://www.facebook.com/events/377285192402846/?ref=br_tf

 

Eating LA

Eating LA event

Making the Food Truck Industry Easier

The SoCalMFVA has helped to change anti-food truck laws and policies in over 20 municipalities.  We have worked with cities, counties and the State to ensure food trucks are able to do business free from regulatory constraints that are not public safety oriented.  Our goals do not stop at making positive regulatory changes.  Since January 2010, we’ve tried to answer questions and give support to prospective food truck operators, food truck builders and technology system creators.  We’ve reached beyond the borders of California to help other Associations get started nationwide.  We’ve lent a helping hand to the trucks of Baton Rouge, DC, Central Ohio, NYC, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Maryland, Minnesota, Chicago to name a few.

The SoCalMFVA has successfully run daily and weekly food truck lots for over three and a half years.  We do our best to maintain great variety bringing local businesses and communities the best trucks on a regular rotation.  The food truck lots have helped make food trucks a mainstay in Los Angeles while providing quality food to hard working Los Angelenos.

In an effort to continue making the industry easier, we’re going to provide more support for those that support food truckers.  If your business provides quality services to the industry, whether that be goods or services and you’re having issues with regulatory bodies or you just need some guidance, please contact us at socalmfva@gmail.com.

If you’re a new truck or a food truck builder and you’re having trouble with the Health Department plan check, please contact us immediately.  We can help.

 

 

How One Association is Leading A Food Truck Revolution

By: Katie Bascuas

The mobile food industry hasn’t necessarily been welcomed with open arms in many U.S. cities. Food truck operators in places like Washington, DC, and San Francisco are often fighting complicated regulations and zoning requirements that would limit the areas where they could legally operate.

The SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Association wants to change that and is working city-by-city to help local food truck operators establish associations and work toward beneficial regulations in their area.

“Just like any business—forget that it’s food trucks—every business wants a regulatory environment that’s going to allow them to succeed or fail on merits,” said Matt Geller, president of SoCalMFVA, who over the past couple of years has helped form food truck associations in Washington, DC; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Denver; Philadelphia; New York; and New Orleans.

“I help them understand the organizational process,” Geller said. “I give them their bylaws so they don’t have to spend money on attorneys to write bylaws, and I give them their 501(c)(6) filing so they can just file and make it very, very easy on themselves.”

– See more at: http://associationsnow.com/2013/08/how-one-association-is-leading-a-food-truck-revolution/#sthash.O76AUCsl.dpuf

Food Truck Associations

Organizing 101

Over the past three years the SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Association has assisted 11 other food truck associations form.  We have provided guidance, bylaws and help with 501(c)(6) filings for non profit status.  We do this because we believe that strong advocacy nationwide furthers our cause here in California and because we believe that everyone deserves a voice.

We’re expanding our initiative to help fledgling food truck associations.  If you need help creating or organizing a new food truck association, please email us and we’ll do our best to help out.

The first step in getting an association together is getting the relevant parties (truck owners) into a room to discuss the issues.  The first meeting should be used to identify the most important issues facing the industry in your area. Create a list in order of importance.  Typically lists include: bans, time limit restrictions, street vending restrictions, private property bans, etc. Once the list is together a strategy can be developed to achieve your goals.

We will help you every step of the way.