Where We Going Wednesday...San Antonio

Now that the Dallas-Fort Worth street food scene is fairly well established, I thought it was a good time to compare our scene to the street food scenes in other cities.  Each week I will ask a guest blogger from a different city to give us an overview of the set up and rules from around the country and hopefully some international cities. With several San Antonio food trucks coming to Dallas this weekend to work the Texas Food Truck Festival, I thought we would start there.  Thanks to San Antonio Food Truck Stalker, Shawn Gordon for providing this overview. 


The San Antonio Food Truck scene started a little over a year ago.  It is now growing into a full fledged deal with some awesome food and all for reasonable prices.   

San Antonio recently passed an ordinance to allow the trucks into the downtown area.  Although just a pilot program right now the city seems confident that it will be adopted permanently after the initial 6 month trial period. 

There are currently 4 Food Truck Parks in town, The Boardwalk on Bulverde (http://boardwalkonbulverde.com/, @theboardwalkSA), Alamo Eat Street Bar (http://alamostreeteatbar.com/, @alamoeatbar), The Point Park (http://pointparkandeats.com/, @ThePointPark) and 281 Food Park (@281foodpark).  

The Boardwalk on Bulverde started it all in San Antonio.  They are open Thursday and Friday for dinner and Satday and Sunday for lunch and dinner.  There are anywhere from 8-12 trucks there on any given day.  The Boardwalks trucks are Rickshaw Stop, Spice Runner, Guilty Pleasures, Lagniappe Today, Sabor Columbiano, KC's Cones, R&R Chicken Wings, Toastie Buns, Taco King, 1-2-3 Hot Dog, The Meating Spot and (a name Dallas may recognize) San Antonio's first full service bakery truck, Society Bakery.  A lot of these trucks do events outside of the park including corporate lunches and dinners and weddings.  If you are looking for a specific truck be sure to check Twitter and/or Facebook to see where they are.  The Boardwalk is also a BYOB (most of the time) park.  If they are hosting a big event, like the upcoming Kitchens for Cancer Event May 25-27, then they are selling beer and you cannot BYOB.  3 of the Boardwalk trucks are heading your way soon.  Sabor Columbiano, R&R Chicken Wings and KCs Cones will be in Dallas for the Tx Food Truck Festival.  

 

Alamo Eat Street Bar is open Tuesday-Thursday 4pm-Midnight and Friday and Saturday 4pm-2am.  On occasion a truck or two will also open for a weekend brunch.  They have a rotation of 5-7 trucks.   The trucks at Alamo Eat Street are aAttaboy Burger, The Chili Queens, Tapa Tapa Truck, The Rolling Pig, Wheelie Gourmet, Where Y'at and The DUK Truck.  The trucks rotate by the day so be sure to check the website or Twitter to see who is out there.  Alamo Eat Street offers a variety of craft beer ranging from Alamo to St Arnold to San Antonio's own Ranger Creek.  For the unadventurous you can also get the basic Bud Light, Miller Light, and Pabst Blue Ribbon.  

The Point Park is open Wednesday and Thursday 11am-9pm and Friday and Saturday 11am-11pm.  They also will open on weekends for breakfast if there is a breakfast truck there.  The trucks rotate frequently between Rocker Dogz, Blazin Burgers, Chelas Tacos, Skinny Cat Catering, Fat Bellies, Texasada Mexican Street Food, Kitchen Fusionz, Mars Mobile, The Big Red Apple and Crepe Nation.  The Point also offers a nice beer and wine selection on top of an Art Space for local artists to set up and display.  Check the website for a list of trucks and upcoming food, art and wine events.  

The 281 Food Park (formerly The Park at Summerglen) is recently under new ownership (as well as the new name ).  The hours are 11am-9pm Wednesday-Sunday.  The trucks here are Panini Street, Barnyard Smokehouse, Pier 67, Ellie's Farm to Truck, Fry Guy and Top It Off Froyo.  They do have a couple of other trucks that swing in on occasion as well.  Best bet for this park is to check  Twitter and see who is there.  

On top of the parks you can also find a lot of the trucks throughout the city.  There is StrEAT Food every Wednesday with varying trucks.  StrEAT Food is a fun event in one of our local bar parking lots.  Great Happy Hour specials and, of course, great food.  You can also roam the streets (or check Twitter) and find trucks like Say.She.Ate, Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, Congers Smoke Shack and many many more.  

If you are heading to San Antonio feel free to hit me up on Twitter, @SAFoodtrckstlkr, I will be happy to let you know what is going on.  You can also check out my Mobile Food List for easy access to all of the SA Food Truck Tweets. (https://twitter.com/#!/mySA_food/mobile-food)

Truck Talk Tuesday: Easy Slider Truck

One of the things I have enjoyed most about the food trucks is meeting people, not only the other customers but those who are bringing the trucks to life each day. These men and women are incredibly passionate about what they are doing and the food they are serving. I was also noticing that they all had a story of how their truck came about and how their life evolved in to being a part of one of the fastest growing small business concepts, not only in DFW but in the US. Each week I will share these stories in “Truck Talk Tuesday”.

This week, we meet Miley and Caroline from Easy Slider Truck.

1. What did you do before you were a food truck operator?

Prior to Easy Slider, we worked at the House of Blues. Caroline was the logistics manager for special events and Miley was an operations manager in the Music Hall.

2. How did you come up with the name for your truck?

We knew we wanted to do sliders. We love Easy Rider. It sort of captured the vintage Americana vibe that we love.

3. Describe your typical day or week.

There is no such thing as "typical." Our days start at 8am and end somewhere between 9pm and 3am. Our days "off" are spent sourcing product and answering e-mails.

4. What is your favorite menu item?

Caroline- The French Revolution. Miley- The Baby Bella with lots of onions. And, yes, we eat sliders every day.

5. What has been the biggest reward of having a food truck? 

Caroline- Wearing shorts and Chuck Taylors to work every day. And getting high fives from happy customers. Miley- The change of scenery. The view from the office changes every day.

6. What has been the biggest challenge of having a food truck? Managing the hours of the day. There are not enough! Also, the rules seem to change all the time. To say we have to go with the flow is a huge understatement.

7. With so much of your days and nights being spent on the truck, have you found a personal life balance?

Not yet, but we are taking some vacations this summer. Thankfully, our friends understand. So they come visit us at Easy Slider.

8. You spent most days on a food truck, where can we find you when you aren't on a truck? 

Our favorite places around town to wine and dine- The Libertine, The Windmill, Jimmy's Food Store, Dalat on Fitzhugh. And we love to see shows at The Granada.

9. Both of you have years of experience working in brick & mortar restaurants, how does owning and operating a truck compare? 

No doubt, this is the hardest work we have ever done. Our team is small. People forget that we've been prepping for hours before our doors open, and we spend hours cleaning after they're closed. And we do it all 2 to 3 times a day!

10. What would you like to see in the DFW food truck scene in the next two years? 

A food truck park in Dallas. A very clear set of rules and regulations. And a french fry truck!!

Thank you Miley and Caroline!  You can follow Easy Slider on Facebook and Twitter to find out where they will be dishing out their sliders next. 



Easy Slider has a variety of sliders, some with traditional toppings and others with more cutting edge toppings like the "Sweet & Lowdown" with goat cheese and strawberry jam, or the "Nutty Pig" with bacon and peanut butter. The entire menu can be found on their website.  

Enticed and TX Delizioso, Two Trucks Bringing You Texas Street Food

One of my favorite days this Spring was when Enticed announced that they were back on the road, after a winter hiatus. Enticed is Dallas' gourmet shaved ice truck,which was one of the first out last summer and one that I visited more times than I could count but never blogged about.

In Texas, we look for fun ways to get cool and shaved ice is one of the most fun ways I can think of.  I'm not talking about a snow-cone, Enticed is real shaved ice, where the ice is soft and smooth and holds all of the sweet flavor. Even better, they offer a variety of flavors, including sugar free options;  you can choose one of several sizes and even do half and half flavors.  Just like when I was a kid, my favorite flavor is tiger blood, but the fruity orange-pineapple is a close second.  If you follow Enticed's schedule, you may even find them set up outside of a bar, who just might let you bring your ice inside and spike it with one of their favorite beverages. 

Follow Enticed on Facebook and Twitter to find out where they will be. Your summer will be much cooler if you visit them multiple times a week.  

If you are one of those people who actually believes in eating dinner before dessert, I recommend you try Enticed's sister truck, TX Deliziso first.  This truck is bringing you Italian food, the Texas way. 

Using Texas grown and produced ingredients, this truck is part of the Go Texan program, which means you are going to find fresh ingredients on your salad, pizza or entree. Not only are the ingredients fresh but TX Delizioso subscribes to the "build your own concept" for their  personal size pizzas and salads. so you get a lot of those fresh ingredients. Your pizzas and salads have the option of over twenty different toppings as well as Texas' favorite entrees, chicken fried steak, chicken fried chicken or when available, fried bison.  

As good as the pizza and entrees are, my favorite item from TX Delizioso is the create your own salad. For $7 you can create a green or Cesar salad with an unlimited number of toppings. Or, if you prefer you can get a side salad, with up to 5 toppings to go with your pizza or entree. With my Candian Bacon, mushroom, pineapple pizza, I had the side salad with greens, berries, cheese, black olives and nuts. Freshly made, tasty and filling. 

TX Delizioso also has side items such as fried zucchini and mozzarella balls and desserts available including cannoli and homemade cobbler.  Everything you need to make a meal on a nice summer night. 

Follow TX Delizioso on Facebook and Twitter to find out where in Texas they will be bringing their taste of Italy next.