If anyone can understand the tension between brick-and-mortar restaurants and the mobile army of food trucks that has stormed D.C. in the past year, it’s Stephan Boillon. After he lost his job at Dino in Cleveland Park in 2008, the veteran chef sought to launch an upscale sandwich shop on Connecticut Avenue NW. His plan was to offer only cold sandwiches, which would enable him to build a restaurant with no burners, no oven, and no deep fryers.
via www.washingtoncitypaper.com
I don't know any stats on this, but I do know that the lobster truck can have a line that's nearly 2 hours long at times. If these brick & mortars were smart, they'd offer good food that is fast and portable so they can pick up some of those folks who can't wait 2 hours (but were brought to the neighborhood by the truck).
Take, for instance, Tru in Chicago. Tru is a place where two people can easily drop $1,000 on dinner. However, they've recently added a side business where, during the day, lucky Chicagoans can get a really tasty burger for $5. It's just around the corner from the main restaurant and shares Tru's kitchen. Read about M Burger here: UrbanDaddy.com
So... All those whiners who are going on about how they "knew" what their competition was when they set up shop and are blindsided by these "Wild West" squatters, need to shut up and do what other businesses are forced to do: adapt or die. Compete or quit.
As for me, I hope they all get run out of DC and come to Arlington and stay here.
P.S. Here's a list of the trucks I currently follow on Twitter. Please feel free to add more from the DC area in the comments.
Fojol Brothers (fojolbros)
El Floridano (FLmeetsDC)
Eat Wonky (eatwonky)
Sweetbites Mobile Cafe (SweetBitesTruck)
DC Slices (dcslices)
Red Hook Lobster DC (LobstertruckDC)
District Taco (districttaco)
Solar Crepes (solarcrepes)
Rebel Heroes (rebelheroes)
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