I’ve been wondering what happened to Tasty Kabob’s 5th truck ever since it was spotted operating on January 4th & 5th, 2012.  I can only assume that the 5th truck was re-branded as a bright red truck, named Tasty Fried DC.  Also demonstrated last year by the Sauca enterprise, it would seem that no one food truck company can operate more than 4 identical food trucks without saturating the market.

Tasty Fried launched on Feb 2nd at GWU, serving up fried chicken and fish.  Could Tasty Fried be a good substitute for the now closed Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A of GWU’s Marvin Center?

Thanks to the folks at Mobile Island (another upcoming DC food truck) for sending in the tip!

More brick and mortar restaurants are getting into the food truck game!  Today, Amorini Panini launched a food truck at L’Enfant plaza.  Their brick and mortar store is located in Penn Quarter at 906 F St NW.

No word yet on a truck twitter account.

Photo courtesy of Coleman who also notes that paninis are in the 6-7 dollar range.

Mayor Gray promised to release the newly drafted DC food truck regulations on Jan 20th – and he did.  The DCFTA generally likes the proposed new vending regulations and is asking the public to join them in support. You can show your support by filling out this online petition. But, all is not 100% rosy, as Che Ruddell-Tabisola (BBQ Bus), Executive Director of DCFTA outlines some negative points of the newly proposed regulations:

• Limiting Sweets Trucks to 10 Minutes: The proposed regulations allow dessert trucks to be open for only 10 minutes if there are no waiting customers. Sweets food trucks should be allowed to be open as long as savory food trucks.

• Zoning of Food Trucks: The new regulations propose to create Vending Development Zones. The goals of these zones are worthy. However, Vending Development Zones must not be manipulated by special interest to create “Food Truck-Free Zones” that eliminate consumer choice or fair competition.

• Shorter Hours for Food Trucks Than for Restaurants: The proposed regulations require food trucks to close at 10 pm on weekdays and 1 am on weekends. Food trucks should be allowed to be open the same hours as restaurants.

Some of you may have heard that Borinquen Lunch Box had a less than ideal first day of service.  Just as they were to open their window for service, truck issues prevented them from continuing.  It is not unusual for brand new trucks to have to work out the kinks of their operation during the first couple of weeks, so in my opinion, an apology is not necessary.  But, they asked me to post an open letter to fans and I am happy to oblige!

Dear Customers:

We sincerely apologize for the frustration and inconvenience that you experienced during our truck open day in L’Enfant Plaza. You deserve only the best, especially when you take time from your busy day to enjoy a delicious Puertorican meal.

This morning we encountered a glitch in our sprinkler system that, unfortunately, forced us to close for the day. Safety, Quality, and Customer Service are three company values that we will never compromise; e.g. like discarding burned ‘pan sobao’ because it didn’t passed our quality assurance processes. We also learned that our customers want/need to be informed about truck locations and status. We missed this important step; we were tweeting but forgot to update Facebook, leaving a lot of our customer looking for us.

Todays problem will not go unnoticed. We have adjusted our procedures, wrote some lessons learned documents, and we are actively working to improve our service.

We look forward to serving you more efficiently in the future. Again, our sincere apologies.

Sincerely
Borinquen Lunch Box

In Washington DC, few food trucks retire. But when they do, the physical truck is quickly snatched up and developed into another culinary venture.  Such is the case of Fry Captain which used to deliver delicious shakes and fries with a variety of seasoning and dipping sauces.  I will introduce the new truck owners, Grids Waffles in a follow-up post!

UPDATE #2 (1/30): Borinquen Lunch Box had to cancel today’s service due to some minor difficulties. Stay tuned for more updates!

UPDATE (1/30): Borinquen Lunch Box plans on serving at L’Enfant today!

After a few unexpected delays, Borinquen Lunch Box has tweeted that it has finally received its DC permits and will be serving on Monday!  I can’t wait to try their Puerto Rican cuisine! Virginia permits are currently being worked on as well.  More truck info can be found here.

The Eater DC website appeared to be the first to reveal that Chef Jose Andres was planning on opening up a food truck, though it was reportedly going to debut in Miami.  Well, the Washingtonian spotted today that Andres has a Craigslist ad seeking a cook for that food truck, named Pepe.  It looks like the truck may debut in Washington DC after all!

As promised by the Mayor, the proposed DC food truck regulations were released in today’s DC Register.  Here is a direct link to the full regulations (DOC format) and a link to the split up web version.

The Washington Post has a quick rundown of the most notable provision: establishing vending zones.

I’ll give a more detailed opinion once I’ve had some time to read it all!  Please note that these are proposed regulations and that there will be an opportunity for community feedback.

Not to be confused with St. Anthony of Padua, Anthony the Abbot is the patron saint of charcutiers (pork butchers) and also the patron saint of bacon.  January 17th was actually the feast day for St. Anthony, but BBQ Bus postponed the unveiling of its new sandwich until today: featuring smoked brisket, crispy bacon, house-made pickles, lettuce, tomato & a new Looosiana Hot BBQ Sauce #26.

It is only on the menu this week! They will be serving at State Dept. today (21st and Virginia Ave NW).

District Taco’s restaurant in Arlington, VA

This news was actually tweeted by District Taco on December 17th when I was out of town, so that is why I’m just calling it a recap.  District Taco is opening its first restaurant in the District at 1309 F St NW!  It should be ready in the Spring of 2012 – and I’ll be sure to get you some previews of the space as soon as I can.

District Taco has a roaming cart in Arlington, VA, named El Torito, and also a restaurant (DTHQ), at 5723 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA.  So, if you only look for food in the District, you may not have come across DT yet.  Their tacos are delicious and it is one of the few mobile food providers that regularly serves breakfast.

Source: District Taco’s website showing the DC location as coming soon.

The photo that accompanied District Taco’s Twitter announcement (click it to see the original tweet):