Alley Burger/Food Truck Experience

[Gondi Stylez]

Added to yours,

Originally Posted by taco.vidal

Comments in the quote below.

Originally Posted by Gondi Stylez
Read through this entire thread and have a few "market research" questions to pose:

a) Define "street food culture"
Seems different here in Calgary than US cities Ive travelled to. In the US, food trucks always meant cheap food with a local flavour. In Calgary, food trucks have been a nice alternative to the typical food you get in a downtown food court.
If trucks offered more services than lunch DT (ie. dinner in the suburbs) would that give you more incentive to try some of them or become a more frequent buyer
b) What is your opinion of value for money based on your experiences of food trucks.Poor value. To generalize, low quality and small portion size equals poor value.
Expand further. Would combos help increase value? Say 6" sub, chips and drink $10? Or does it not matter. What entails quality. Do you care about local/organic or is it mostly based on portion size.
c) Smaller portion for $5 (ie. 6" sub) or meal size for $8 (ie. 12" sub)? The mind set would be to give variety and try multiple items vs. a couple.Not sure what your question is. But Id say when trying a new food truck it is nice to have the option of smaller portions at a lower price or a sampler type item.
What I meant was most trucks offer one size for x amount. Why not take a page from the US trucks in that they give a smaller portion but for a reduced cost. This allows the customer to try 2 flavors for say the same price as one larger item. (ie. 1 12" tuna sub for $10 vs. 1 6" meatball & 6" tuna for $10 or $5 each).

[Gondi Stylez]

Originally Posted by nik-

I haven't really eaten at the trucks, but what I've gathered from people's anecdotes is that these trucks for the most part have completely missed the point of a food truck. They seem to be no cheaper than anything in a food court and often smaller portions. It's too bad, but it's Calgary style to milk a trend I guess.

Granted they seem to have done good short term business, so what do I know I guess.

That is actually not how some of the top US food trucks define the industry. They produce restaurant quality food for the same price as a food court but with the same conveniences.

That being said, the trucks in the US also benefit from multiple services throughout the say (lunch, dinner and late night). Due to current regulations, the trucks have found it difficult to earn a dollar because they only have 2 hours in which to make a living. There is hope that 2013 will bring about some regulation shifts and open the door for food trucks to modify their model.

[Telgip33]

A bunch of trucks are in the East Village today. I got to tried 3.

1) The Perogy Boyz, which was good....little over priced for perogies but good....lots of bacon. ($9 for 8 perogies) I had the Traditional - potato, cottage cheese.
Also tried the desert perogy Carrot Cake – dessert perogy with raisin, carrot, cream cheese, cinnamon-carmel, icing sugar ($6 for 4) this was a good turn on carret cake, again little pricy for 4 small perogies but tasty.

http://perogyboyz.com/

2) The Naaco Truck, Had their butterchicken nachos. A good dish and a big serving (not the norm from the other food trucks I've been to). also $10.

http://thenaacotruck.com/

3) Cheezy Bizness, basically fancy grilled cheese sandwiches. This was my fave, $10 seem ($9.50) like a lot for a grilled cheese but damn it was YUMMY. It was pulled pork, pineapple, and lots of cheese. Would get again!

http://www.cheezybizness.com/ it was the Aloha Arkansas

[Gondi Stylez]

Glad you enjoyed your Nachos Telgip33

[Bigtime]

We're all gonna die from eating at YYC food trucks!

http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/10/30...d-safety-grade

Actually a pretty interesting and balanced article from the Sun (I'm shocked).

[Telgip33]

Originally Posted by Gondi Stylez

Glad you enjoyed your Nachos Telgip33

Was actually so much food that I had leftovers, enough for lunch the next day!!!

It was good warmed up too.

[Regular_John]

Gave the Without Papers Pizza truck a try today, really tasty stuff and it actually nails the price to portion ratio. $13 for a pie, 3/4 of which I ate and stuck the last piece in the office fridge for later. This is one I'd hit up again, possibly over typical takeout places.

[Gondi Stylez]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

We're all gonna die from eating at YYC food trucks!

http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/10/30...d-safety-grade

Actually a pretty interesting and balanced article from the Sun (I'm shocked).

That is the most BS article I've ever read. Anything related to AHS is considered a violation (ie. 60'C holding temperature but 59'C recorded = critical). These issues are corrected on the spot without any hassle.

If AHS found something that was critical regarding public safety that truck/establishment would be shut down on the spot, no questions asked.

No food truck in the city has ever FAILED an AHS inspection and we are held to the same or higher standards (due to logistical items) than stationary restaurants.

[Kiran403]

Originally Posted by Telgip33

3) Cheezy Bizness, basically fancy grilled cheese sandwiches. This was my fave, $10 seem ($9.50) like a lot for a grilled cheese but damn it was YUMMY. It was pulled pork, pineapple, and lots of cheese. Would get again!

http://www.cheezybizness.com/ it was the Aloha Arkansas

I just had this for lunch today and it was amazing! Way better than I thought it was going to be. Probably my best food truck experience so far.

[wpgflamesfan]

The Naaco truck made it on to Gallivant: The Travel Guide for Guys.

http://gallivant.com/scarf/the-naaco-truck/