Topline Trends Tuesday: Truckin’ and Eatin’

Would you buy a taco from this man?  Yeah, so would I.

In American cities such as LA, New York and many points in between, the grungy coffee truck has been reinvented as a hip and happening way to deliver quality food experiences to busy people.

Celebrated vendors like the Treats Truck roam Manhattan streets making bakery deliveries and selling their sugary wares (such as raspberry brownies and cran-almond rice crispy bars) to passersby.

While the concept may seem retro (think about ice cream trucks), the application is modern with interesting food concepts and unique marketing approaches that use  twitter and blogs to make these free range eateries a success.

While Vancouver seems to be catching on to this trend, here in Toronto, the street food scene remains dull and duller. While most of our so-called ‘coffee trucks’ are fronts for drug dealers and not legitimate lunch purveyors, our efforts to pepper interesting ethnic food vendors amongst our copious hot dog carts have been thwarted by bureaucracy so that heartburn is more common among fans of this initiative than satisfied appetites.

What’s it like in your town? Is your street food culture vibrant or dormant? If it’s vibrant, how often do you buy food from a mobile vender?