Rolling Hunger

Despite bureaucratic hoops and opposition from some restaurateurs, the food truck revolution has arrived in Seattle.

By Michael Hood | November 2010 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION


Kurt Beecher Dammier opened Maximus/Minimus as an extension of his food business. Photograph by Brooke Fitts.

Tessie Decker and a clutch of co-workers cancelled meetings to join the half-block queue outside a smoke-spewing 1962 Airstream trailer parked on a South Lake Union side street.

“It’s like a little adventure,” she says. “First you have to find the truck—it could be anywhere in town—then find out what’s on the menu—it could be anything.”

The trailer is Skillet, one of many mobile food trucks in Seattle. Decker and her fellow queuers are after the huge $12 ($13 with fries) grass-fed beef burgers with fresh arugula, smeared with Cambozola and Skillet’s signature condiment, bacon jam.

A Canadian Food Network film crew hovers with cameras and microphone booms, doing impromptu interviews with full-mouthed customers.

This crowd on this summer day is not chasing cheap eats: Skillet’s price point is higher than most of its competitors. The customers are young and white collar, alerted via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail blasts to a list of 20,000 Skillet subscribers. They poke at smartphones as they stand in line, talking shop and talking food. There’s the feel of a flash mob, that this is something a little outlaw.

In fact, it is: Here, today, Skillet is illegal, operating without a permit. Owner Josh Henderson parked the trailer on the street next to Cascade Playground, bought a sticker from the parking meter, slapped it on a window, stoked his mesquite and opened for business. The city does little to enforce such infractions.

There have always been “roach coaches” in industrial parking lots and hot dog grillers outside clubs at 2 a.m. But who could have foreseen rolling modern kitchens in sleek trailers and tricked-out vans serving Spam sushi, kimchi quesadillas, or poutine, french fries with herbed cheese curds and gravy, a Canadian bar food that’s hot in Seattle these days?

It’s a national trend: Trucks are rolling in Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and New York. Tacos came first, following a Southwest tradition of Mexicans serving Mexican food to Mexicans far from home. Then kebabs, falafel, Chinese dumplings, Philly cheesesteaks, bánh mì, crêpes, barbecue. Suddenly, there was a sleek fleet of independent trucks, carts and sidewalk stands handing upscale food to hungry lines at farmers markets, festivals and crowds in every neighborhood.