How to Steer Around the Legal, Marketing and Operational Challenges of Modern Mobile Foodservice

This country's first experience with mobile food started decades ago with trucks plodding down the streets of Los Angeles selling tacos, burritos and other foods to whoever happened to be near. Over time, a few bad apples ruined the reputation for the rest and the trucks came to be infamously known as "roach coaches." Those days seem to be well behind us now.

With the mobile food truck craze sweeping the nation, from the West Coast in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, to mid-nation in Austin, Texas, and further east in New York and, possibly soon, Chicago, wannabe restaurateurs and even longtime operators are looking to expand beyond the confines of the brick-and-mortar restaurant, on a physical, social and creative level.

Last spring, the National Restaurant Association took hold of this growing trend with an exhibit during its annual restaurant show in Chicago, which featured fully equipped trucks and a series of panel discussions led by Aaron Noveshen, co-founder of Mobi Munch in San Francisco, Ludo Lefebvre of LudoBites and Mary Sue Milliken along with Susan Feniger of Border Grill Truck in Los Angeles, and other industry veterans.