Food Trucks Gathered at Trailer Park Melbourne, August 4 2013. PHOTO: Vanessa Desloires
Melbourne’s food truck culture has been given a boost by a new venture, Trailer Park Melbourne, which gathers the city’s most popular trucks in one location every weekend.
Saucesome Media’s Jess Pryles developed the idea from her frustration at not being able to locate the trucks in time to travel and ensure the vendors still had food.
“I was finding that all these food trucks were popping up and sounding really interesting, but I found it quite difficult to visit them because it was hard to drive to the side of town that they were usually in,” she says.
Due to strict by-laws in many councils across Melbourne including the City of Melbourne, the majority of trucks operate in the northern suburbs.
A Meeting Place
While apps such as Where the Truck At are being developed to give users the location of all of Melbourne’s food trucks, Ms Pryles says food trucks by nature are not conducive to organised meet-ups with friends.
“Most of them don’t park at places where there is seating and you’re not sure if you’re going to have to stand up on the street and eat,” Ms Pryles says.
The location for Trailer Park Melbourne, the former Belgian Beer Garden (now Village Melbourne) on St Kilda Road was chosen by Ms Pryles not necessarily for the central location but for the amenities, including seating, outdoor heating and a licensed bar.
‘Friendly Competition’
Gumbo Kitchen’s Michael Cotter says his business is keen to get involved in festivals like Trailer Park because it helps provide predictability for his customers.
“Consistency is always good: knowing where we are, giving people enough time to get to us, doing long enough hours, it works for us,” he says.
Despite the direct competition between trucks, The Curry Truck’s Ibi Youssef says the vendors are very supportive of each other and the gathering provides choice for the customers.
“It’s a different competition, its more of a friendly competition, there’s not that rivalry you might expect, not that I’ve come across.”
Mr Cotter says 80 per cent of his customers come for the New Orleans style food, and they would follow the truck to wherever it was located.
“If we were in a restaurant or serving from a hole in the wall, people would come because we are the only ones doing this type of food,” he says.
Trailer Park Melbourne continues every weekend through August and September.
