These trucks are expensive.

Took my son into DC today on Election Day (no school) to visit a museum. We live in Bethesda and don't get down to the mall much recently. When I saw the many food trucks, I immediately thought of this thread. I was surprised how many food trucks are there and the low quality nature of all of them (many looked the same, with neon pictures of the same hot dogs, tacos, chicken, and Philly steak sandwiches and ice cream). Very unimpressive. Worse than the ugly hot dog trucks/vendors in NYC which look dirty and run down.

I ran into a situation today with one of the trucks. We wanted a light lunch before the museum so decided to try a food truck. I went up to one truck and ordered a basic Philly cheesesteak, with hopes it would be something like a real cheesesteak in Philadelphia. The signage only had faint pricing on it (white board type marker "conveniently" in a light ink) The pricing was $7.99 but only if you looked closely. When she handed me the sandwich which was fairly small), she asked for $12. I said "12 for a sandwich"? Your sign says $7.99 in ink that was barely legible. I said $12 is high for such a small sandwich and why is her signage different? She said that was her price and prices went up. I thought to myself "ok but they went up by $5)? I pulled out $8 in cash and paid her this amount. Walked away. Around the corner next to the museum, there was many more trucks and I noticed all had pricing clearly listed. Their Philly sandwiches were all $8.99. Annoyed this woman was trying to charge me $12 for a tiny sandwich from her truck (which had very little meat)....

I learned my lesson to reconfirm price and not fall into a tourist trap which this woman was cleaning trying to pull off...Annoyed to think she must get away with her "made on the spot" pricing for tourists.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of these trucks purport to serve cuisine from diverse cultures and nationalities. Has there been an investigation to ensure that the food preparation and recipes are authentic? I’m also concerned that there may be cultural appropriation occurring. In addition to minimizing the environmental and nuisance problems these businesses cause, maybe the district can include in the licensing process some sort of guarantee of authenticity.

This is satire, right?

If you can't tell, you might need to stop reading DCUM.

The issue with the Mall isn't that the food trucks exist. It's that the lowest quality of food trucks that make the loudest noise and emit the most noxious fumes exist. Get rid of the crappy ice cream and hot dog trucks, ban the loud minstrel jingles, replace with the quality trucks that used to frequent office areas. Roaming Rooster, Far East Taco Grill, find the guy who ran Choupi (crepes) and pay anything to bring him back.

Anonymous wrote:Food trucks suck. Hate them. The din from their generators ruins the peace and quiet of the mall, the fumes from their exhaust is gross, and the litter from food wrappers is a blight.

They need to be banned.

They are highly polluting. Require that they be all-electric vehicles by next year. My guess is that most will go away rather than comply.

There have been food trucks on the mall since the beginning of time. We called them roach coaches. Why would you ban them now? Plus, there's really no where to eat down there.

Anonymous wrote:DCRA has paid lip service to limiting food trucks to designated vending zones on the Mall with a lottery system, just as it does elsewhere throughout the city. Perhaps there’s an issue in terms of a turf battle with NPS over regulating public space. And DPW doesn’t make much of an effort to enforce parking restrictions, including the junk cars with Marylsndcsnd Virginia tags parked overnite to reserve spaces.

The food truck association has been spreading around some campaign dollars and bought friends in the Wilson Building. Meanwhile visitors to the Mall experience unsightly view sheds from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, overflowing garbage cans, rat infestations, noise and exhaust from generators, cringey music and blocked crosswalks. It’s a blight on the monumental core of the nation’s capital. The hands-off approach of the regulatory agencies has resulted in chaos stemming from a vacuum of enforcement. Vendors understand there will be no consequence to flouting the law except for the occasional $30 parking ticket they’ll pay as a cost of doing business.

Hardly the most pressing issue but does the city have the need for 15 ice cream trucks and 12 hotdog trucks on 14th Street, none of which are registered in DC? If memories serve me, souvenir vendors used to be restricted to Independence and Constitution Avenues, with a few along 15th and 18th north of Constitution.

If they didn't have the need, not enough people would buy from them and they wouldn't be profitable, and guess what... they would disappear. Apparently, they ARE needed by their customers.

Anonymous wrote:Who even buys from them? Have you seen the conditions they prepare food in? Looked at the grease and gasoline-covered hands that serve people? It's vile. I wouldn't eat from one if it were free.

Food trucks used to be the thing, remember Truckapoolza?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of these trucks purport to serve cuisine from diverse cultures and nationalities. Has there been an investigation to ensure that the food preparation and recipes are authentic? I’m also concerned that there may be cultural appropriation occurring. In addition to minimizing the environmental and nuisance problems these businesses cause, maybe the district can include in the licensing process some sort of guarantee of authenticity.

This is satire, right?

I'm sure they think they're being funny

Anonymous wrote:I imagine that they’re not there for the residents!! The tourists love them. I think that’s the point. You know, the mall is a big tourist destination. Avoid it if you can

I don't think you understand. OP's kid doesn't like the food.

Could care less about the food trucks. You can choose to patronize them or not.

Anonymous wrote:Many of these trucks purport to serve cuisine from diverse cultures and nationalities. Has there been an investigation to ensure that the food preparation and recipes are authentic? I’m also concerned that there may be cultural appropriation occurring. In addition to minimizing the environmental and nuisance problems these businesses cause, maybe the district can include in the licensing process some sort of guarantee of authenticity.

This is satire, right?

Anonymous wrote:I imagine that they’re not there for the residents!! The tourists love them. I think that’s the point. You know, the mall is a big tourist destination. Avoid it if you can

I don’t think tourists appreciate everything about it either. Half of them with no noise would be great. What’s there now is awful, regardless how close you live.

Anonymous wrote:Many of these trucks purport to serve cuisine from diverse cultures and nationalities. Has there been an investigation to ensure that the food preparation and recipes are authentic? I’m also concerned that there may be cultural appropriation occurring. In addition to minimizing the environmental and nuisance problems these businesses cause, maybe the district can include in the licensing process some sort of guarantee of authenticity.

A+ for trolling right here.

Many of these trucks purport to serve cuisine from diverse cultures and nationalities. Has there been an investigation to ensure that the food preparation and recipes are authentic? I’m also concerned that there may be cultural appropriation occurring. In addition to minimizing the environmental and nuisance problems these businesses cause, maybe the district can include in the licensing process some sort of guarantee of authenticity.