Food Trucks a Cultural Trend in the TC

One day a food truck may be parked in one neighborhood, and the next day it’s halfway across the city—always on the search for new customers, but never forced to cook at the same place twice. Food trucks have the ability to bring their spectacular dishes to people whether it’s outside of a brewery, at a music festival, or nearby a sports stadiums, making them the newest culinary trend.

However, food trucks are not all fun and games, and owners need to perfect their dishes in order to gain success in the business. “I think the most important thing is just having a great product, and the customers will eventually come. Getting through the first year is difficult for most owners. You don’t really know what to expect until you are doing it,” Jason Montgomery, owner of Tru Pizza, said.

Food trucks have taken off in the Twin Cities area, especially in the past couple of years. “Laws are getting more relaxed and food truck tv shows and movies glorify the experience,” Montgomery said.

Many restaurants start out as food trucks to gain a following before settling down at a location and opening a restaurant, but many food truck chefs and owners love the food truck life too much to give it up. “The variety and passion most trucks put into the food and meeting fellow food truck and brewery owners are my favorite parts of owning and working in a food truck.  I’ve also met some great people and enjoy experimenting with pizzas. The only downside is that the hours needed to get the job done can get long sometimes,” Montgomery said.

Tru Pizza

Tru Pizza serves an affordable high-quality slice of wood-fired traditional Neapolitan Pizza in downtown Minneapolis. Ingredients from local vendors and farms paired with the firsthand experience of learning from pizzaiolos around Italy combine to help Tru Pizza truly create the truest of specialty and authentic Italian pizzas for around ten dollars. From margherita, to marinara, to bianca, which is a mozzarella pizza with olive oil, garlic, sea salt, and fresh basil.

The margherita I purchased from the Tru Pizza food truck immediately melted in my mouth in an explosion of flavors and tastes that transported me to our friends over the pond. During the cooler months, Tru Pizza often parks at local breweries in the downtown Minneapolis area, and during the summer months you can find the truck parked on the main downtown streets. If you’re out and about this year and see a white food truck parked on the street, double check to make sure it’s not Tru Pizza, because this is a food truck you don’t want to miss out on.

O’Cheeze

This may sound “cheezy” but I can’t think of a better way to spend a cool spring day than stopping at the best gourmet grilled cheese food truck cruising down the streets of Minneapolis. Nothing says a fantastic meal like an unexpected twist on the classic dish of a grilled cheese sandwich and a soup on the side all for about five dollars. No unexpected ingredient can intimidate O’Cheeze from throwing it on a grilled cheese.

Grilled Cheeses can range from the expected variations like the Not-So-Classic with sharp cheddar, havarti, and Dubliner Irish cheddar to the s’mores grilled cheese with goat cheese, chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker crumble. What I ordered fell somewhere between those extremes: a mac & cheese grilled cheese. After the first bite, I was hooked, and I didn’t stop until I had finished every delicious crunchy gooey cheesy bite.