The Food Truck is Dead

The moment of the food truck has passed.  You go to a food truck rodeo and there are taco trucks staffed by gringos, selling decent if commoditized Mexican food.  You have to stand in line for a long time, and then there's no place to sit.  Even the community component of it doesn't happen, because people are just staring at their phones or burnishing their flannel.

And it has been a long time since I saw anything new from a truck.  Korean BBQ is one of the few legitimately interesting things spread by them, but it too has become watered down as it has spread.

I think there needs to be a new kind of food court, ideally outdoors.  One where the vendors rotate.  Pizza place A is there Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, pizza place B the other days.  Or whatever.  The point is some variety.  And vendors could go between them over the course of a week or month.  And then space for a burger place/grill or two and other food types. With toilets, picnic tables, playground, etc.

It might be difficult to optimize the infrastructure (i.e. the right kind of food prep and short-term storage areas, etc., for different types of food).  But I think it's by no means an insurmountable problem.  Somebody has probably already done it.

I think food trucks still have legitimate uses, for example bringing the sad occupants of office park glass boxes some variety over the course of a week.  But they are no longer engines of innovation.