“Party Rock” is rocking Matilda the food truck as more than a dozen people line up at 11 a.m. one recent weekday on a downtown street, waiting for their order at Melt.

Many faces are familiar to the owners, Harriet Reis and Paget Pizitz, and the cook, Joey Dickerson. This nomadic eatery is parked at a relatively regular spot. Between the friendly people and music blaring from speakers attached to the truck, it is a convivial atmosphere despite the threat of rain.

In Birmingham’s burgeoning food truck scene, many purveyors specialize in somewhat exotic fare. Melt’s approach is more down-home and basic, built around the grilled cheese sandwich.

According to the self-described “cheesy chicks,” it is the cornerstone in the partnership between Pizitz, a certified matchmaker with experience in her family’s frozen-yogurt business; and Reis, who co-founded and helped run the restaurants Ocean and 26 for 10 years.

As the story goes, the two were considering the food truck menu when Reis’ sons one day commented that the only thing she could cook was a grilled-cheese sandwich. A concept was born.

Known simply as The Melt, the mother sandwich is a gooey blend of two cheeses served on griddled Texas toast. Some might balk at a $6 price tag for grilled cheese. Oddly, the same sandwich with a $2 upcharge to include some very good bacon seemed less spendy.

The grilled-toast theme follows through on other sandwiches. The concept works well with sliced meats like smoked turkey, with its Swiss cheese nicely melted and meat warmed; and the buttery griddled bread providing a nice crunch.

But the concept seems to overwhelm some sandwiches with fattier meats, such as the popular Burger Melt. The thick patty of juicy beef got lost in the fat of the buttered Texas toast. Some salt boosted the meat flavor, however, letting it hold its own.

Of course, it’s a matter of personal taste. The patty melt is common in diners and other restaurants that specialize in burgers, so they have an audience. Perhaps you’re among them.

Another popular sandwich at Melt, and deservedly so, is the Buffalo Melt. Chicken planks, breaded and fried crisp, are rolled in buffalo sauce and cooked with Monterrey Jack cheese.

Menu mainstays also include a chicken quesadilla and meat sandwiches served on pretzel rolls that included ham and habanero jack cheese and roast beef with Swiss cheese.

Many items rotate on and off the menu, such as the Southern Comfort, slow-cooked pulled pork barbecue, served with cheddar and onions on the grilled Texas toast. Patience is rewarded as the flavors build from the sweet sauce and moist meat.

Another sandwich gaining a following is a grilled-cheese filled with macaroni and cheese. As summer ripens local tomatoes, the Caprese melt with basil and balsamic glaze should hit a peak.

Food trucks enhance the culinary scene in Birmingham. They are a factor in why Zagat, a nationally known restaurant-rating guide, recently named Birmingham one of the country’s seven up-and-coming food cities. (Although Zagat calling Birmingham’s well-established and nationally-honored culinary scene “up and coming” is a bit like saying Christopher Columbus “discovered” an already populated land.)

Food trucks present challenges not found in brick-and-mortar restaurants. Eating at this rolling restaurant requires planning.

First, you have to find it. Sixth Avenue North at 19th Street and Third Avenue North at Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard are fairly common spots, judging from Melt’s Facebook page. Although Melt usually follows a lunchtime schedule, Matilda the truck also can be found at special events as well.

Facebook or Twitter (@meltbham) is the best way to keep up with where Matilda is parked that day. Also, weather is a factor. Check before you go.

Plan on a place where you will eat, because Melt offers no seating. Once you order, pay and get your food you are on your own. That’s fine when the truck is parked at or near places like Kelly Ingram Park. But plopping down a few feet away from the Melt truck on the stairs of the Cathedral Church of the Advent just doesn’t feel right.

Pet peeve time: Places that serve sandwiches to go should always cut them, at least in half, to make them easier and less messy to handle. Advice: Although Melt halves some sandwiches, be sure to ask them to cut yours when you order.

Now is the perfect time to enjoy al-fresco food trucks. At Melt you will find the familiar, and perhaps the combination of its charms will have you join its growing fan base.

DETAILS

What: Melt Birmingham; Check Facebook or Twitter (@meltbham) for locations

Prices: Sandwiches $6-$9; Drinks $1. Sides $1-$5.

Info: Generally open 11 a.m.-1:30ish; frequently found at special events. Cash and credit cards accepted. No alcohol; soft drinks and bottled water kept in a cooler. .

Bottom line: Review gets three stars out of five

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/05/grilled_cheese_and_more_from_m.html

WVTM-TV: News, Weather, and Sports for Birmingham, AL

BIRMINGHAM, AL - You may have seen lots of food trucks parked on UAB’s campus Wednesday.

It was part of a food truck festival to celebration UAB nurses during National Nurses’ Week.

Lots of UAB folks, including nurses, doctors, staff, students and Birmingham residents were invited to enjoy the food and live music.

The event took place at the UAB Women’s and Infants Center Park of Hope on 18^th Street South and 6^th Avenue South.

The food trucks were from Spoonfed Grill, Melt, Cantina, Fresh off the Bun, Dream Cakes, Off the Hook, Greg’s Hot Dogs, and Repicci Italian Ice.

A blood drive also took place at the UAB Hospital North Pavilion lobby.

http://www.alabamas13.com/story/22196329/food-truck-festival-takes-place-on-uabs-campus-wednesday

The new Shindigs Juice Cafe will serve lunch at the downtown branch of the Birmingham YMCA from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. (Photo courtesy of Shindigs Catering)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Shindigs Catering, the always-on-the-go catering company that runs the popular Shindigs food truck in Birmingham, will open a lunch and juice counter starting today at the downtown branch of the YMCA.

Shindigs Juice Café, as it is called, is located on the second floor of the Y. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

In keeping with the YMCA’s mission of developing a healthy mind, body and spirit, the Shindigs Juice Café menu will feature such healthier options as chicken sausage pizza and turkey salad lettuce wraps.

So don’t expect any steamed buns with pork bellies or crispy catfish, which you’ll find on the Shindigs food truck.

“It’s going to be healthy, but we are not going to promote it as healthy,” Shindigs co-owner Mac Russell says. “We are going to use our training as chefs to make it kind of naughty.”

Jonathan Brasher will be the manager of the Shindigs Juice Café, Russell says.

Russell and his culinary partner Chad Schofield worked for James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Hastings at Hot and Hot Fish Club before they cranked up their farm-to-fork Shindigs food truck in the summer of 2011.

When their truck is not out on the streets of Birmingham, their catering company stays booked catering private parties and corporate events.

The Shindigs Juice Café menu will change depending on what is in season, but here is the opening-day menu:

Entrees ($10)

Pork loin, with heirloom tomatoes, avocado, smoked spring onions, cilantro, lime and Manchego cheese.

Turkey salad lettuce wraps, with preserved Meyer lemon yogurt, sultanas, Marcona almonds and basil, served with a fruit salad side.

Nearly Gluten-Free Pizza, with spinach, chicken sausage, blistered cherry tomatoes, chevre and smoked romesco sauce.

Salmon, with farro, asparagus, fava, spring onions, corn, boiled yard egg and parmesan vinaigrette and baby beet greens.

Shrimp Poke‘, with brown rice, edamame, shiitake mushrooms, carrot, ramp-ginger vinaigrette and micro celery.

Smoothies ($6)

Elvis, with peanuts, banana, cocoa nibs, probiotic-protein powder, almond milk and yogurt.

Get Away, with pineapple, papaya, coconut, macadamia oil, avocado, tarragon and rice milk.

Berry Good, with strawberry, blueberry, blood orange, coriander, yogurt and soy milk.

Juices ($6)

Green, with spinach, kale, celery, apple and ramp.

Orange, with carrot, orange, papaya, ginger and coriander.

Purple, with blueberry, pomegranate, acai, beet and opal basil.

The plan is for Shindigs Juice Café to eventually begin opening earlier in the mornings to offer breakfast options and to stay open later in the afternoons to serve grab-and-go dinner dishes, Russell says.

For more information, go to the Shindigs website atwww.shindigscateringtrucks.com, or like Shindigs Catering on Facebook or follow @ShindigsCatering on Twitter.

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/04/shindigs_catering_the_food_tru.html

Photo by Julia Sayers

This weekend the Greater Birmingham Street Food Coalition hosted its first Street Food Rally to help feed the city’s growing food truck movement. Over the past year, Birmingham has seen a rise in the number of trucks, joining other cities that have embraced mobile eateries.

Being headquartered in Birmingham, it’s a trend we’re glad to see. We ate our way through the festival, and came up with our five favorites to give you a taste of what eating on the go looks like in the Magic City.

1. Rocket Shrimp from Off The Hook
Seafood truck Off The Hook takes fried shrimp to another level with this lightly battered and fried variety tossed in a spicy aioli. It’s got a kick, but not enough to overpower the shrimp’s fresh flavor.

2. Apple-Cranberry Quesadilla from Spoonfed Grill
One of the pioneers in the Birmingham food truck scene, Spoonfed serves up a mix of Southern and Southwestern dishes. Try the Apple-Cranberry Quesadilla filled with balsamic roasted red onions, apples, cranberries, goat cheese, and Monterey Jack in a roasted red onion tortilla. It’s the perfect mix of sweet and savory.

3. Char Sui from Fresh Off The Bun
Vietnamese-centric Fresh Off the Bun doesn’t shy away from showing off its French and Cajun influences. The Char Sui banh mi with barbecue pork, sriracha mayo, pickled carrots, and sweet chili sauce served on a French baguette plays up the owner’s New Orleans upbringing.

Photo by Julia Sayers

4. Crispy Catfish from Shindigs 

A champion for serving local fresh fare from truck, Shindigs Catering is all about blending Southern and Asian flavors. We love the crispy catfish with dashi grits and bacon kimchi beurre blanc.

5. Bajalieh Special from Slice
The Lakeview-based pizza joint, Slice Pizza & Brew, is also the proud papa of the only pizza truck in town baking with a stone oven. The Bajalieh Special topped with bacon, grilled red onions, and (ahem, Alabama made) Wickles banana pepper rings gets our vote for best pie.

Photo by Julia Sayers

http://thedailysouth.southernliving.com/2013/03/11/birmingham-rallies-for-street-food/

Over two thousand people showed up at Pepper Place Sunday afternoon to enjoy the great weather and some great food at Birmingham’s first Street Food Rally.

“I think it’s great. I think any opportunity to be able to enjoy good food with good people is awesome,” Claire Flowers said.

Off the Hook was one of the 10 food trucks that participated in the first annual Street Food Rally. Source: WBRC video

The difference is that today’s treats all came from mobile vendors. The event was put on by the Greater Birmingham Street Food Coalition. The group joined together to promote their businesses and show their importance to Birmingham city leaders.

“It’s new and improved food and food trucks. Great chefs get out here and wheel and deal with great food. So I think that helps out the city,” Jason Parkman with Spoonfed Grill said.

But these vendors say they need help from the city. The Birmingham city council is looking to pass a new ordinance that could change how these businesses operate.

“We’ve never really had any true guidelines, but we’re working with the city right now to create a new ordinance that will help us and help the city to control the street food vending,” Parkman explained.

Customers line up in front of the Shindigs Catering truck. Source: WBRC video

Councilman Johnathan Austin says the city is not against mobile vendors. They just want to make sure everyone operates in a legal, responsible way and within health guidelines.

“Let’s make some changes to the ordinance if we need to. Let’s look at changing the fees and zones and all the different things we need to do,” Austin said.

Slice’s pizza truck also joined in the event. Source: WBRC video

Coalition members say the support they received Sunday shows they should have a parking place within the Birmingham business community.

“We’re really sending a big, big message. The people want it. If the people want to support it, let’s have it,” Chris Bajalieh with Slice said.

The Food Truck Rally was held in the Cantina parking lot in Pepper Place Sunday afternoon. Source: WBRC video

Councilman Austin says the passing of a new ordinance has been put on hold for now, saying more dialogue is needed from both sides before moving forward. But he says the city hopes to pass a new ordinance by the beginning of summer.

http://www.myfoxal.com/story/21574797/thousands-enjoy-birminghams-first-street-food-rally

© Street Food Coalition

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Food trucks are sweeping the nation, including the streets here in Birmingham. The food truck vendors are still trying to gain support from the city to do their business.

Today the first Street Food Rally took place. Trailers, carts, and food trucks lined up to present their tastiest treats to participants in the Cantina’s parking lot downtown.

The event completely sold out today. Vendors say the success of the event shows that their businesses could help the city economically.

“We want to show how the people support the trucks and find out what we can do for the city working together,” Jorge Castro, creator of the Street Food Rally, said.

City council members say they are working with these vendors to get them out on the streets.

“We really just want to show the importance of why the food vendor industry is important, and a significant part of the fabric of the city of Birmingham that makes us unique,” Johnathan Austin, Birmingham city councilman, said.

A portion of the proceeds from this event benefit an organization that supports type one diabetes research.

http://www.alabamas13.com/story/21568292/street-food-rally-shows-city-it-can-help-economically

Shindigs Catering food truck was one of many restaurants on wheels that took part in the inaugural Street Food Rally on March 10. (The Birmingham News file)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Ordinarily, food trucks roll through the city, parking at places convenient for foot traffic. This afternoon, thousands of people returned the favor, seeking out the food trucks assembled in the parking lot of the Martin Biscuit Building.

Birmingham’s food trucks and push carts gathered at the Second Avenue South lot from noon to 5 p.m. for the inaugural Street Food Rally.

Paget Pizitz, co-owner of the Melt grilled cheese truck, estimated that by the event’s 5 p.m. end, more than 5,000 people would have walked through the gates.

“With the weather, volunteers, food trucks that came out, the crowd, everything has exceeded expectations,” Pizitz said. “It’s been the best food truck event in Birmingham so far.”

From the front of each truck, lines topping 100 people stretched the length of the parking lot, as patrons waited to be served Southern favorites from Spoonfed Grilland Shindigs Catering, tacos from Cantina on Wheels, and much more.

Fresh Off the Bun, Slice, Off the Hook, Dreamcakes Bakery, Greg’s Hot Dogs, Repicci’s Real Italian Ice and Melt were also in attendance.

Jorge Castro, who co-owns the Cantina restaurant in Lakeview and the Cantina on Wheels food truck, said they had prepared for about 4,000 people, but he expected more by the day’s end.

“It’s been really, really busy,” he said. “We’ve had more people than expected, but the truck are ready for that.”

The rally promoted the Greater Birmingham Street Food Coalition, an alliance of mobile food vendors that officially formed in January.

At today’s rally, patrons had seven allotted tokens to exchange for food and drinks.

Elizabeth and John Knight, in town from Columbus, Ga., had tried food from five trucks by 3:30 p.m. and still had four tokens remaining.

“We haven’t had anything that wasn’t absolutely delicious,” Elizabeth said. “I wish Columbus had something like this.”

Perry Riddle, who lives in Birmingham, had tried wings and pizza from Slice and tacos from the Cantina food truck. Today was his first experience with most of Birmingham’s food trucks, and he was surprised to see the array of offerings.

“This will definitely make me go out and find where these trucks are parked so I can eat there again,” he said. “As a teacher, they’re especially good in the summer to get a quick lunch.”

Proceeds from the event will be split between the coalition’s funds and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The coalition is planning subsequent food truck events this summer and fall, Castro said.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/03/thousands_sample_offerings_fro.html

10 of Birmingham’s food trucks will meet up Sunday at Pepper Place for the first annual Street Food Rally. (Source: WBRC video)

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Birmingham’s burgeoning food truck scene will likely see another boost in popularity after 10 food trucks converge for a food truck festival this Sunday.

The first annual Street Food Rally will take place in the parking lot of Cantina in the Pepper Place district from noon until 5 p.m. March 10.

Sunday’s event will feature a total of 10 food trucks, including Cantina on Wheels, Dreamcakes Bakery, MELT, Slice and Spoonfed Grill.

Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door and that price will get you seven tokens that can be used at each of the vendors. The website says most food will cost either one or two tokens. As of 4 p.m. Friday, 543 advance tickets had been purchased online.

The food truck rally is being organized by the Greater Birmingham Food Coalition, a group representing the “trailers, carts and food trucks in Birmingham” according to their website.

The coalition is united in the goal of spreading the word about food trucks and also protecting their niche of mobile restaurants from city ordinances that may limit and eventually shut down their business.

While Birmingham’s city council hasn’t made a ruling on a proposed set of rules and regulations for food trucks, the coalition has several issues with the proposal. Among those issues: the proposal restricts food trucks from being closer than 230 feet from a brick-and-mortar restaurant and also limits the times of day they could sell food.

In response, the coalition has created their own “common sense” ordinance based on common practices of other food-truck-friendly cities.

Birmingham’s food truck movement isn’t just stirring up discussions within the city limits, it’s also getting noticed on a national level.

A recent Zagat article listed Birmingham as one of the up-and-coming food cities in the U.S., largely due to its influx of food trucks. In the article, Chef Chris Hastings of the Hot & Hot Fish Club noted the food truck scenes as one of the elements bringing “authentic cuisine and more cultural diversity” to the Magic City.

For more information about the street food rally and the Greater Birmingham Street Food coalition, visithttp://bhmstreetfoodcoalition.com.

http://www.myfoxal.com/story/21558455/birmingham-food-truck-rally-coming-to-pepper-place

The Melt food truck draws a crowd outside the Cobbs, Allen & Hall building in Office Park in Mountain Brook. (Tamika Moore/AL.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Let’s see now, Birmingham has taco trucks, soul food trucks, a fish truck, a pizza truck, even a cupcake truck.

What the city could really use is a good grilled cheese truck.

That’s what Harriet Reis and Paget Pizitz thought, too.

So a couple of weeks ago — after a few months of menu testing, several weeks navigating the labyrinth of business licenses and health permits, and a couple of driving lessons — the “two cheesy chicks,” as Reis and Pizitz like to call themselves, rolled out their Melt food wagon, the latest café-a-go-go to join Birmingham’s growing mobile food movement.

“The thing about our menu is it’s back-to-basics, with some modern twists on a comfort food,” Pizitz says. “So while it’s grilled cheese, they are a little more modern,  but they are still comforting.”

The menu includes the classic Melt grilled cheese, with cheddar and American cheeses on Texas toast ($6, or $8 with bacon), a ham-and-cheese croissant ($6), and a Buffalo chicken sandwich with blue cheese on Texas toast ($8)

Also, chef Joey Dickerson, formerly of Ore Drink & Dine, prepares a daily chef’s special, which so far has included a roast beef and pepper jack melt on sourdough ($8); the Southern Comfort, with pulled pork barbecue, bacon, cheddar cheese and caramelized onions on sourdough ($8); and the Old Smokey, with smoked turkey, bacon, cheddar, tomato and Havarti cheese on grilled ciabatta ($8).

“The chef’s special is whatever Joey comes up with the day before,” Pizitz says. “He creates something new every day.”

Customers may build their own grilled sandwiches with an assortment of cheeses that includes sharp cheddar, American, Swiss, Gouda, Havarti, mozzarella, Monterey Jack and brie. Vegan cheese and gluten-free bread are also available for those with dietary restrictions.

Sides include hand-cut fries ($2) and tomato-basil soup ($4).

Pizitz, who worked as a recruiter in New York before she moved back to Birmingham about five years ago, has no formal culinary training, but she spent last summer grilling sandwiches at a little café at the Silverock Cove development on Smith Lake.

“She is naturally talented,” Reis says. “She won’t say so, but she is.”

Reis, meanwhile, co-founded the Birmingham restaurants Ocean and 26 with her former husband, George Reis. She is the first to admit that he is the chef, though, and she was more at home running the front of the house.

It was their sons, Will and Peter, who gave Reis the idea of starting a grilled cheese truck, she says.

“I just decided to make grilled cheeses one afternoon,” Reis recalls. “My youngest son (Peter) says, ‘Mom, you’re not the best cook in the world, but you can really make a good grilled cheese.”

Intrigued by the street food movement that she first noticed in Seaside before it made its way to Birmingham a couple of years ago, Reis decided a food truck was the way to go.

It took some convincing to talk Pizitz into hopping on the bandwagon with her, though.

“I couldn’t get my head around it,” Pizitz recalls. “Then for no reason at all, I woke up on a Monday morning, at like 5:30 in the morning, and I go, ‘Oh my God, I want to own a food truck!’

“And I texted Harriet: ‘Food truck. Grilled cheese. I’m in. Let’s do it.’”

After looking at hundreds of trucks on the Internet, they found the one they were looking for in Miami – a 1992 street wagon that they had customized with all-new kitchen equipment, a rocking sound system and a snazzy exterior wrap.

When their truck finally arrived in early November, Reis and Pizitz say they just sat in it all day, like two little kids in a tree house.

Melt’s classic grilled cheese comes with cheddar and American cheeses on Texas toast. (Tamika Moore/AL.com)

In the first couple of weeks since they have hit the streets, they have parked their truck outside the Cobbs, Allen & Hall building in Office Park in Mountain Brook, in front of the Fringe hair salon on Linden Avenue in Homewood and near the AT&T City Center on 19th Street North downtown, as well as Railroad Park and Kelly Ingram Park.

On Sunday afternoon, Melt will join nine other food trucks and push carts at the first Street Food Rally in the parking lot of the Martin Biscuit Building in Birmingham’s Lakeview District.

“One of the things I’m so excited about is the Birmingham community has really reached out to us,” Pizitz says. “We’ve had so many stores and shop owners come to us and say, ‘Hey, we want you to come park outside our business.’”

Each day, Pizitz posts where the truck will be and what it is on the menu on the Melt Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Along with the truck, Reis and Pizitz also have a catering business that is available for wedding receptions, birthday parties and other private and corporate events. They have branded that business Two Cheesy Chicks Catering

“That’s us,” the ever-cheery Pizitz says. “We’re the two cheesy chicks. I just get a smile on my face talking about it. I can’t help it.”

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/03/melt_grilled_cheese_truck.html

The Melt food truck will be serving grilled mac-and-cheese sandwiches and tomato-basil soup at Sunday’s Street Food Rally. (Tamika Moore/AL.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The movement has a name, and now it has an event around which to marshal support for the cause.

Sunday afternoon in Birmingham’s Lakeview District, a small but unified army of food trucks and push carts from around the city will circle the parking lot of the Martin Biscuit Building for the inaugural Street Food Rally.

It is both a show of solidarity and a coming-out party for the Greater Birmingham Street Food Coalition, an alliance of mobile food vendors that began as a Facebook movement last year before officially banding together in January to promote their businesses and protect themselves from too much government interference.

Just as importantly, though, the coalition’s first Street Food Rally is about the food from the streets — inspired, appetizing dishes that include the Southern Soul Bowl with roasted pork, sweet potatoes and collard greens from Spoonfed Grill; grilled mac-and-cheese sandwiches and tomato-basil soup from Melt; Vietnamese pork barbecue and pickled carrots from Fresh Off the Bun; and crispy catfish and grits fromShindigs Catering.

Sunday’s other food vendors include the Cantina on Wheels, Dreamcakes Bakery, Greg’s Hot Dogs, Repicci’s Real Italian Ice, Off the Hook and Slice.

“The purpose of the rally itself is to raise awareness for street food and the type of good eats that you can get out there –“ along with showing people that this is a legitimate, viable business that can do good things for the city,” Jason Parkman, owner of the Spoonfed Grill food truck, says.

“We are starting to get into spring, and this is one way to help kick it off,” Parkman adds. “œThis is about, ‘Hey, this is some food and it comes from a truck — check it out.’”

Last September, a similar event, Trucks By the Tracks, drew a huge crowd and long lines to Railroad Park. Many of the trucks ran out of food by the middle of the afternoon.

“Once we saw how fun and exciting that was, we wanted to do one of our own,” says Mac Russell, co-owner of the Shindigs Catering food truck and a member of the Greater Birmingham Street Food Coalition.

Long before there was any sort of united food truck front, Parkman was out on the streets practically all by himself when he cranked up Spoonfed Grill in the fall of 2009 and first ventured into downtown Birmingham a few months later.

And as his bacon cheeseburgers and braised pork burritos started to develop a following, he was the first to hear the grumbling from traditional “brick-and-mortar” restaurants that his little food wagon was taking away some of their customers.

In the three years since, the meals-on-wheels movement has grown to include a dozen or so trucks, carts and trailers around Birmingham — and so, too, have the complaints from a few downtown restaurateurs.

A simmering debate

To appease the restaurant owners without driving off the mobile food vendors, the Birmingham City Council has hemmed and hawed for about nine months now over a proposed street-food ordinance that would regulate when and where the food trucks and push carts may do business in the city and how much they should have to pay to do so.

The proposed ordinance, which came to a boil at a public hearing last July, is now simmering on the back burner at City Hall, where it has been undergoing revisions since September.

Jorge Castro, who co-owns both the Cantina restaurant in Lakeview and the Cantina on Wheels food truck, is in a position to see both sides of the issue, and he is optimistic that a happy resolution is coming soon.

“I think it is going to be something that, between the city and the coalition, we can work out together for the trucks to be successful without affecting the other businesses in the city,” Castro says.

Not coincidentally, Sunday’s Street Food Rally takes place right outside Castro’™s restaurant, which is located in the Martin Biscuit Building. The property — which also includes Bettola restaurant and the Red Cat coffeehouse and borders the Pepper Place Saturday Market site — was developed by Sloss Real Estate to encourage just such entrepreneurial spirit.

“œJorge Castro has a fantastic relationship with the Sloss people, and they just have such a forward mindset,” Parkman says. “They are progressive-thinking about communal affairs.

“They have the farmers market down there, so they understand the viability of these types of events and how they can only enhance our city.”

Tickets to the rally are $20 in advance online and $25 at the gate, and each ticket includes seven tokens, which patrons will use to buy their food. Prices vary by vendor, but most entree items cost two tokens and most side dishes are one token. Beer and wine cost two tokens.

Proceeds will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, as well as help the Greater Birmingham Street Food Coalition pay its legal and operational expenses.

“œThis event is to raise funds for our cause, but we also wanted to do our civic duty and give back,” Paget Pizitz, co-owner of the Melt grilled cheese truck, says.

The new kid on the block

The Spoonfed Grill truck, pictured here on Fifth Avenue North earlier this week, first hit the streets of downtown Birmingham about three years ago. (Tamika Moore/AL.com)

The newest kid on the block, the Melt truck just hit the streets about two weeks ago, but already, Pizitz says, she and her business partner, Harriet Reis, have been welcomed by their fellow rolling restaurateurs.

“œWhat’™s really great about Birmingham is that, as a city, all of the food trucks, carts and trailers are so supportive of each other,” Pizitz says. “œThere are plenty of pieces of the pie to go around.

“We are all friends,” she adds. “We are all trying to help each other. We are all fighting for the same goal, which is for food trucks to have the same rights and privileges that restaurants do because, essentially, we are restaurants. We are just mobile restaurants.”

Russell, whose Shindigs Catering truck hit the streets of Birmingham in late November 2012, says he hopes Sunday’s rally won’t be just a one-time event.

Much like the Pepper Place farmers market, he can see it becoming a regular weekend happening, and one that could move all around the city.

“It should be more of a common occurrence, not just one big, fun day,” Russell says. “It’s what we envision Saturdays being like.”

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/03/birmingham_food_trucks_circle.html