On April 13-15 SAVOR of Long Beach will host the Food Truck Village at the 38^th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach from 7AM-6PM daily.  More than 20 of Southern California’s most notable gourmet food trucks including The Grilled Cheese Truck, Nom Nom Truck and the Ludo Truck will race to the curb serving race fans and foodies alike a variety of innovative, authentic and exotic cuisine’s all prepared fresh daily at the event for guests’ gastronomical pleasure and enjoyment.  For a full list of food trucks please visit Toyota Grand Prix Food Truck Race.  The mobile restaurants will vary each day, providing guests a wide assortment of fresh gourmet fare.

“The gourmet food trucks provide a strong draw of foodie fans at sporting events and the Toyota Grand Prix is a perfect example of how these restaurants on tires can bring in more attendees for a spectator sporting event,” Principal of Cluster Truck Events, Patty Harding said. “We are excited to offer this exceptional culinary experience for the audience.”

Tickets for the Toyota Grand Prix are available online at www.gplb.com and will provide guests access to the Food Truck Village located at East Shoreline Drive at the Intersection at Marina Green Park.  As a special offer to gourmet food truck chasers on Friday, April 13, only, general admission tickets are available for $5.00 (Regular price – $26.00) by using the promotional code FDTR12 on the www.gplb.com website.  For more information follow Cluster Truck Events on FaceBook and Twitter @TruckWrangler.

The Long Beach Street Food Fest took place Saturday, July 9th, 2011

A tasty proposition

The City Council will also talk gourmet food trucks Tuesday.

An ordinance on the agenda defines allowable areas of operations and regulates so-called gourmet food trucks.

Roving trucks serving specialty food items are booming in Los Angeles.

This year, more than 120 gourmet trucks have been licensed in the county.

Food vehicles wouldn’t be allowed within 10 feet of a business entrance without consent under the proposed rules. The setback also applies to bus stops, crosswalks and street corners.

Other mandates include a directive for vendors to use recycled material in food packaging.

Gourmet vendors would also be required to pay $405.47 for an annual mobile food vendor permit.

The city has issued 121 permits year-to-date, collecting $49,062.

The lines were long but the wait well worth it at last year's Long Beach Street Food Fest. Photo courtesy of Bart D.

5:45pm | The Long Beach Junior Chamber of Commerce Charitable Foundation has announced it will host another Long Beach Street Food Festival next Saturday, July 9, with net ticket proceeds going to the Adopt-a-Teacher program.

Thirty of Los Angeles and Orange County’s most popular gourmet food trucks will roll into Rainbow Lagoon Park to peddle their wide array of fare from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. A beer and wine garden will also be available, as well as live entertainment.

Bands set to play include Blue Steel and the Blue Breeze Band.

Scheduled to participate in the daylong event are the Nom Nom Truck, Ahn-Joo, Greenz on Wheelz, Crepes Bonaparte, The Lime Truck, Seabirds, Chunk-and-Chip, Sweets Truck, Auntie’s Fry Bread and the No. 1 truck in Los Angeles, The Grilled Cheese Truck, according to the Junior Chamber.

Tickets are $7 per person in advance & $9 at the gate. Attendees who bring a non-perishable food item for AIDS Food Store-Long Beach will receive $1 off at the gate.

Additional information can be obtained and tickets purchased by visiting LBStreetFoodFest.com. The event can also be followed via Facebook (Long Beach Street Foodfest) and Twitter (@LBStreetFood).

The Adopt-a-Teacher program issues grants to local teachers to cover the cost of unreimbursed classroom supplies and provides various educational scholarships.

http://www.lbpost.com/life/allison/11923

Obviously the most important story this week is the death of Osama Bin Laden. Within the past few days, every story in every news outlet has covered this historic event from every possible angle. At this point, there is very little I can say that hasn’t already been said, so instead I am going to discuss something else that is very important to me: Food.

The most American way to celebrate the demise of Bin Laden is by eating a giant feast, and thanks to “Lunch Truck It” — a new weekly Long Beach event — you will have that option. Starting this Wednesday, gourmet food trucks from all over will gather in Long Beach for the first time.

Mobile food trucks have become increasingly popular in the past few years thanks to social networking websites such as Twitter, which made the trucks easy to find no matter where they parked. However, the trucks have been banned from stopping in Long Beach for years because of a law that states all food establishments must be checked by a local city health inspector. This Wednesday, May 4, will be the first time that this ban will be lifted.

For a major foodie like me, this is fantastic news. These aren’t your parent’s food trucks. Hot dogs and tacos aren’t the only food that’s mobile anymore. The foods that will be at “Lunch Truck It” include Italian food, gourmet burgers, vegetarian cuisine, homemade candy and more. There is one truck that even sells maple-balsamic chimichurri-crème wagyu beef sliders served on a bed of white-truffle popcorn. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds delicious.

In all seriousness, I am most excited about this because it gives the citizens of Long Beach an excuse to get together for a weekly event. It is a great way to facilitate a feeling of community in Long Beach. People can gather together each Wednesday and enjoy a meal that is unique and constantly changing. I’m sure there will be a constant variety of food from varying cultures that will change from week to week. It’s a chance to experience something different consistently. Have you ever had a bacon venison burger covered in Sriracha aioli? Neither have I, but I’m ready to try it.

The event will start at 11 a.m. and will be held at the corner of Coronado Avenue and Anaheim Street, an area that is referred to as the “ZaSo District” in Long Beach. The people who own businesses in this area are hoping that this will help popularize the district amongst Long Beach citizens. If the food is actually as good as it sounds,  I’m sure it will be a success.

Sure, I could have written something about my thoughts on the death of Osama bin Laden, which is clearly a much more important issue, but by now you have read more than enough about that. Sometimes you need to change the channel from the news channel to the Food Network in order to keep your sanity. And now back to your scheduled programming.

Matt Grippi is a junior journalism major and contributing writer for the Daily 49er.

http://www.daily49er.com/opinion/upcoming-food-truck-premiere-will-help-unite-long-beach-community-1.2559520

The gourmet food truck craze is coming to Long Beach starting this week, when, on Wednesday, trucks including The Greasy Wiener will set up shop near the intersection of Coronado Avenue and Anaheim Street and serve up their trademark fixings during lunchtime.

The Long Beach City Council recently threw its support behind allowing lunch trucks to operate within city limits so long as they are permitted and pass  inspections by the city’s health department.

Previously, food trucks were allowed to operate in construction zones, but there were no rules in place to regulate them.

The Council’s April 12 vote created a permitting process that will include mandatory health inspections, meaning potential customers can rest easy with the knowledge that the trucks that will be visiting Long Beach on a weekly basis starting Wednesday are far from “roach coaches.”

The motion was sponsored by Councilmen Patrick O’Donnell and Steven Neal. O’Donnell has been instrumental in setting up the weekly Lunch Truck It visits to a location just off of Coronado Avenue and Anaheim Street in the Zaso Design District, where each Wednesday three or four Lunch Truck It trucks will temporarily set up shop during lunchtime.

Monday, May 2, 5:30pm | The gourmet food truck sensation that has swept Los Angeles and Orange counties will come to Long Beach for the very first time Wednesday, when a set of the luncheon mobiles will kick off their weekly visits.

Beginning this Wednesday, May 4, at 11:30 a.m., food trucks that were previously restricted in the city of Long Beach will come to the intersection of Coronado Avenue and Anaheim Street every Wednesday during lunchtime and set up shop at 1342 Coronado Ave., according to information provided by the office of Fourth District City Councilman Patrick O’Donnell.

“This is a first for Long Beach, and I am proud to sponsor an event like this that promises to facilitate community and culture through food,” O’Donnell said in a statement.

The draw is Lunch Truck It, a weekly event that aims to bring Long Beach professionals, families, students and local residents together for lunch every week. The businesses of the Zaferia-South Design District that lines Coronado Avenue, the East Anaheim Street Business Association and O’Donnell will host the event.

These key stakeholders are hoping that such an eclectic and epicurean event will bring a new awareness to an often-overlooked area of Long Beach.

“We want to bring attention to ZaSo, and what better way than to bring in the gourmet food trucks that have built huge followings in similar districts around LA,” said Carl Dene, owner of Vision Design Studio and a proponent of Lunch Truck It, in a statement.

There will be a variety of trucks in attendance every week, with L.A. favorites such as The Vizzi Truck, Cool Haus, Global Soul, the Sweets Truck, Ahn Joo, Grill ‘Em All, Greasy Wiener, Mandoline Grill, Buttermilk, Great Balls on Tires, Crepe’n Around and more, said an O’Donnell staffer.

To find out which trucks will head to Long Beach each week, follow Lunch Truck It on Twitter (@LunchTruckIt), check out its fan page on Facebook or visit LunchTruckIt.com.

http://www.lbpost.com/news/allison/11563

Foodies looking to satisfy their cravings with a quick bite to eat or a sit-down meal won’t have to look far during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Staff from SMG and Savor Long Beach has coordinated food and drink sales at the Grand Prix for nearly two decades.

Alyssa Rosen, director of sales and marketing for Savor, said all the fan favorites will be back this year, such as barbecue chicken, turkey legs, tacos, hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, pizza, corn on the cob, kettle corn, chips, cotton candy, funnel cake, smoothies and ice cream. In previous years, more than 10 thousand hot dogs have been sold during the three-day event.

Several gourmet food truck vendors roll in this week to serve Grand Prix guests. Food truck dining options include Baby’s Badass Burgers, BACON MANia (everything bacon), BOO-Yah!! (ice cream sandwiches), Great Balls on Tires (meatballs) and Fresh Fries LA. The Ahn-Joo food truck will serve Korean pub food by Food Network’s Debbie Lee. Many Long Beach restaurants, including California Pizza Kitchen, will return this year as third-party vendors.

In addition to good eats, Rosen said guests might want to refuel with a variety of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages available at 75 different locations around the track. Tecate and Tecate Light beer will be sold at Tecate Cantinas, multiple bars and the Tecate Lounge. The Club Patron Lounge has a new location this year near the arena front doors. Club Patron Lounge sells specialty drinks designed specifically for the race by the Patron Mixologists. Also, three wine gardens will feature McManis Wines.

Rainbow Harbor restaurants near or even inside the racetrack will remain open and most offer happy hours or other Grand Prix specials.

Want to purchase a souvenir from this Grand Prix experience? In addition to food and drink vendors, memorabilia will be available for purchase from five booths set up around the racetrack. The selection includes hats, T-shirts, collector pins, posters and more. Prices start at a few dollars per item.

http://www.gazettes.com/lifestyle/article_45508182-64a2-11e0-8e5c-001cc4c03286.html