Big Bad Pop-Ups is a month-long series of pop-up restaurants featuring high-end chefs serving street food in Oxford, Mississippi.

The event comes courtesy John Currence, who owns Oxford’s celebrated City Grocery as well as Bouré, Big Bad Breakfast, Snack Bar, and the Main Event catering company. City Grocery is undergoing renovations during the month of January, so, says City Grocery’s chef de cuisine Jesse Houston, “We wanted to make sure the staff kept busy, involve our friends, and have fun with it too.”

Those friends include chefs who’ll have the run of the Main Event site for four days each, Wednesdays through Saturdays, to create cheap and portable eats. Participating in Big Bad Pop-Ups: Eli Kirshstein of Top Chef fame (January 9th-12th); chefs from City Grocery (January 16th-19th); Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen/Hog & Hominy’s Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman (January 23rd-26th); and Restaurant Iris’ Kelly English (January 30th-February 2nd).

Kirshstein will serve up Israeli street food. The folks from City Grocery are doing Americana staples like hamburgers and hot dogs. Ticer and Hudman will bring their unique Hog & Hominy-style of Italian-meets-Southern fare to Oxford, while English’s take will be Louisiana-style truck-stop food.

“It’s going to be fun for us fancy chefs to do food we wouldn’t normally do,” says English, who’s planning on serving boudin hot dogs and chicken red beans and rice, among other fare. “It’s really filthy food, just filthy,” he says. “I mean that in the most positive way.”

For more information, go the event’s Facebook page.

http://www.memphisflyer.com/HungryMemphis/archives/2012/12/26/big-bad-pop-ups-street-food-pop-up-restaurants-in-oxford

Not even a rainy day could keep Lauren Davis from serving up his sunny-side burger in downtown Jackson on Monday. The owner of the city’s first food truck, LurnyD’s Grille, parked along Lamar Street and sold burgers on his first day of business.

Originally slated to serve food next to the section of Smith Park off West and Amite streets, Davis said a slight problem detoured his food truck, resulting Monday’s Lamar Street location between Pearl and Capitol streets.

“This is our one day only in this spot,” said Davis, as he stood outside his truck, a mobile restaurant closely resembling the Scooby Doo wagon. “Tomorrow we’ll be back at our normal spot.”

Davis and his burger joint will be perched at the Smith Park locale from here on. However, as part of his agreement with the city, he will be able to select two other locations in Jackson later, he said.

But for now, the park location will be where customers can find him, he said. “I’m hoping to drum up some business that way,” Davis said of being in the same spot for the time being.

As the lunchtime crowd braved the cloudy skies, a line began forming in front of the food truck by noon.

Ryan Case walked over from his downtown office to sample the goods. His friend asked him to tag along to LurnyD’s Grille, and Case said he was into the idea without even knowing what the truck served.

“I just moved back from Houston,” said Case, an employee at the state Department of Environmental Quality. “Some of the most exclusive places I had eaten (there) was trucks.”

The food truck trend has been around for some time, with larger cities, such as Houston, having large varieties of the mobile food stops. That trend has trickled down to smaller cities, with Jackson recently joining the group.

Case said he was thrilled Jackson finally got a food truck of its own. “I was just telling (my friend) I’d like to get my own truck.”

Davis and the LurnyD’s truck are in Jackson thanks to a new city ordinance that allows food trucks to set up shop within city limits.

Once councilman had pushed for the new law, saying it could help bring more interest into the capital City.

“There’s always that first person that’s gotta be the trendsetter,” Ward 1 Councilman Quentin Whitwell said in an October interview. “It’s everywhere around the country.”

The presence of LurnyD’s hopefully will usher in more business to the downtown area, Whitwell said.

Davis said he made the decision to put a food truck in Jackson shortly after the city approved the ordinance. He called the truck LurnyD’s in homage to his nickname, one bestowed by school friends who were heavily influenced by the music of Mike D of Beastie Boys and Chuck D of Public Enemy.

A self-professed fan of food truck shows on TV, Davis said his stand will sell a variety of burgers from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays.

Just because the food comes from a truck doesn’t mean customers can’t expect amenities they would find at most immobile downtown restaurants.

Davis said there are vegetarian options for each of the burgers on the menu and the business does accept credit and debit cards.

Moving forward, Davis said, he would like for more food trucks to roll into Jackson.

“I would love to have a dozen or more trucks,” said Davis. “I think it would set up some friendly competition.”

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20121127/NEWS/311270006/LurnyD-s-food-truck-rolls-into-downtown-Jackson?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome