A brisket sandwich from Bob Craver’s food truck. Ed Peaco/For the News-Leader

Bob Craver opened his food truck in January after years of cooking meat at his home and striving for ever-better results. The outcome is a menu focused on pulled pork, brisket and ribs — lively seasoned, boldly smoky.

“I’d been doing it for 10-12 years in the back yard and just perfected it,” in part by injecting his pork with flavors, Craver said. “I thought, this is really good; I need to market this. The food trucks are coming on. I thought it’d be a good idea.” He sold his independent insurance agency to concentrate on the new business.

Starting this week, Smokin’ Bob’s is located in the parking lot of Transport Graphics on the east side of North Glenstone Avenue just north of Chestnut Expressway.

Carver said he uses paprika, black pepper and sugar on his rubs. Chili powder is present in the brisket rub and absent in the pulled pork rub, which has brown sugar. He provides a sauce — regular or spicy — based on the Carolina style, vinegar-based but thicker than typical from that region.

Here are three popular choices, which come with a drink and beans, slaw or chips.

Pulled pork wrap with coleslaw($7): This creative selection collects items that you would find on a barbecue plate and allows you to taste them all at once. The homemade slaw has just a hint of sweetness, and the crunch adds texture with the pork. The hearty sun-dried tomato wrap brings everything together.

Pulled pork sandwich ($7): Once the sandwich is in your hands, the hickory aroma inflames the appetite: you cannot resist. The meat is tender and juicy, and the bun is sturdy enough to contain the meat while you eat.

Brisket sandwich ($8): The beef has a mellower flavor but the smoke remains strong.

A side of beans ($2 for 8 ounces, $4 for 16 ounces) brings another surge of flavor — onion, bell pepper, brown sugar and Craver’s spicy sauce.

Smokin’ Bob’s is a simple operation that focuses on the meat. There’s no fryer in the truck, and therefore no fries. The food has attracted a steady following during the first few months of business, which Craver said he finds gratifying.

“When I give you a sandwich, you’re going to come back for another one,” he said. “If people say that’s very, very good, or it’s the best I’ve ever had, that’s what I like to hear.”

Smokin’ Bob’s BBQ

417-838-7898

Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday at Transport Graphics parking lot on North Glenstone Avenue just north of Chestnut Expressway; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday at Harter House, 815 Kenneth St. in Nixa

Web: smokinbobsbbq.com

Facebook: “Smokin’ Bob’s BBQ”

E-mail: craver@windstream.net

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20130503/ENTERTAINMENT12/305030005/Restaurant-Profile-Smokin-Bob-s-BBQ-SPRINGFIELD-MISSOURI-NIXA?odyssey=nav%7Chead&nclick_check=1

Food trucks and kiosks are sprouting near government plaza, an area previously void of much in the way of food options.

Big Momma’s Coffee & Espresso Bar now has a kiosk inside the Midtown Carnegie Branch Library at 397 E. Central St.

Think of it as a smaller version of the existing location at 217 E. Commercial St.

The kiosk officially opened Monday with a variety of coffee and espresso drinks, smoothies and breakfast options. There’s also a rotating selection of sandwiches and salads from the Commercial Street location.

The kiosk is open from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, although manager Kelsey Theobald hopes to extend those hours soon. It’s closed on any day the library is.

Big Momma’s also caters meetings and special events at the library location.

Wednesday, John Cavanaugh was visiting the kiosk from his own stand across the street. He and his wife are the faces behind The Dancin’ Dogs, a hot dog stand featuring authentic Chicago-style hotdogs and bratwurst.

Although the Cavanaugh’s are the lone vendors now on a lot on the southeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Central Street, the plan is to develop the area into what John Cavanaugh called a mobile food court.

Aviary on the Fly, a food truck owned by the same people behind Aviary Café and Creperie, also will be part of the food court, along with a variety of other vendors.

Cavanaugh said he realizes he won’t likely see the same customers at his hot dog stand every day. By joining forces, the group hopes to attract more customers as a whole.

Until this point, food trucks weren’t an option in the area around the county and city building plaza.

In August, city council amended zoning requirements to allow for food trucks in certain areas. Downtown businesses initially opposed the zoning change, but later reversed their stand when concerns were addressed.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20121109/BUSINESS04/311090006/Springfield-government-plaza-mobile-food-vendors-kiosks?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Restaurants on wheels are allowed to park in more places than ever before in Springfield.

While they still aren’t allowed in a portion of downtown, you might be seeing more food trucks pop up along city streets.

With more areas for food trucks to set up shop, there are more places for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department to investigate.

Around Greene County, you’ll see about 50 trucks and they have to pass the same inspections as any other restaurant — with a few exceptions.

“I thought it would be a really fun business venture to offer the community. But really, the ultimate motivation is to be a part of the local food movement,” says Cina Canada, owner of the Big Red Juice Truck.

Before her truck is allowed to be open for business, Canada must meet all the guidelines of the health department.

“We’re not quite ready. We’re still getting our power sorted out, yet they were able to come in and do our inspection and get us on track right away.”

A lot of changes have been made when it comes to where food trucks can be located, but one thing remains the same: it must be safe and sanitary.

“Because it is a food truck on wheels, we want to make sure they are setting up in a place in town that is approved,” says Roxanne Sharp, a public health investigator for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. “We want to make sure that when they are making a product, that they are doing it in a food safety sanitation way.”

Sharp says there are certain requirements before a truck can receive a permit.

“What we’re looking for is if they have a three-compartment sink, does it have sanitizer for the three-compartment sink, a way to wash the dishes with some kind of detergent. Do they have a separate hand sink with soap, paper towels, hot water, in order to wash their hands? And their equipment and is their refrigeration adequate for what they’re going to be doing.”

On top of that, while solid structures have the ability to have city plumbing, food trucks have to find another way to ensure they have safe drinking water.

“They have to make sure that they have adequate city water which is what we require,” adds Sharp. “We do not want them to have well water because we don’t know if it’s been tested or not.”

Health inspectors also look at the waste water tank and ask where they will be dumping the waste water.

“So they have to worry about getting potable water refilled into their tank; make sure their tanks are clean before they put the potable water in and where they are dumping the waste water; and is there any grease going into this waste water.”

Any food truck can get a permit if all of the requirements are met. Once they have a permit, the health department sends out investigators once or twice every six months depending on what kind of food the vendor sells.

If upon inspection the food truck doesn’t pass for whatever reason, the health department can take away a permit and shut them down until they get things taken care of.

http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=700402

By Thomas Gounley | News-Leader.com

Curtis Green, left, and Zac Lawson try That Lebanese Place for the first time on Tuesday. Valerie Mosley/News-Leader

Downtown area opened up to mobile vendors

There could be more options for late-night eats downtown in coming months, as a new law expands the zones of the city where mobile food truck vendors can operate.

On Monday, City Council unanimously approved an ordinance allowing mobile food vendors to operate in sites that are zoned for industrial, manufacturing and government or institutional purposes, as well as Center City and Commercial Street. The mayor signed the bill into effect on Tuesday.

Previous zoning ordinances restricted vendors to areas zoned for general retail or commercial uses.

Monday’s City Council comes after an Aug. 9 vote by the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission favoring a version of the ordinance restricting the vendors from a section of Center City. That recommendation, approved 4-3, came after the same commission earlier expressed support for a version without restrictions.

The portion of the ordinance allowing vendors downtown was the most controversial. The issue was originally tabled after a public hearing in May. Councilman Tom Bieker suggested an alternate version prohibiting mobile vendors downtown, citing concerns that temporary vendors would have an advantage over permanent businesses that must meet heightened aesthetic standards.

However, after receiving more feedback, Bieker pulled his alternate bill in advance of Monday’s council meeting.

The Urban Districts Alliance originally voiced concerns regarding unfair competition between temporary vendors and bricks-and-mortar businesses, but Executive Director Rusty Worley said restrictions limiting food trucks to private property were satisfactory.

The Downtown Community Improvement District, which is associated with the UDA, later went on to voice its support of the measure.

“The more it was looked into, it was a pretty small number of sites,” Worley said. “Our original concerns were addressed.”

Charlotte Turnbull was one of several area food truck owners to praise the decision on Tuesday.

“That’s great,” said Turnbull, the owner of The Traveling Taco. “I’m thrilled.”

Turnbull said she already had an informal agreement with a downtown property owner willing to let her set up on weekend evenings from about 9 p.m. until after downtown bars close.

“I’ll call him today,” she said.

For Turnbull, a move downtown it would actually be a return to the area where she first set up. For three days in Sept. 2010, The Traveling Taco was originally set up at the intersection of Elm and Kimbrough, before a health inspector suggested the business they check current zoning requirements.

“For the three days we were there, it was bank,” she said.

Larry Edgar, who owns the property at the intersection where Turnbull set up, said he’s had other vendors express interest in setting up there and hopes to have them on the property in the future. However, he noted that the application process is still complicated.

“I’m just glad to have the opportunity,” Edgar said. “Hopefully I can help people make money.”

Eli Ghanem, owner of That Lebanese Place, a food truck at the corner of Chestnut and Glenstone, said he supported the decision, although he wasn’t planning on moving.

“We personally are happy with our location as is,” he said, citing his landlord and the area’s high traffic.

Johnathon Allen, co-owner of the Aviary Cafe and Creperie, said he was “absolutely stoked” with the vote. The creperie is located on Walnut Street downtown, but also has a 28-foot food truck that Allen hopes to operate in the stretch between Chestnut Expressway and Commercial Street, as well as near Missouri State University.

“I’ve been hiring people for the last month in anticipation of this vote,” he said.

Allen said he was one of the early supporters of the expanded area of operation, but noted that he supported the alternate bill barring food trucks from downtown, largely for aesthetic reasons.

However, he said that he was fine with letting the free market decide which food trucks will be successful downtown, and said that any businesses that suffer do so only “because they’re not doing a good job.”

But not all downtown business owners viewed the expansion as a positive development. Matt Turbov, owner of the Chicago Cheesesteak Company on Walnut Street, said he was “outraged” at the decision and believed it will have a negative impact on his business.

“Might as well sell this business and open it on the street,” said Turbov, who was unaware the issue was up for vote before Tuesday. “I pay rent.”

Turnbull said the council’s decision allowed the city to play catch up to other cities with active downtown food truck scenes.

“You compare us to the big cities, they’re all down there.”

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120829/NEWS01/308290056/springfield-food-trucks-downtown?nclick_check=1

By Amos Bridges | News-Leaders.com

The Traveling Taco food truck at Fremont Avenue and Sunshine Street. Michael Gulledge/News-Leader

 Commission to hear bill tonight on zoning

Mondays and Tuesdays, Charlotte Turnbull hauls her mobile kitchen to the old airport terminal to sell fried flour tacos or burgers and french fries to Expedia employees looking for a fast lunch.

The rest of the week, the Traveling Taco is parked at its regular spot on the southeast corner of Fremont Avenue and Sunshine Street, where Turnbull picks up a fair amount of business from passing motorists and workers at Mercy hospital.

“I’ve done $1,500 on this lot in a day, which is amazing for this size,” she said Wednesday, as lunch customers began trickling in about 11 a.m.

Soon, Turnbull hopes to add a late night shift catering to college students and downtown bar patrons. But her plan — and the plans of other food truck operators eying center city — depends on which version of a revised temporary vendor ordinance City Council approves.

Current Springfield zoning ordinance restricts food trucks and other temporary vendors to areas zoned for general retail or commercial uses.

A proposed bill, up for review by the Planning and Zoning Commission tonight, would open up sites with industrial and manufacturing zoning, as well as those in center city and on Commercial Street.

The bill also sets requirements for temporary vendor sites, which must be on a private lot, and prohibits vendors from operating from a single location more than 180 days in a calendar year.

An alternate version, prepared at the request of Councilman Tom Bieker, contains most of the same provisions but carves out a section of downtown that would remain off limits to temporary vendors.

Bieker said he proposed the change after hearing from downtown bar and restaurant owners concerned that mobile food vendors would have an unfair advantage downtown, where traditional businesses must meet heightened aesthetic standards.

“You have these brick-and-mortar (businesses) that have an extremely high cost of entry,” Bieker said. “To allow someone to come in and set up shop across the street and sell the same comparable good and not be held to that same standard is unfair to all businesses.”

Bieker’s proposal would ban temporary vendors from operating in an area from Mill Street south to Elm Street and from Market Avenue east to Kimbrough Avenue. He said the prohibition strikes a balance between expanding the territory available to temporary vendors and protecting the interests of small business owners downtown.

“I think it’s a great fit in other areas of Springfield, including near government plaza and near (Missouri State University),” he said.

Turnbull said she’s talked with other food vendors and some don’t care whether downtown remains closed. Others see it as “kind of a double standard.”

“I have to be licensed, I get inspected just like that restaurant over there,” she said. “By limiting us, they’re limiting themselves … I think if the opportunity opened up you’d see maybe 20 vendors in town.”

City staff have taken a similar position, recommending the more open ordinance rather than Bieker’s substitute, said Principal Planner Mike MacPherson. “We don’t see what’s different about downtown compared to anywhere else.”

If the past is a guide, the Planning and Zoning Commission is likely to agree.

The commission in May voted unanimously in favor of opening up additional areas to temporary vendors. And while commissioners could switch support to Bieker’s bill tonight, several rejected similar arguments made by downtown boosters at the May meeting.

Whatever the commission’s recommendation, the bill will head to City Council for another public hearing, likely Aug. 27, followed by a vote two weeks later.

Turnbull thinks concerns about competition may be overblown. She doesn’t plan on taking the Traveling Taco downtown to go head-to-head with existing businesses at lunch.

Instead, she hopes to cater to the late night crowd or to set up shop in an under-served area with customers hungry for fresh food.

“It’s all about having that flexibility,” she said.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120809/NEWS01/308090051/traveling-taco-springfield-food-truck-vendors?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE&nclick_check=1

By Charlotte Turnbull | The Taveling Taco

The Traveling Taco

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — There are so many great places to eat in the Ozarks — everything from sit-down restaurants to drive-ins and carryouts.  Recently, a popular trend on the coasts has been showing up in Springfield: the food truck.  It’s been so popular that one local eatery could be on national television with your help.

“Ready for some tacos?” Rick Turnbull, co-owner of The Traveling Taco, asked a customer.  “It’s pretty good.”

You might have seen it driving through the intersection of Sunshine Street at Fremont Avenue.

“It’s catching on out here,” Turnbull said.

“It’s just kind of a fun place to stop for something quick and easy,” said Lisa Nemmers, a patron of the food truck.

Just about a year ago, Rick and Charlotte Turnbull opened The Traveling Taco for business, combining their love of food and self employment to create this restaurant on wheels.

“You can make a great living and it’s a lot of fun,” said Charlotte.

It’s a food truck that makes its home in Springfield but also travels all over the Ozarks, supplying a West Coast tradition: fried tacos.

“Nobody else has it, nobody, not the way we do it,” said Rick.

“We switch up our menu every week; we try new things,” Charlotte said.

It has really caught the attention of passersby.

“I was at the Show-Me Music Fest and they had a truck there, and I tried it for the first time.  It was so good,” said Nemmers. “This summer, we’ve probably been here once or twice a month.”

Now, because of an anonymous patron, The Traveling Taco is in the running for a spot on the next season of Food Network‘s “The Great Food Truck Race.”

“It’s fantastic that one of my customers would think to nominate us for this; must be the food,” said Rick, laughing.

“I’d love to see them on the show,” Nemmers said. “We liked it so well.  I told them the whole family would vote and, after watching the show last night, I thought it’d be fun to have a Springfield place be on the TV show.”

Until the Turnbulls find out in September whether they’ve made it, they will continue to serve up what they consider the best food in town.

“God blessed us with good food and great customers.  They come by and eat all the time with us.  It’s been real good,” Rick said.

The Traveling Taco is one of three food trucks out of Missouri in the Food Network’s competition.  The other two are in St. Louis.

They are fighting for a chance to win $10,000 and be in the third season of “The Great Food Truck Race.”

As of late Thursday night, The Traveling Taco was ranked 59th out of 225 entries.  You have until Sept. 12 to help get it into the top 10.

To cast a vote or to check out more on the show, visit The Great Food Truck Race website or text FT188 to 66789.

http://www.ky3.com/news/story-local-food-truck-gettting-national-attention-20110818,0,4267955.story