The Maine Lobster Lady receives a constant flow of customers at the festival. PHOTOS BY MICHAEL HIDROSOLLO/THE REBEL YELL

Food trucks gathered from near and far to satisfy sophisticated palettes at the second annual Las Vegas Foodie Fest last weekend.

Over 30 food trucks participated in the festival, including many standout food fares, from the Southern-inspired Slap Yo Mama Truck, to the Maine Lobster Lady, bringing authentic New England flavors to the Las Vegas area. Many of the participating trucks came from neighboring states.

Tornado Potato offers a whole spiral cut potato on a stick

One notable appearance was the Las Vegas debut of White Castle, a popular fast-food chain originating in the Midwest. White Castle is well known for bringing the slider concept into the fast-food scene with their signature square meat patties. However, aside from the packaged frozen variety, the White Castle franchise has no permanent locations in the west coast.

Festival guests were eager to try the Midwest bites and were willing to wait over four hours just to sink their teeth into an original White Castle Slider. Sliders were available for purchase in pairs, packs of ten, or the whopping Crave Crate — which includes 100 sliders for $100.

White Castle was not the only vendor getting attention at the festival. Seoul Sausage Company also received a great turnout, with lengthy lines of eaters hoping to try their take on transforming Korean BBQ into a product more fitting for the mobile market.

Seoul Sausage Company is a Los Angeles-based food truck most well known for winning Season Three of The Great Food Truck Race on The Food Network. Famed celebrity chefs like Alton Brown and Giada de Laurentiis have praised this company. With a mission statement “to take over the world, one sausage at a time,” they have clearly won hearts in Las Vegas, showcased by the long lines approaching wait times of over an hour.

The lines for White Castle exceed four hours.

Food trucks tend to be successful when introducing new concepts of food. Jogasaki Sushi Burrito fused the idea of the sushi hand roll and the handheld portability of a burrito. Tortillas are substituted with thin soy paper to hold the sushi rice in with a choice of various fillings ranging from crispy deep-fried spicy tuna to fresh salmon ceviche. Portions are similar to traditional sized burritos.

Food truck concepts are often innovative, eye-catching and delicious — elements that Tornado Potato managed to capture. Whole potatoes are spiral cut, fried, then drawn out onto a stick, bringing together the appeal of both the french fry and potato chip.

In addition to the huge variety of food, the festival also included a main stage offering live music, dancing and contests appropriate for all ages. Carnival rides were also available for guests, offering a good range of entertainment if the food wasn’t enough.

A large turnout made it to the festival for its second year, attracting both casual eaters and foodies alike.

Judging by the huge crowds at the second annual Las Vegas Foodie Festival, the food truck trend is not set to die down anytime soon.

http://www.unlvrebelyell.com/2013/04/29/food-celebration-reaches-masses/#.UYEOMaJmiSo

Food trucks like Sausagefest are adding variety to the campus lunch scene. (Aaron Mayes / UNLV Photo Services)

Food trucks have invaded campus. Whether you’re in the mood for barbeque, panini, a deli sandwich, or sausage, there’s something for almost everyone at these kitchens on wheels.

Aramark, the company behind UNLV dining, has invited food trucks to campus to offer students more options and ease the lunchtime rush on its own on-campus venues. The trucks are on campus three to four days a week, and are typically open for business from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Some offer breakfast and vegetarian options.

Here’s the breakdown of the mobile dining options you’re likely to see on campus throughout the rest of the semester. Compiled by Grace Funcion and Noah Duran.

Ben’s BBQ and Smokehouse

• Hours: Monday–Thursday, 9 a.m–3 p.m.
• Traditional BBQ: pulled pork, smoked brisket, BBQ tacos
• Facebook.com/BensBBQ
• Twitter: @BensBBQ

Sin City Wings

• Hours: Monday–Thursday, 9 a.m–3 p.m.
• chicken wings, tenders, sliders
• Facebook.com/foodtruck
• @SinCityWings

Haulin Balls LV

• Hours: Monday–Thursday, 9 a.m–3 p.m.
• “meatball” sandwiches: lamb, beef, tuna
• Facebook.com/haulin.balls.lv
• @HaulinBallsLV

Coast 2 Coast Deli

• Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.
• city-themed sandwiches, salads, vegetarian options available
• Facebook.com/Coast2CoastLV
• @Coast2CoastLV

Strada Press

• Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
• paninis, fresh wraps, vegetarian options available
• Facebook.com/stradapresspaninikitchen
• @stradaPRESS

Sausagefest

• Hours: Monday–Thursday, 9 a.m–3 p.m.
• sausage sandwiches: beef, bratwurst, vegetarian options available
• Facebook.com/SausagefestLV
• @SausagefestLV

http://news.unlv.edu/article/food-trucks-roll-campus

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) - The Las Vegas Foodies Fest returns to the Silverton Casino Hotel with an array of food trucks and vendors, entertainment, carnival rides and games.

The festival is taking place on Friday, April 26 through Sunday, April 28 with portion of the proceeds benefiting Three Square Food Bank.

More than 30 food trucks and vendors will be in serving food including White Castle, who will be bringing their grills to make their signature menu items for the very first time in Las Vegas.

Celebrity trucks featured from Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and History Channel will include Seoul Sausage, Nonna’s Kitchenette, White Rabbit, Vizzi Truck, Devilicious, Fukuburger, Jogasaki Burrito, Fist of Fusion and Fluff Ice.

Hours are as follows:

Friday, April 26 from 4 p.m. to midnight;

Saturday, April 27 from noon to midnight;

Sunday, April 28 from noon to 10 p.m.

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/22066917/las-vegas-foodies-fest-kicks-off-friday

The Las Vegas Foodie Fest will return to the Silverton Casino Hotel this weekend with an array of food trucks and vendors, entertainment, carnival rides and games. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Three Square Food Bank.

The event will feature more than 30 food trucks and vendors including headliner White Castle, who will be bringing their grills to make their signature menu items for the very first time in Las Vegas. Celebrity trucks from the Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and History Channel will include Seoul Sausage, Nonna’s Kitchenette, White Rabbit, Vizzi Truck, Devilicious, Fukuburger, Jogasaki Burrito, Fist of Fusion and Fluff Ice. The event will feature a DJ spinning the latest tracks, a carnival, eating competitions, and a beer garden.

Event times:

Friday, April 26 from 4 p.m. to midnight

Saturday, April 27 from noon to midnight

Sunday, April 28 from noon to 10 p.m.

Silverton Casino Hotel offers 300 deluxe rooms and suites and world-class amenities all located within an upscale, contemporary luxury lodge-themed resort. In addition to the flagship 165,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, Silverton offers 90,000 square feet of gaming with more than 1,900 slot machines and 30 table games, and the Mermaid Restaurant & Lounge. The property features a 117,000-gallon saltwater aquarium with more than 4,000 sharks, stingrays and tropical fish, which was voted “Best Free Attraction” in the Best of Citysearch®. Silverton is located at I-15 and Blue Diamond in Las Vegas. For more information, call 702-263-7777 or visit www.silvertoncasino.com.

Established in 2007 to provide hunger relief, Three Square Food Bank offers wholesome, nutritious food to nonprofit and faith-based organizations, schools and feeding sites that serve a wide range of Southern Nevadans. For additional information visit www.threesquare.org. For the latest news and events on Three Square, visit www.facebook.com/ThreeSquareFoodBank and follow them on Instagram (@threesquarelv) as well as Twitter (@threesquarelv).

White Castle is a family-owned business based in Columbus, Ohio, that owns and operates more than 400 White Castle restaurants in 11 states. The company was founded in Wichita, Kan., in 1921 and is America’s first fast-food hamburger chain. All White Castle Sliders are made from 100-percent USDA approved beef. For more information on White Castle, visit www.whitecastle.com.

For more information, visit lasvegasfoodiefest.com.

Las Vegas Foodie Fest

Silverton Casino Hotel

3333 Blue Diamond Road

http://lasvegas.informermg.com/2013/04/23/las-vegas-foodie-fest-to-return-to-silverton-casino-hotel-this-weekend/

Mike Booth and Sarah Payne, with their 8-month-old daughter, Aubrey Payne, order food at Tasty Bunz food truck during Vegas Streats in downtown Las Vegas on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011.

How to regulate food trucks that are popular in downtown Las Vegas has generated hours of discussion among the Las Vegas City Council over the last several months. But on Tuesday, a new program giving the mobile food vendors more room to operate downtown cruised through the council with no discussion.

The issue: A pilot program that would designate three parking spots downtown as “food-truck only.”

The vote: Passed 6-0, with Mayor Carolyn Goodman absent.

What it means: Food trucks will be able to lease one of three reserved parking spaces downtown from the city for $5 per hour.

Operating a food truck legally in the city can be challenging because the trucks only are allowed to park at a meter for 30 minutes at a time, even though setting up the kitchen often takes half an hour.

To complicate the issue further, the city council passed a new ordinance in October prohibiting food trucks from operating within 150 feet of any brick-and-mortar restaurants.

The program approved Tuesday, which was discussed more fully at a Recommending Committee meeting in January, will create food truck-only parking spaces near the Regional Justice Center, the Bonneville Transit Center and Las Vegas City Hall.

Food trucks will be able to sign up with the city’s business licensing department to reserve those spots at different times of the day.

The pilot program will run for six months, at which time the council can decide to continue, expand or do away with the parking spaces.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/feb/06/food-trucks-get-dedicated-parking-spaces-three-dow/

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) - Las Vegas City Council unanimously approved a motion Wednesday on three special downtown parking spaces that would allow food trucks to operate legally.

Under the proposal, each of the three spaces can be leased for $5 an hour by food trucks.

The vote was 6-0 for the spaces, with Mayor Carolyn Goodman absent.

The proposal was created after a vote last October that banned food trucks from setting up within 150 feet from brick and mortar restaurants.

Violations of the ordinance will carry fines of up to $1,000 and/or six months in jail.

Stay tuned to FOX5 for the latest on this developing story.

http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/20982571/special-vegas-food-truck-spaces-up-for-vote

credit: JASON BEAN/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
People order food at a pair of Carefree Catering food trucks parked in July just outside of the Clark County Regional Justice Center » Buy this photo

Food trucks vying for space on public streets in downtown Las Vegas would be consigned to special parking spaces under an ordinance proposed Tuesday.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman asked for the bill, which backers say would make it easier for food trucks to park legally in popular spots, such as Third Street in front of the Regional Justice Center and on Bonneville Avenue near the Downtown Transportation Center.

“I’m all for it,” Curbside Cafe food truck owner Douglas Porter said.

Porter said he used to park his truck near the Regional Justice Center until it attracted more trucks, essentially halving his potential customer base.

“We just basically kind of cut ourselves in half,” Porter said. “We were sharing the area, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.”

The City Council’s recommending committee voted 3-0 for the ordinance, which could go to the full council next month. Council members Bob Coffin, Stavros Anthony and Ricki Barlow are on the committee.

It proposes a pilot program that would set aside three spots, one each near the justice and transportation centers and a third near City Hall.

City staff also considered spots near the burgeoning Fremont East Entertainment District but backed off amid resistance from business owners there.

A letter from the Fremont East Entertainment District board detailed the objection. “The board members are, of course, not against the food trucks personally or as an industry; however, the position is based on the long-awaited growth of Fremont East, which is now accelerating at a fast pace, and there are approximately 12 new restaurants that will be opening up around the area,” wrote board President Mike Nolan, who is general manager of the El Cortez.

The city’s parking czar, Brandy Stanley, described the program to the recommending committee. According to Stanley, city staff would designate the spaces with special signs and PIN-operated meters. Truck owners could reserve time and feed the meters $5 per hour.

Under the proposed bill, the fine for staying too long at the meter would be $80. Parking without a reservation would be a $100 fine. The spots would not be open for use by the public.

Stanley said the program is necessary to give food trucks places to legally operate downtown.

In October, the council, after complaints from restaurant owners about food trucks parking too close to their businesses, voted 5-1 to institute a 150-foot buffer zone between restaurants and food trucks on public streets.

Stanley said that made it much more difficult for the trucks to operate at all downtown, save for privately owned parking areas.

If the proposed bill is approved, trucks parked in the special spaces wouldn’t need to worry about the buffer zone.

“What it does is it gives the city, and the city only, the authority to give those designations,” she said.

Although no one appeared at the recommending committee to object to the proposed new rule, the city’s past attempts to regulate food trucks have prompted criticism.

The Institute for Justice, an Arlington, Va.-based libertarian group, said the city shouldn’t enforce a buffer zone to protect restaurants from food trucks.

Christina Walsh, the institute’s director of activism and coalitions, called the proposed parking spaces “an awfully small step” toward restoring trucks’ access to downtown.

“Any effort to open up the streets to food trucks is a step in the right direction. But this pilot program proposal is an inadequate solution to a problem the city itself created,” Walsh said. “Las Vegas should repeal its unconstitutional proximity restriction and allow food trucks to park at any metered space, just like every other commercial vehicle is allowed to do.”

http://www.lvrj.com/news/bill-would-create-special-spots-for-food-trucks-downtown-187917691.html

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) – The fight between food trucks and local restaurants could be resolved soon.

An ordinance has been proposed that would designate special parking for food trucks.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman made the proposal on Tuesday, which would make it easier for food trucks to conduct business downtown.

The plan proposes a pilot program that would set aside popular spots such as Third Street in front of the Regional Justice Center and Bonneville Avenue near the Downtown Transportation Center. Another spot would be near City Hall.

Restaurant owners downtown have complained that the food trucks are hurting their businesses.

The City Council’s recommending committee voted 3-0 for the proposal. It will now go to the full council to be approved.

The council also considered spots near the Fremont East Entertainment District but met resistance from some of the business owners in the area.

Luis Mora calls out an order at the Slidin’ Thru truck during Vegas Streats in downtown Las Vegas on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011.

Three months after restricting where food trucks can do business, the Las Vegas City Council will consider a new proposal giving the mobile vendors more room downtown to operate legally.

Under the proposed ordinance, three new food truck-only parking spaces, which can be leased for $5 per hour, would be created downtown.

During a recommending committee meeting Tuesday morning, Brandy Stanley, the city’s parking services manager, described the new bill as acounterpart to a measure passed in October that prohibited food trucks from selling food within 150 feet of a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Food trucks offering their takes on everything from cheeseburgers to pizza to barbecue have proliferated downtown in recent years. But outside of planned, permitted events, finding space to operate the trucks legally downtown is a challenge.

In addition to the restaurant buffer, trucks are allowed to park at city parking meters for only half an hour at a time, even though it often takes them that much time to set up for the lunch rush, Stanley said.

The changes introduced Tuesday, which likely will be voted on by the full council at its Feb. 6 meeting, would create food truck-specific parking spaces near the Regional Justice Center, Bonneville Transit Center and Las Vegas City Hall as part of a pilot program. The Fremont East district, a popular roaming spot for food trucks, will not have one of the spaces after the district’s board asked to be left out of the program, Stanley said.

Each space would be converted from two existing parking spaces, Stanley said, and could only be used for food trucks.

Trucks could apply to use any of the spaces through a lottery system operated by the city’s business licensing department.

“ (We) have been working to set up a reservation calendar that could eventually be open to the public so they could see when and where and who will be in each one of these locations during various times of the day,” Stanley said.

After six months, the program would be evaluated and any needed changes made, including possibly adding more parking locations, Stanley said.

“Working in conjunction with the business community and the mobile food vendors, we want to try it out for six months, see how it works and make any tweaks to the programs,” she said.

credit: LEILA NAVIDI

The Las Vegas City Council’s meeting Wednesday will be highlighted by several downtown-related items, including changes to parking and new restaurant openings. Here’s what to watch for at the meeting, which starts at 9 a.m. at City Hall:

Not-so-free parking

Parking downtown could get a bit easier if the council approves a $1.4 million contract to replace 1,200 coin-operated meters with newcomputerized parking meters that accept debit and credit cards.

The 233 new multibay meters, which each cover about six parking spots, would be put in downtown and near University Medical Center by April if the council approves the measure.

Manufactured by New Jersey-based company Parkeon, each meter would cost the city about $5,700. As part of the switchover, 111 coin-operated parking meters will be removed and not replaced, meaning those spaces would be available to park in for free.

Food fight

After passing an ordinance in October forbidding food trucks from setting up within 150 feet of brick-and-mortar restaurants, the city will consider a plan to give the mobile food vendors more space to operate.

A bill proposed by Mayor Carolyn Goodman calls for a pilot program allowing food trucks to park along certain public streets when serving customers, as long as food-truck operators feed the meters, too.

The ordinance will be discussed at today’s recommending committee meeting and introduced at Wednesday’s full council meeting. It likely will be scheduled for a public hearing during one of the council’s February meetings.

New restaurant, bar at the Ogden

The council will hear a pair of requests Wednesday to allow a new pizza restaurant and bar to open at the Ogden condominiums downtown.

New York City pizzeria import Slice would cover about 2,300 square feet plus an outdoor dining patio on the ground floor of the condo building.

A separate bar area would cover about 2,900 square feet on the ground floor and would offer live entertainment four nights a week, including musical performances and a lecture series.

Both projects need special-use permits from the city before opening.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/jan/22/parking-meters-food-trucks-ogden-business-plans-la/