Mobile Food News » Dayton

Dayton, OH: Food Trucks Revolution Hitting Dayton with Gourmet Dogs, Sandwiches

MFN Editor #1 — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:35:32 +0000

Fressa Truck owner Matt Halpin is president of the recently formed Miami Valley Mobile Food Association. (Photo by Dolce Photography)

The food trucks are here and they are preparing for a rally.

Dayton’s first ever food truck rally will take over RiverScape MetroPark during Urban Night 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, said organizer Tonia Fish, the co-owner of Synergy Incubators, a business that provides kitchen space and other services to small caterers, bakeries and other food industry businesses.

Seven food trucks and a cart will take part in the event, but Fish said Dayton has at least 20 existing or in the works food trucks.

The businesses recently launched the Miami Valley Mobile Food Association with Fressa Truck owner Matt Halpin as its president.

The group hopes to help the city establish rules regarding food trucks, Fish said.

Zombie Dogz hot dog. (Source:Zombie Dogz’ Facebook page)

There has historically been a stigma attached to food trucks, but Fish said these are legitimate businesses with great potential.

Several of Dayton’s food trucks sell gourmet food.

“These trucks pay taxes. They have employees,” she said. “It (a food truck) is a pathway to bricks and mortar restaurants. Eighty five percent want to open a restaurant.”

The food truck movement has gained ground in other communities in recent years.

READ- Food truck trend ‘rolling high’ in Ohio

Five Rivers Metroparks spokeswoman Amy Forsthoefel said the rally is a perfect fit for Riverscape on Urban Night.

She is a food truck fan.

Ringo’s North Star Mobile Eatery’s James Joyce quesadilla. It is described as corned beef, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing topped with cabbage and onions that have been braised in rich, creamy Guinness. (Source: Ringo’s North Star Mobile Eatery’s Facebook page)

“I just think it is inventive. It is a lot of young people who are agile and they are trying new things,” Forsthoefel said.

Fish said food trucks add to a community’s vibrancy and can help draw crowds to entertainment districts.

“People feel safe. They walk around,” she said. “The community support for street food is huge in Dayton.”

The trucks that will participate in Friday’s event are just a sampling of what Dayton area offers.

Participants include Fressa Truck, Go Cupcakes, Mr. McNasty’s, Harvest Mobile Cuisine, Zombie Dogz,

Ringo’s North Star Mobile Eatery, Monchon “The Social Sandwich” and the Craig’s Pesto Hot Dogs, a cart.

G’s Cue BBQ will be at Third and Broadway streets in Wright-Dunbar Neighborhood on Urban Night.

“All of these are people who live in Dayton,” Fish said. “We didn’t recruit anyone from Cincinnati or Columbus. These people are our neighbors.”

Several food trucks will open for business in the coming weeks, Fish said.

She pointed to Jamexican, Jamaican and Mexican fusion; La Pampa Grill, Argentina food; Bella Sorella, brick oven pizza; and Flour Power, also pizza.

Contact this blogger at arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/entertainment/dining/food-trucks-revolution-hitting-dayton-with-gourmet/nXhz2/

Dayton, OH: New Food Truck to Celebrate Local Cooking

MFN Editor #1 — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:59:06 +0000

By Tristan Navera | Dayton Daily News

I really wanted to bring the experiences I gleaned in my travels, with combining the local flavors and things I discovered

After a bumpy start, Patrick Sartin says he’s well on his way to his dream: a new food truck.

Sartin, a Dayton native with seven years experience in the hotel industry, began serving from Harvest Mobile Cuisine in Washington Twp. in January. The truck specializes in making foods using local ingredients, he said.

“I really wanted to bring the experiences I gleaned in my travels, with combining the local flavors and things I discovered,” Sartin said.

How the business started: “I’m trying to represent the local foods and farmers who are working out there every day,” Sartin said. “Their food is quality, and you can get it for the same price as you would going to a supermarket, people just don’t realize it because they’re not looking.”

“I also want to get people back to the roots of the comfort food their parents and grandparents used to cook, using what’s around you, instead of factory processed stuff you cook in a microwave,” he said.

What the business specializes in: “I’ll be serving butternut squash soup, doing maple fritters, sandwiches and sides,” he said. “A pesto chicken wrap. Local field greens. Just basic stuff using all foods from our area and still making it be able to cost six bucks using all ingredients from our area. Local chicken, local greens, local beets. We’ve got to support our local people. I’ll use sustainable and biodegradable materials. It’s more spreading the message of our future.”

The food truck experience: “I think it’s a lot less expensive, it’s almost $500,000 upfront to open a brick and mortar business, this costs a lot less and I feel it can reach more of an audience when I can go from one market to another,” Sartin said. “If it’s not working in Centerville on Monday I’ll go to Beavercreek Tuesday.”

Future goals: “I want to show people the simplicity of cooking using local ingredients again, and how easy and cheap it is,” Sartin said. “How bold the flavors are. Instead of being saturated with the corporate mindset of how you should eat, just the simple and bold flavors.”

Contact and truck location: Sartin doesn’t have a set schedule yet, but is diligent about posting his schedule on Facebook frequently. The address is: http://www.facebook.com/harvestmobile1. Also, he accepts orders by text. His phone is (937) 475-7423.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/local/new-food-truck-to-celebrate-local-cooking/nWNsW/

Dayton, OH: Dayton Prepares Rules for Food Trucks, Not Everyone Pleased

MFN Editor #1 — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 23:06:17 +0000

By Olivia Barrow | BizJournals.com

The city of Dayton is getting closer to allowing food trucks to operate on the street, but it is still imposing restrictions that food truck operators would rather do without

The city of Dayton is getting closer to allowing food trucks to operate on the street, but it is still imposing restrictions that food truck operators would rather do without.

Chief Engineer Keith Steeber has drafted a proposal of regulations that would allow food trucks to operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in two zones in downtown, provided they meet the requirements and pay $80 for a 30-day permit.

The two zones are on Second Street in front of Cooper Park between North St. Clair Street and North Patterson Boulevard, and on West Third Street in front of Sinclair Community College.

Steeber said he is open to feedback from operators as he prepares to present the proposed regulations to the city manager.

Patrick Sartin, owner of local food truck Harvest Mobile Cuisine, said he isn’t thrilled with the proposed regulations.

“I think it’s still not totally allowing us as operators and owners to do what we want to do,” he said. “We need to be in places where the people are.”

Sartin said the time restrictions would prevent food trucks from accessing a crucial market — the baseball crowd during the Dragons’ season. And some food truck operators would like to cater to the late night crowd in the Oregon district, but the locations and time make that difficult. Other preferable spots would be right in the center of most of the downtown businesses, or near Riverscape during events held there.

“I’ve been operating in other cities that are fully welcoming,” he said. “It seems like they’re making it a little tough.”

Steeber said he hopes to get the proposal in front of the city commission in the next month, provided it gets the blessing of the city manager’s office. He intends for the regulations to be a living document that can be adjusted in the future as needs change without going through the city commission.

Steeber pointed out the city allows the trucks to operate on private property with permission of the owners, but this will be the first time food trucks will be openly allowed in certain locations on downtown streets.

http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2013/02/13/dayton-prepares-rules-for-food-trucks.html

Dayton, OH: Food Trucks Rolling Through Dayton Area

MobileFoodNews.com — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:50:58 +0000

By Mark Fisher | Dayton Daily News

Miles said her food truck venture was inspired by former neighbor Jenny Cox, who launched a dessert truck called “Go Cupcake” that celebrated its first anniversary last week.

A growing number of Dayton-area entrepreneurs and their hungry customers are embracing the food-truck trend that allows restaurateurs to avoid the high costs of a bricks-and-mortar startup and to bring meals to wherever their customers are congregating.

Two new restaurants-on-wheels have joined the roster of local food trucks in recent weeks: C’est Cheese, described by its owner as a “mobile gourmet grilled cheese restaurant,” and OmNom Mobile Cafe, which specializes in vegetarian dishes.

“I used to joke around about opening a restaurant, but that is so much more difficult,” said C’est Cheese owner Trish Miles. “There’s so much more investment involved.”

OmNom Mobiile Cafe owner Xtine Brean — a native of southern California, where the food-truck trend first blossomed — said her mobile restaurant “allows me to do my own thing, to drive to where my product will sell.” The food-truck trend, Brean said, “is just getting started in Dayton.”

It also was slow to arrive here: The National Restaurant Association identified food trucks as a top trend in its annual Restaurant Industry Forecast in 2011. A restaurant association official said at the time that food trucks “will definitely become an important avenue of growth” for the industry. And the trend has blossomed in other parts of Ohio: Last weekend, the Ohio Food Truck Festival brought together about 50 food trucks at the Ohio History Center in Columbus.

The Dayton area has about a half-dozen food trucks, but there are signs of increasing interest that include the two newest entries into the market this summer. A “Dayton Food Trucks” Facebook page that is “dedicated to the food trucks and vending carts around the Dayton, Ohio area” now invites food truck operators to post their schedules as well as pictures of the food they serve. The food truck operators themselves routinely use their own Twitter and Facebook pages to let potential customers know where they’ll be serving.

Some food-truck operators got an unexpected burst of interest a couple of months ago when Columbus-based Johnson’s Industrial Caterers — which housed its Dayton-area operations at 2042 Webster St. in Dayton — shut down abruptly on July 3. But Matt Halpin, chef-owner of local food truck Fressa, said his and most other food trucks operate as a restaurant, preparing food to order, rather than Johnson’s trucks, which offered pre-made sandwiches and other items designed to be distributed quickly to a large number of employees.

“We wouldn’t be able to do what they did, but we can help,” said Halpin, whose menu focuses on what he called “comfort food with a twist.” Fressa is working with some businesses of 15 to 40 employees to try to fill the void left by Johnson’s departure, Halpin said.

Fressa and his fellow mobile restaurant entrepreneurs relish their role as trailblazers. “We are in a business that didn’t exist until about a year and a half ago,” Halpin said. The venture “was slow to get going, but business is good now, and we’re getting a good reception wherever we go.”

Daniel Kinney, owner of Caribbacanas, said there’s a camaraderie among food truck owners — “It’s not cut-throat competitive,” Kinney said — in part because owners have different aims: Kinney has a full-time job on weekdays and is more of a “weekend warrior,” he said. Fressa sets up shop Tuesday through Friday on Courthouse Square in downtown Dayton. C’est Cheese owner Miles has sold her wide variety of grilled cheese sandwiches at construction work sites, after school near Fairmont High School and near the Second Street Market.

Miles said her food truck venture was inspired by former neighbor Jenny Cox, who launched a dessert truck called “Go Cupcake” that celebrated its first anniversary last week. Miles left the work force to raise four children, later worked as a rowing instructor and substitute teacher, but ultimately decided, “I needed a job.”

Miles started exploring her food-truck options, found a specially equipped Suzuki truck in Michigan, and decided to focus on cheese, she said, “because it’s healthier than beef, and you can make so many things out of it.” On a recent visit to the construction site of a General Electric research facility near the University of Dayton, the C’est Cheese menu included Ham & Cheese; Pesto, Mozzarella.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/business/food-trucks-rolling-through-dayton-areamobile-rest/nRN2Z/