CHRISTINE BAKER, The Patriot-NewsPort Dare is the owner of The Little Black Truck. He offers Carolina style pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, Angus burgers, handmade all beef hot dogs and more. He is now located on Paxton Street behind a building between Metro Bank and Faulkner Nissan.

The hottest food trend to come to the midstate is on wheels.

Mobile food trucks, from sleek trailers to makeshift barbecue setups, are popping up in the most unlikely places.

Signs along Paxton Street advertising Carolina pulled pork point to the Little Black Truck in Swatara Township. It’s easy to miss in a back parking lot sandwiched between Metro Bank and Faulkner Nissan.

Over lunch, customers walk up to the trailer’s takeout window for the pulled pork, hamburgers, hot dogs and Grandma’s Chili made with angus beef.

“I get sick of eating subs and pizza,” says Brian Schmiedel of West Hanover Township. “He has real good food.”

The mechanic with Life Team Emergency Medical Services and his co-worker, George Gardner of Wheatfield Township, order two hot dogs and some chili. They take a seat with their soda cans at a covered picnic table near the trailer.

“It’s cheap and it’s quick,” Schmiedel says.

A few vendors have joined the hot dog carts catering to city sidewalk corners and longtime trucks such as Mr. Frosty and the Mexico Lindo Taco Truck parked in Harrisburg’s Allison Hill.

This spring, EZ Eatz entered Harrisburg. The 25-foot-long truck parks in metered spaces in front of the Hilton Harrisburg for breakfast and lunch.

Last year, Redd’s Smokehouse BBQ pulled into a parking lot off of North Hanover Street in Carlisle with ribs, smoked chicken wings and pork barbecue. Scarlet O’Hara’s Southern BBQ truck occupies a spot off of Williams Grove Road in Upper Allen Township.

While it’s a new trend here, food trucks are big business in cities like New York, Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles where chefs are trading in running restaurants for gigs on the road.

Food Network celebrity chef Tyler Florence is hosting the second season of “The Great Food Truck Race,” a reality show in which food trucks battle it out for a $100,000 prize.

Ed and Beth Carroll have opened Ed's Grill, a portable food truck at 99 Lewisberry Road serving premium smoked foods like Carolina spicy smoked pulled pork, Baltimore pit beef, baby back ribs and more. JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News

Technomic, a Chicago-based market research firm, conducted a survey in which 91 percent of respondents familiar with food trucks regarded the trend as having staying power and not being a passing fad. Only 7 percent of food-truck customers said they plan to decrease their frequency of visits over the next year.

That roach-coach reputation is a thing of the past.

“People are respecting food vendors and lunch trucks more than ever before,” says Ed Carroll, owner of Ed’s Grill in Fairview Township.

This spring, he and his wife, Beth Carroll, opened the 16-foot trailer in the Mega Dealz parking lot. For them, it is cheaper than running a restaurant.

They secured an $8,000 smoker from Missouri and roll out an ambitious menu of Carolina barbecue, ribs, rotisserie chicken and Baltimore pit beef along with sides like jalapeno poppers, baked potatoes and corn on the cob.

The ambience is a mix of macadam and cars. The view — if you call it that — is a chain-link fence and tall grasses growing across the street at the Capital City Airport.

Ed’s emphasizes quality ingredients and serves smoked salmon and turkey.

“I want other people who do ’que to do it the best they can because it gives the whole genre a good name,” Ed Carroll says. “I want to be known as a good ticket.”

Barbecue is a big part of the midstate mobile vendor scene.

Little Black Truck owner Port Dare mans the tight quarters of the portable kitchen equipped with a range, flat-top griddle and deep-fryer. He’s a former culinary student-turned-retailer who earlier this year decided to venture into chasing the latest food trend.

“I wanted to try something a little different,” Dare says.

His menu is small but focuses on a few items such as the pulled pork and hamburgers, and he’s working on adding smoked chicken wings and kabobs. He’s got one smoker behind the trailer and another one off site.

“It’s really low overhead. The best thing is if it doesn’t work out, I can go some place else,” he says.

Customer Amy Gish of East Pennsboro Twp. stumbled upon the Little Black Truck while out for lunch. The former Greensboro, N.C., resident was more than happy to order pulled pork with no roll and extra hot sauce.

“I like it because it’s something a little unique. It fills that niche market,” she says.

In other parts of the country, food trucks dish out grub like Korean tacos, dumplings, falafel, gourmet ice cream and whoopie pies along with standbys like pizza and hot dogs.

Competition for top spots in New York City has led to a police crackdown on food trucks that park in metered spaces. Seattle’s city council recently gave food trucks permission to operate on city streets, not just in rented parking lots.

This spring, some restaurant owners in Harrisburg were up in arms when EZ Eatz pulled into town.

“It started with the idea of not being able to get a cheesesteak on Second Street late at night. We thought it would be cool to do it out of a food truck because there also are no food trucks along Second Street and we couldn’t afford to do a restaurant. This works for us,” says Angela Klobusicky, co-owner with Mike Ruell.

The truck rolled out to appeal to the late-night bar crowds and also parked in front of the Hilton Harrisburg at lunch. But restaurant owners said the portable kitchen selling sausage sandwiches, cheesesteaks and chicken tenders was taking away from their business.

At least 16 restaurant owners signed a petition in May and presented it to Harrisburg City Council. The business owners said they would like to see the vendors out of the city.

Klobusicky says she has permission from the Hilton and worked with the Harrisburg police to find an appropriate place for the truck. Vendors have been permitted to sell on the city streets for a long time, she says.

City spokesman Robert Philbin says the City Council has no plans to do anything about the truck.

The EZ Eatz truck has stopped catering to the late-night crowd as a result of staffing, Klobusicky says. But she says she has no plans to vacate the city.

“You’ll get anything from excited and ‘Oh, there’s a food truck here in Harrisburg’ and you get the people who are skeptical. They aren’t used to eating from a food truck. They’ll look and say, ‘Oh, it really is clean in there.’ ” she says. “For the most part, though, people are pretty excited to see us.”

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/08/mobile_food_trucks_are_on_a_ro.html

EZ-Eatz food truck operator Angela Klobusicky prepares an order. ANDY COLWELL, The Patriot-News

A food fight has erupted along Harrisburg’s Restaurant Row.

Some Second Street restaurant owners say they want hot dog carts and other mobile food vendors off their turf. They say portable vendors are capitalizing on the city’s downtown nightlife and cutting into their profits.

Eric Roman, owner of 2nd Street Pizza, said he’s losing between $700 and $1,000 in pizza sales every weekend when the vendors are out in full force. He said he was forced to lay off one employee because of the drop in business.

“The concern we have is we pay rent, mortgages and taxes. These vendors are not paying this. It’s easy for them to say ‘Business is terrible. Let me take my cart somewhere else.’ I can’t, in a blink of an eye, say ‘Today I’m closing my pizza shop and moving to the Carlisle Pike,’ ” Roman said.

He and about 15 other city restaurant owners signed a petition that was presented this week to the Harrisburg City Council. The business owners said they would like to see the vendors out of the city.

“They only come in town on the biggest nights and whatever they get, that’s money we don’t receive. That’s money that could be spent by patrons in our places,” said Daniel Farias, owner of Arepa City Latin Eatery.

He said he has seen as many as five or six vendors out on weekend nights.

Angela Klobusicky, owner of the EZ Eatz mobile food truck, said all is fair in the world of food sales. Vendors have been permitted to sell on the city streets for a long time, she said.

She opened the food truck on New Year’s Eve and parks it along Second Street on weekend nights.

After-hours bargoers fuel up on cheesesteaks, burgers, pulled-pork barbecue sandwiches, grilled cheese and the $9 Fat Bastard, a cheeseburger with bacon between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

During the day, EZ Eatz pulls into a metered parking space in front of the Hilton Harrisburg. Dauphin County employees, sheriffs and state workers line up over lunch.

“It’s convenient, and when I’m in a rush and don’t have lunch at work I can come here,” said Lauren Manelius of Manor Twp. in Lancaster County, who works across the street at the Bravo Group.

She doesn’t see what the big deal is over the food truck.

“This is the beauty of competition. This is a new choice and if people are going to chose to eat here, well then great,” Manelius said.

Zembie’s Sports Tavern owner Angelo Karagiannis said he doesn’t mind hot dog vendors, as long as they have the proper permits and clean up after themselves. But he questions EZ Eatz occupying a space along a city street.

“Why is the city allowing someone to open up shop at a parking meter,” he said.

Harrisburg spokesman Robert J. Philbin said EZ Eatz is not violating any codes and is permitted to be on Second Street. In Harrisburg, vendors must obtain a health license and a mercantile license, and then they are free to roam, but only in spots where they can reach agreements with property owners.

Klobusicky said she has permission from the Hilton and worked with the Harrisburg police to find an appropriate place for her truck. Food trucks are booming in other parts of the country, selling everything from tacos to Taiwanese food.

Daytime hot dogger Daniel Krehling, who operates across the street from EZ Eatz at the Dauphin County administration building, doesn’t mind the competition. He has operated his cart there for 14 years.

“I don’t care. It’s free enterprise, and it adds different variety,” he said. “I wish them the best.”

The food wars won’t let up anytime soon. Harrisburg Council President Gloria Martin-Roberts said Tuesday night the council will further discuss the issue at an administrative committee meeting. In addition, the city will look at how mobile food vendors operate in other cities.

Roman said he has nothing against Klobusicky but would like the city to take action.

“This is one truck. If the city is giving the idea this is fine, this is legal, the next thing you know you are going to see another truck come in,” Roman said.

This is not the first time portable food vendors in the city have sparred with restaurant owners.

About a decade ago, a hot dog war ensued on Second Street as vendors jousted over prime space in front of Harrisburg’s River Street parking garage.

Restaurant owners and others started a crusade to get rid of the nighttime hot dog vendors, saying they detracted from the sophisticated atmosphere city officials and downtown businesses were trying to create at the time and undercut established businesses.

This time around, Klobusicky said, EZ Eatz is not meant to hurt anyone’s business.

“I’d like to see everyone do well. I think there is more than enough room for everyone here,” she said.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/05/mobile_food_vendors_have_eater.html

http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2011/05/harrisburg-pa-mobile-food-vendors-have-eateries-steamed-on-restaurant-row/