Food trucks: A revolution in eating

INDIANAPOLIS - There is a food revolution going on, people. And it is time to take heed. We as a nation are changing, evolving and wanting better choices.

While we still support the mom and pop diner, we are also supporting farm-to-table new breed establishments as well, keeping our respect for the old ways, with a twist.

And this is a big part of the recent coast-to-coast food truck explosion.

Johnny Ban, owner of the NYSlice in Indianapolis, Ind., knew food trucks were what his metropolitan-bedroom (aka “Nap Town”) community needed. He left Indy for Los Angeles in 2007 to kick start a music career and returned soon after to open up one of Indy’s original food trucks, West Coast Tacos .

He has since parted ways with West Coast Tacos and proceeded to open NYSlice , realizing the need for New York Style pizza in Indianapolis.

“There was just nowhere to get the real thing. So I made that happen. It’s about making people happy.”

But why a food truck? Why are food trucks such a big deal?

Mary, who has visited several of the trucks downtown, says it’s about convenience, but also about variety.

“It’s hard to get out of the office for an entire meal. When there are two or three food trucks parked around the area, I can grab good, home cooked food quick and easy.”

Ban says part of his reason was to offer that convenience after realizing the accessibility offered around the L.A. area really made an impression. He brought home that impression to share with his fellow Indy inhabitants – the taco truck.

Taco trucks are spreading fast, too. In larger and smaller metropolitan areas, food trucks circle up to serve up lunch and dinner offering everything from pizza to barbecue to cupcakes.

Food Network has even created the “Great Food Truck Race.” NYSlice is in the running as is Lloyd’s Taco Truck in Buffalo, N.Y.

Lloyd’s was started because of two Buffalonians’ obsession with The Kogi Truck , a Korean BBQ food truck in Los Angeles.

Lloyd’s Taco Truck has helped boost the food truck business in Buffalo, which seems to be a pattern across the country in smaller metro-areas.

Not new to the territory, Austin, Texas, has had a booming food truck scene for more than 10 years, catering Austin inhabitants as well as preparing for SXSW and Austin City Limits music fests and the influx of tens of thousands of visitors every year.

One of their reasons for success has been technology. The Austin scene grabbed onto the mobile revolution, and you can download an app that will tell you where any food truck is in the city.

In that same vein, the food truck phenomenon is intimately intertwined with social media. Food trucks have Twitter and Facebook accounts, oodles of fans and create conversation to establish return customers and flocks of supporters.

But what’s more is the advent of creating events just for food trucks. And Friday night, that is where I will be. I’ll be out foodspotting delicious food truck delicacies at the First Friday Food Truck Fest in downtown Indianapolis, sponsored by My Old Kentucky Blog .

This marriage of food and social media brings all kinds of people out to eat, to meet, and to listen to local music. It’s the new breed of the potluck dinner, where you come to eat and shake hands and make contacts. It’s post-modern “Family Night Supper.”

Follow the tweet-up: @twinkvanwink @indyfoodspotter @DoItIndy & search #indyFS

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Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked 300 apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic entertainment content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

Follow Twinkle on Foodspotting, Tumblr and Twitter.