Here are some questions I've been asked lately. Perhaps you've asked them yourselves.
- Why are the same trucks always at the SactoMoFo Food Truck Manias around town?
- Why is a different set of trucks always together at Howe Ave Park on Wednesday nights?
- What is NorCal Food Trucks?
- Why are a bunch of Sacramento's trucks missing from the big, quarterly SactoMoFo events like the upcoming SactoMoFo 5?
I'm going to try to answer these and give you my perspective as diplomatically as I can.
Some may remember that after SactoMoFo 1 I left the organization. The reason was due to difference of opinions and personality clashes. You know how they say you shouldn't go into business with friends because it will ruin the friendship? That's kind of what happened. I don't hold anything against my ex-partners, it's just that our ideas on how to handle things and speak about things differed and I needed to break away to have the freedom to speak for myself.
Since then SactoMoFo has changed. When I was with it we were being advocates for change - to get more gourmet trucks in Sacramento by changing the ordinances. Now SactoMoFo is more of an event business - charging the trucks money to participate in their roundups. It's understandable. After all, it takes a lot of effort and organization to put them together.
It was also last year, in the early stages of food truck ordinance talk with the City, that the trucks talked about forming an Alliance so that they could be seen as a unified team in voicing their wants and needs. Well nothing ever really happened with that. Truck owners got busy with their businesses and the idea kind of fell away by the wayside. Meanwhile, more and more trucks came onto the streets. Where last year we had 3 or 4, now we have 12 to 15 with more on the way.
At the same time SactoMoFo was still very political. They seem to speak for (some) trucks in the food truck discussions with the City. They've had an adversarial and negative tone against certain restaurants. They use the word "lawsuit" in letters or when talking to the Cities of Roseville, Elk Grove, and Sacramento. I will admit that I've mentioned lawsuits in other California cities myself, in my piece Sacramento Needs to Embrace Street Food. Not surprisingly, cities don't like to hear the word "lawsuit" (in any context) and our cities are no exception.
Over the year we have had quite a few meetings with the City of Sacramento, restaurants, the CA Restaurant Association, truck owners, SactoMoFo, and myself. Over the course of discussions (both privately between a few parties and also the bigger, all inclusive meetings) it became clear that there was a difference of opinion from the trucks. It pretty much broke into two factions. Some trucks didn't agree with how SactoMoFo was approaching ordinance discussions, mentioning lawsuits (against other cities), and how they were conducting their events. These trucks decided to break off and finally create that truck association. They created it under the name NorCal Food Trucks.
Now as an aside I will mention that even though a lot of this is talked about as trucks, we are often including other gourmet street food vendors as well. Simply Southern has a big semi trailer. The Pizza Company pulls a wood fire pizza oven. Popcycle is a bicycle cart. All of these other types are involved as well.
I'm not going to try and speak for either side. NorCal Food Trucks plans to issue a press release soon. I'm sure SactoMoFo will somehow voice their own side.
Some may remember that after SactoMoFo 1 I left the organization. The reason was due to difference of opinions and personality clashes. You know how they say you shouldn't go into business with friends because it will ruin the friendship? That's kind of what happened. I don't hold anything against my ex-partners, it's just that our ideas on how to handle things and speak about things differed and I needed to break away to have the freedom to speak for myself.
Since then SactoMoFo has changed. When I was with it we were being advocates for change - to get more gourmet trucks in Sacramento by changing the ordinances. Now SactoMoFo is more of an event business - charging the trucks money to participate in their roundups. It's understandable. After all, it takes a lot of effort and organization to put them together.
It was also last year, in the early stages of food truck ordinance talk with the City, that the trucks talked about forming an Alliance so that they could be seen as a unified team in voicing their wants and needs. Well nothing ever really happened with that. Truck owners got busy with their businesses and the idea kind of fell away by the wayside. Meanwhile, more and more trucks came onto the streets. Where last year we had 3 or 4, now we have 12 to 15 with more on the way.
At the same time SactoMoFo was still very political. They seem to speak for (some) trucks in the food truck discussions with the City. They've had an adversarial and negative tone against certain restaurants. They use the word "lawsuit" in letters or when talking to the Cities of Roseville, Elk Grove, and Sacramento. I will admit that I've mentioned lawsuits in other California cities myself, in my piece Sacramento Needs to Embrace Street Food. Not surprisingly, cities don't like to hear the word "lawsuit" (in any context) and our cities are no exception.
Over the year we have had quite a few meetings with the City of Sacramento, restaurants, the CA Restaurant Association, truck owners, SactoMoFo, and myself. Over the course of discussions (both privately between a few parties and also the bigger, all inclusive meetings) it became clear that there was a difference of opinion from the trucks. It pretty much broke into two factions. Some trucks didn't agree with how SactoMoFo was approaching ordinance discussions, mentioning lawsuits (against other cities), and how they were conducting their events. These trucks decided to break off and finally create that truck association. They created it under the name NorCal Food Trucks.
Now as an aside I will mention that even though a lot of this is talked about as trucks, we are often including other gourmet street food vendors as well. Simply Southern has a big semi trailer. The Pizza Company pulls a wood fire pizza oven. Popcycle is a bicycle cart. All of these other types are involved as well.
I'm not going to try and speak for either side. NorCal Food Trucks plans to issue a press release soon. I'm sure SactoMoFo will somehow voice their own side.
NorCal trucks have made it very clear they want nothing to do with SactoMoFo. They have told them not to even tweet out mentions for them. That's why, if you follow the SactoMoFo page or tweets, you never see the NorCal truck locations noted each day. (A reminder that my SacFoodTrucks.net site mentions all trucks that give me their schedules.) If you follow SactoMoFo and also NorCal or some of the member trucks, you've probably noticed the tones in some tweets/posts and wondered about them.
It should also be said that it's my understanding that NorCal has nothing against the other trucks that choose to still associate with SactoMoFo, just with SactoMoFo itself. So those trucks are still invited to participate in NorCal organized events. And don't think the big SactoMoFo events are the only ones. NorCal Food Trucks has some big shindigs in the works themselves.
SactoMoFo has come to be seen as the only authority in town regarding street food when that's far from the truth. They are one piece. NorCal Food Trucks is another. I've got my own thing going with SacFoodTrucks.net. And you can always contact each truck is its own business and interest in and of themselves.
It should also be said that it's my understanding that NorCal has nothing against the other trucks that choose to still associate with SactoMoFo, just with SactoMoFo itself. So those trucks are still invited to participate in NorCal organized events. And don't think the big SactoMoFo events are the only ones. NorCal Food Trucks has some big shindigs in the works themselves.
SactoMoFo has come to be seen as the only authority in town regarding street food when that's far from the truth. They are one piece. NorCal Food Trucks is another. I've got my own thing going with SacFoodTrucks.net. And you can always contact each truck is its own business and interest in and of themselves.
I am trying to be a voice of the consumer who loves food trucks. I'm trying to keep you, the consumer, informed of what is going on. I'm trying to stay out the disagreement and work with all of the trucks without choosing sides. I hope and think that they appreciate that because I really do value my association with each and every one of them. My goal is to help them all be successful in Sacramento and to create a thriving street food scene.
What's important is for you, the consumer, to do the same. To support all the trucks - to frequent them and help them to survive. To encourage a vibrant Sacramento street food scene so that the City (and restaurants) see that this is not going away.
What's important is for you, the consumer, to do the same. To support all the trucks - to frequent them and help them to survive. To encourage a vibrant Sacramento street food scene so that the City (and restaurants) see that this is not going away.
6 comments:
Thank you for background material and explanation of the current culture. I've often wondered why the same trucks keep doing roundups together and we don't often see too much mixing. My family is less interested in going to round ups with me, because they want to try new trucks.
Thank you for the update! I have been trying to read between the lines lately and finally someone just came out and said it. I really appreciate your site being neutral and giving truck location updates. As a state worker, we are unable to access facebook or twitter and cell phone signals inside are nonexistent. Your site allows us to follow the trucks and patronize them. Thanks!
Even before the 1st NorCal Food Trucks tweet, you could see a division between the trucks. The WW truck owner and a certain Bay Area food blogger, seem to consistently favor certain trucks in their online posts/comments. Too bad the Sac food trucks can't get along... they'll all lose something as a result, and they look kind of childish. "Don't even tweet about me..."
The two factions do mix it up at 4th & O; today with had Coast to Coast and Fuzion Eatz, yesterday Drewski's and Matador.
Yes, the split was quite evident, but no one wanted to publicly speak about it. Now they are. Again, it's not so much between trucks as it is between many trucks and SactoMoFo.
The Mo Fo trucks say that they would like to come to other round ups. Are they invited to the Nor Cal Round Ups? I Talked to Drewski Blaskovich and the person at Mini burger and the Mo Fo guy who was sweeping and they said the Nor Cal trucks were invited to any of the Mo Fo events.
He said they invited one but he said he could not because he would be kicked out of Nor Cal if he went.
Foodmob associated trucks are allowed to do as they please. Some do MoFo events. Others choose not to for a bunch of individual reasons.
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