Street Food

Off the Grid's Picnic at the Presidio: Like a Day in Dolores, But Better Food, Drinks, and Grass

Our monthly review explores the city's varied food trucks gatherings, one at a time, breaking down each one with statistics, descriptions of the scene, and vital info to help you plan a trip there. Location: Presidio Parade Grounds, near Main Post and Walt Disney Museum Schedule: Every Sunday, 11 a ... More >>

Food Truck Bite of the Week: The Wise Bowl and the Fool

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks. The Truck: Hapa Ramen and Wise Sons Deli The Cuisine: Food Truck Mash-up Specialty Items: Seasonally influenced ramen (Hapa Ramen) and Jewish deli classics (Wise Sons Deli) Worth the ... More >>

Food Truck Bite of the Week: Hoofing Burgers at Fins on the Hoof

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks. The Truck: Fins on the Hoof The Cuisine: Cal-Med comfort food Specialty Items: Lamb burger Worth the Wait in Line? At peak lunch time, a total 16 minutes from the end of the line to f ... More >>

Food Truck Bite of the Week: Bowling for Lunch at Bao & Bowl

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks. The Truck: Bao & Bowl Food Truck The Cuisine: California-Chinese style dim-sum and rice bowls Specialty Items: The rice bowls Worth the Wait in Line? At peak lunch time, a total 22 mi ... More >>

Your Boozy Valentine's: Guide to the Best Drinking Events

Escape the conventional with our list of some untraditional ways to celebrate Valentine's Day, like a dinner that lets you drink an entire bottle of sparkling wine by yourself (you were gonna do that anyway), learn how to open bottles with swords, or enjoy some food truck grub with fancy wine and no ... More >>

Food Truck Bite of the Week: The Classic at Belly Burger

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks. The Truck: Belly Burgers The Cuisine: Melting-pot American cuisine Specialty Items: Pork belly burgers Worth the Wait in Line? Good god, yes Ok, so I am cheating a little here. While ... More >>

Food Truck Bite of the Week: Liba Feels Like the Salad Days

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks. The Truck: Liba Falafel The Cuisine: Cal-Mediterranean Specialty Items: Falafel sandwiches and salads; the condiment bar Worth the Wait in Line? At peak lunchtime, it was a total 12 m ... More >>

"Food: An Atlas": Project Visualizes the Geography of Sustenance

SF Cocktail Week 2012: The Hangover Report

I can feel my organs finally healing and purging themselves after a weeklong series of events designed to highlight Bay Area bartenders, spirits companies, and the grand traditions of the bar. It was a week that required both unwavering energy and careful pacing of a marathon runner. After a long se ... More >>

Food Truck Bite of the Week: From The Sunset Comes Sunrise Deli

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks. The Truck: Sunrise Deli The Cuisine: Middle Eastern Specialty Items: Falafel and shawarma Worth the Wait in Line? Yes In the crowds of reinvented comfort foods with a twist are a few ... More >>

Move Over, Glee: Foodies! The Musical Is Here

Where: The Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter (at Powell), 433-3040 When: Preview performances Sept. 28-29, Oct. 5; show runs Fridays and Saturdays from Oct. 6-Nov. 17 Cost: $30 for previews; $34 general (purchase via Brown Paper Tickets) The rundown: Billed as "the show for everyone who eats," this sh ... More >>

Cocktail Preview: S.F. Street Food Fest and Night Market

Barely recovered from the food coma of SF Chefs and Outside Lands? Buck up, it's time to grub and drink to your carts content at La Cocina's fourth annual San Francisco Street Food Festival, a celebration and fundraiser chock-full of street food and food trucks. The cocktail bars are being organize ... More >>

Food Truck Bite of the Week: Kickin' It Old World

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks. The Truck: Old Word Food Truck The Cuisine: East European and Jewish Comfort Food Specialty Item: Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich Worth the Wait in Line? Yes. The Bay Area has no shortage ... More >>

Bespoke Cupcake Truck Wants to Roll by September

Krystyl Baldwin has left the Silicon Valley startup world in order to launch a new dream of serving street food. Her idea is My Cupcake Truck, which would sell cupcakes with the icing amount controlled by the customer. "Not just any cupcakes," reads her pitch. "Cupcakes customizable to your liking! ... More >>

Sunrise Deli Preparing Launch of Falafel-Shawerma Truck

According to Khaled Ramadan, whose family owns the four-location Sunrise Deli, a Sunrise Deli Food Truck is almost fully pimped out and about to slip into its colorful wrap. Then the truck heads up to San Francisco to meet the health and fire inspectors. "We're hopefully going to launch the truck by ... More >>

Revised Street-Food Bill Is Much Less Restrictive

​Beyond Chron broke the news today that Assemblymember Bill Monning has significantly revised AB-1678, a bill he introduced in February that would prohibit food trucks from parking within 1500 feet of elementary and secondary schools. The bill, as it was written, would have covered close to 80 per ... More >>

Off the Grid's Auditioning Aspiring Street-Food Vendors

​It's sort of -- well, vaguely -- like an episode of San Francisco's Next Top Food Truck. Matt Cohen, founder of the Off the Grid street-food gatherings, is in the process of putting together the lineup for Off the Grid's flagship Friday events at Fort Mason, which will begin again in late March. ... More >>

Teatro ZinZanni's New Home Is Not a Done Deal, Two Shutters in SOMA

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. As America's Cup sails in to the City, the soon-to-be-displaced Teatro Zinzanni has found a (long term) temporary home on Broadway (at Davis). Grub Street learns, via the Business Times, the circus-cabare ... More >>

How Food Trucks Survive the Winter

If your main source of income is foot traffic, then a cold, wet winter weather can do more than just dampen your spirits -- it can dampen your sales considerably. When food trucks, especially new ones, face their first winter, the three-month hurdle can be daunting. Off the Grid, where many trucks ... More >>

For the People: Big Bank Hosts Food Truck Event at Fort Mason

​What: First Annual Eaters Choice Awards Where: Fort Mason Center When: Sat., October 15, 12-4 p.m. Cost: varies The rundown: The top 10 voted* Bay Area food trucks will have a celebration at Fort Mason Center on Saturday. Even though it's called the Eaters Choice Awards, this has nothi ... More >>

Wednesday's Pierogi Pop-Up at La Victoria

What:Pierogi Night hosted by Old World Food Truck Where: La Victoria When: Wed., October 12, 6-9:30 p.m. Cost: varies The rundown: Old World Food Truck, which is not yet a food truck, but whatever, is (figuratively) pulling into La Victoria for one night of pierogi madness. What are pierogies? ... More >>

Mission Street Food Is Back (for One Night)

​Mission Street Food popup Where: Cookhouse, 253 Columbus (at Broadway) When: Wednesday, Aug. 10, 6:30 p.m. Cost: $65 (includes Mission Street Food book and dinner) If you're like us and you miss Mission Street Food, there's a chance to revisit its hectic glory next week. MSF founder Anthony ... More >>

Mission Street Food Book Launches

​ission Street Food's restaurant memoir-cookbook, which officially launches tomorrow with a party at the Make-Ot Room, is remarkably modest. The word shitshow appears quite a few times, the intro to the recipe section includes the disclaimer "What follows will not impress every chef out there..." ... More >>

Whisk on Wheels, New Argentine Food Truck

Photos by Luis Chong​SFoodie was eager to check out Whisk On Wheels, a 2-month-old food truck operated by an Argentine chef. So far, Argentine food trucks like Tanguito and El Porteno have enjoyed great success in the city, though the East Bay's Primo's Parrilla food truck called it quits e ... More >>

Off the Grid Expanding to North Berkeley

Paul A Hernandez/FlickrOff the Grid North Shattuck is expected to launch in a few weeks at the site of the Thursday farmers' market.​Well, well, well: The East Bay Express reports this morning that Off the Grid is expanding outside of San Francisco. Nearly a year after the first Off the Grid e ... More >>

A Food-Truck Backlash in Los Angeles, Who Wants a Menu-Definition App?

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. The backlash begins.  The L.A. Times has a great article looking at the state of the city's new-wave food truck scene two and a half years after Kogi launched. (Just to get th ... More >>

Vesta Flatbread Seeks Kickstarter Funds to Fire Up the Vestamobile

Traci Prendergrast​Vesta Flatbread's Traci Prendergrast has spent the past year selling sandwiches and other fare at various local farmers' markets, fruitlessly searching for the perfect brick-and-mortar space in Oakland. She's now switched directions an decided to take her show on the road. P ... More >>

The Year in Food: Street Food Gets Serious

Chris MacArthurMobile vending went legit in 2010, thanks to events like Off the Grid Fort Mason Center.​Twelve months, ten storylines: It's SFoodie's annual look back at the year in food. La CocinaAugust's S.F. Street Food Festival drew huge crowds to the Mission.​What burst onto the sc ... More >>

Ten Reasons Bay Area Street Food Will Expand in 2011

Gil Riego Jr.​Matt Cohen is the organizer of San Francisco's Off the Grid street food events and a consultant for the mobile vending industry via the SF Cart Project. John BirdsallOff the Grid's Matt Cohen.​A year ago I gave you "5 Reasons People Will Tell You Street Food is Dead in 201 ... More >>

Planning Commission Approves New Rules for Street-Food Vendors on Private Property

Luis Chong/YelpLe Truc at an Off the Grid street-food event.​The San Francisco Planning Commission yesterday approved unanimously Supervisor Bevan Dufty's legislation for new street-food rules for vendors on private property, with one slight change. The proposed ordinance ― which streamlines ... More >>

New Legislation Would Make It Easier to Sell Street Food in San Francisco

Thomas R./YelpThe Liba Falafel truck parks on private property in Potrero Hill.​San Francisco is poised to streamline its rules for mobile food vending, making it easier ― and cheaper ― for street food vendors to operate on both public and private property. A Planning Commission hearing to ... More >>

La Cocina Hosts Workshop on Street-Food Legislation

Chris MacArthur/SF WeeklyMonday's workshop is designed in part to educate the street-food loving public about policy issues in San Francisco.​La Cocina will host a workshop next week to help decipher the shifting landscape of San Francisco's street-food legislation. Supervisor Bevan Dufty has ... More >>

Changes In Proximity, Fees Likely for Emeryville Street-Food Vendors

carlos a./YelpThe Seoul on Wheels truck attracts a lunch crowd on Emeryville's Hollis Street.​The head of the task force looking at changes to Emeryville's mobile vending rules says she's confident street-food vendors and restaurant will be able to agree on a set of recommendations it can pres ... More >>

The Changing Street Food Landscape: LA Trucks Get Letter Grade

stevelyon/Flickr​Yesterday, SFoodie ran an interview with Jessica Phadungsilp and Christina Aviles, the owners of the Global Soul truck, who had migrated from the Bay Area to Los Angeles because they couldn't find a way to make a living in San Francisco given the difficulty and price of obtaining ... More >>

If You're Stopping at Los Compadres, Get the Steak

Jonathan KauffmanClockwise from top: Al pastor, lengua, carne asada, three for $5.​ Monday, October 4, 2010 There are a lot of San Franciscans out there compensating for all the times they called a taco truck a "roach coach" by hyping street food as the most brilliant amazing superdelicious food t ... More >>

Is Emeryville Poised to Kill Its Street-Food Scene?

Laurel H./YelpLiba Falafel and Seoul on Wheels in a typical lunchtime scene in Emeryville.​The East Bay city of Emeryville has been a particularly bright spot in the Bay Area's emerging street-food scene. While San Francisco is a maze of payouts and regulations across multiple agencies, Emeryv ... More >>

Fresh Eats: The State of S.F.’s Street Food

Off the Grid Launches in Haight and Civic Center Later This Week

Chris MacArthur/SF WeeklyThe first Off the Grid launched at Fort Mason Center in late June.​Brace yourself for San Francisco street food to expand big this week. Off the Grid organizer Matt Cohen is announcing this morning that two of the three weekly street-food events slated for city parks w ... More >>

Thousands Throng the Mission for 2010 SF Street Food Festival

Chris MacArthur/SF WeeklySaturday's SF Street Food Festival featured some 40 vendors and the foodies who love them.​If you were anywhere near the mission Saturday, chances are you were sucked in, vortexlike, to the SF Street Food Festival. Some 40 vendors took part in this year's second annual ... More >>

Chow Line

Fresh Eats: Matt Cohen says starting a food truck isn't easy

Trash: The Downside of Street Food

Jonathan KauffmanThe aftermath of an evening at the Off the Grid food-truck gathering.​ After eating a dozen or so food-truck meals in the past few weeks, the disgusting side of the Summer of Truck became apparent: all that trash. I ended up with boxes in my car, boxes strapped to my bike, enough ... More >>

Highlights from a tour of S.F.'s newest street food trucks

S.F.'s Newest Street-Food Vendors Get the Jonathan Kauffman Treatment

John BirdsallSteamed buns from Chairman Bao: lion's head meatball (left) and crispy tofu.​We've been told there are more than 50 tweeting food vendors in the Bay Area. Unless you've been airlifted into SFoodie for the first time ― on the wings of Google's search bots, perhaps ― you know th ... More >>

How Much Does San Francisco Charge Food Trucks? We Asked SF Cart Project's Matt Cohen

Chris MacArthur/SF WeeklyHapa SF's William Pilz at a recent Off the Grid street-food event.​ We at SFoodie like to talk up how it's the summer of food trucks, and in this week's review, I surveyed seven of the newcomers. Common wisdom about food trucks is that they offer budding restaurateurs a ch ... More >>

Nombe brings street food indoors, with mixed success

Audio from Last Month's Commonwealth Club Street-Food Panel Discussion Now Available

Meredith BrodyAnthony Myint (left) and Brian Kimball​Missed last month's panel discussion on street food at the Commonwealth Club? No worries -- audio is now available. To refresh: On Oct. 29, SFoodie contributor Tamara Palmer moderated The Street Food Movement: SF Hearts the Cart, a discussio ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Street Food Mission

​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Street walker: Bay Area Bites' Stephanie Im reveals what she did on her weeks-long blogging hiatus -- eat. In Ho Chi Minh City, no less. Her illustrated report on the city's street food is, well, awesome. Im: "Most often, it is cooked on the spot, right be ... More >>

Sans Cart

Map to the Carts