In 1866, Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight needed a way to feed his workers on the trail as they herded cattle north. By bolting a portable kitchen to the back of a horse-drawn Army Studebaker wagon, Goodnight invented what many consider the first food truck.
Fast-forward some 100 years, and food trucks were known as places to get a good hot dog, funnel cake or cotton candy at carnivals and county fairs across the country. Fast-forward another 50 years, and food trucks can be spotted outside Kentucky businesses, corporate events, festivals and even weddings. Everything from Korean tacos to lasagna meatballs to fruit nachos are served through a truck window to hungry customers throughout Kentucky.
The Traveling Kitchen, Louisville
In late 2011, Victor Pagva parked his new Traveling Kitchen food truck at a meter on a busy downtown Louisville street. Then, he waited. It was apparently worth it. On a blustery 2018 February morning outside the Humana offices by Waterfront Park, more than 20 people braved the 30-something-degree weather to stand in line for Pagva’s Korean-inspired tacos, dumplings and kimchi.
“That line is always so long, but [the food is] always fantastic,” said Brandon McPherson, a regular customer who works nearby. “During the summer, [the line] wraps around the corner, and you can’t get through the sidewalk sometimes.”
Pagva’s formula for success is simple.
“Eventually, if you have a good product, good service and it’s reasonably priced, they keep coming back,” Pagva said.
That good product includes a variety of tacos called Korean bulgogi beef, teriyaki chicken, Korean spicy pork, tempura fish, tempura veggies and pork dumplings. Tacos are priced at three for $9, and dumplings are $4.
“The menu is pretty set, and I rarely change it,” he said. “That’s the thing. You want to be really simple with your menu.”
Unlike a restaurant, a food truck affords freedom of movement, Pagva said, as well as less overhead and a wider customer base.
“I [had been] thinking about opening a restaurant for a long time, but restaurants are hard to keep up,” he said. “With a food truck, you just fire up your grill and start cooking.”
Now, he has neighbors.
“There are days when there are maybe five or six food trucks parked along the same street, and everybody’s making money,” he said. “It’s good. I like the competition, and it’s all different types of food.”
Packhouse Food Truck, Newport
Meatballs are the star of Chad Neace and Bob Conway’s Packhouse Food Truck. The pair serves meatballs every time the truck’s windows are open, but what’s in the meatballs changes frequently.
“We’re constantly going with new meatballs, new sauces and stuff like that,” Neace said. “There’s over 150 different meatballs that we do.”
One recent menu listed chicken Parmesan meatballs, seafood crab meatballs and even black bean meatballs.
“Our No. 1 goal is to take meatballs to the next level,” Neace said. “If there’s any idea of a meatball, we try to make it happen. We get ideas from our customers, and we do trial and error. We fail sometimes, and then there’s other times when we hit gold. We’re willing to take risks, and we’re willing to try different ideas.”
One Yelp reviewer, in describing his experience with the chicken Parmesan meatballs and pulled pork meatballs, wrote “fortune did shine” on him and his son.
“The chef did it all, too—drove the truck, took the orders and made the meals,” the reviewer wrote.
The business is run at a different pace than when Neace and Conway ran a brick-and-mortar restaurant. “We had a restaurant for three-and-a-half years, and then we decided: Why not take it to the streets and take our food to the customers instead of waiting on them to come to us?” Neace said. “We saw how good the numbers were with the food truck, and we were like, ‘Why are we wasting our time with a restaurant? Let’s just do the food truck.’ ”
So they closed their restaurant in 2017 and began running the truck full time, taking it to the northern Kentucky and Cincinnati-area streets, as well as to catering parties, weddings and other events.
“That’s what’s exciting about our job: We do something different every day, but at the same time, we’re trying to provide a fun, unique experience,” Neace said. “People are getting to see fresh food being made right in front of them.
“It’s like when [diners] go to a hibachi grill, and they see the flames and all that in front of them, and they’re all excited about it. You get the same concept with a food truck. All the food is made pretty much fresh in front of you.”
Pop’s Street Eats, Bowling Green
“Oh my gosh, if you’re a college kid in [Bowling Green], you can’t miss this.”
“Convenience is the greatest aspect of this establishment. Can’t thank these fellas enough for being open after hours!”
“If you don’t like this BBQ, well then you don’t like BBQ, period, ladies and gentlemen. Had on many occasions and have yet to be disappointed. This BBQ is legit.”
Pop’s Street Eats in Bowling Green is not lacking in positive reviews on Facebook, and the fact that many of them likely come from Western Kentucky University students is no surprise.
“We do regular days of the week at certain places for lunch, and then we service the night crowd for [WKU] and for the downtown bars. It’s weird hours, but from 10 o’clock at night until three in the morning, a food truck can really do well,” said owner Pop Wilson. “We do fall festivals for schools. We cater weddings. We do any group of 50 people or more.”
The idea to start a food truck was conceived from a conversation Wilson had with two of his sons in December 2016. Five months later, Pop’s Street Eats was rolling.
“The idea was to take pulled pork and rotisserie chicken and serve it in nontraditional ways,” Wilson said. “We decided we would take the pulled pork and rotisserie chicken and put it in tacos, nachos, burritos and maybe some handmade pizzas along the way.”
The idea stuck, and Wilson has been busy ever since.
“The way it’s presented makes all the difference in the world, and it was a success,” Wilson said.
While the novelty of a food truck has worn off, Wilson said, its popularity continues to grow, thanks to the many “street eats” shows on Food Network, Travel Channel and the like.
“I think it’s something the millennials bought into, and it’s a novel idea for older people,” he said.
But it’s a job the retired truck driver thoroughly enjoys, despite the long hours and hard work.
“A food truck like ours is like a mobile restaurant,” Wilson said. “For every hour you see this window open, there’s another hour and a half that you’re not seeing. [Customers] don’t see the preparation work.”
C&C Express, Madisonville
Sherri and Jamie Buchanan have been running Catering & Creations for five years, but it wasn’t until last year that they decided get things rolling and take advantage of the food truck industry’s growing popularity.
“We thought about it about two years ago, and it just wasn’t the right time,” Sherri said. “So then, in early 2017, we thought: You know, if you’re going to do it, now’s the time.”
They operated the truck in the warmer months, along with the catering business, and then parked it for winter. “We ran it up until the first of November, when you just don’t have the traffic,” she said. “It works out very well with us, so by the time the truck’s shutting down, the holiday catering season is gearing up.”
Adding a food truck to their business model appeared to be a sound move. Because of its success, the Buchanans have taken it on a traveling trailer with a customized smoker.
“We love it. It’s exciting and fun,” Sherri said. “We like that kind of work and atmosphere.”
C&C Express serves up barbecue in sandwich or nachos form, as well as Southwest chicken in taco or nachos form. But it’s the fruit nachos that have become a local favorite: cheesecake on cinnamon chips, topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.
“That’s kind of separated us from a lot of the food trucks, at least around here,” she said. “You don’t see them around here offering a sweet option.”
Rolling Oven Mobile Pizzeria, Lexington
On one side, Rolling Oven Mobile Pizzeria appears to be a shipping container. But walk around, and you’ll see an entire kitchen operation, complete with a wood-fired brick oven, going full steam.
“It is a repurposed shipping container with glass on one side, so you can see everything that’s going on as far as people cooking and working in there. Customers love that,” said owner Nick Ring. “Pizza’s really not an easy thing to make in a food truck. I roll the dough. I top the pizza. I cook the pizza—everything in my truck.”
Those toppings, at any given time, could include brisket, barbecue, potatoes, habaneros, Southwest chicken and even nachos.
Making pizza practically comes as second nature to Ring, who calls himself a “home cook.” “I grew up making pizza at home,” he said. “I love doing it. I love cooking.”
So he put those pizza skills to good use and has been taking the Rolling Oven around Lexington for more than four years, even going as far as Manchester, Tennessee to set up shop at the famous Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
“That’s the tough part, though—getting established,” he said. “But once you’re established and you have a cool truck and you have good food, you’re going to get tons of calls.”
Among those callers are local breweries wanting Rolling Oven to set up a more permanent location inside their establishments. So far, Ring has set up shop in three breweries: Mirror Twin Brewing in Lexington, My Old Kentucky Foam in Georgetown and Rolling Oven Tap Room in Versailles.
“Prior to the brick and mortars opening up, I ran the truck hard,” he said. “We took that truck everywhere, anywhere we could go to sell.”