So word on the very crowded First Friday street was that someone got cranky in Venice tonight and turned in all of the trucks who didn’t have “bathroom” letters. What we learned in our investigative reporting of food truck politics (ok, we were really just chowing food and overheard a couple of truck owners talking about the letters) was that if you don’t have a letter from a business stating you can use their bathroom, you can’t roll up and hang out. Oy vey. A few trucks were kicked off the street but most were able to stay.

We don’t want to get all negative here so we are going to flip this all around and send a shout out to everyone who loves truck dining to help support the local businesses and encourage them to in turn support the trucks, especially on crowded nights like First Friday. They are an affordable and quick solution, especially on a weekend when your chances of getting in anywhere for dinner (even if you are “local”) are slim to none unless you booked 2 weeks ago.

You think I am exaggerating? Last week I tried to book for this week at a spot and they were looked at me like I was crazy. Guess it would help if I was Angelina Jolie. So for those of us commoners the trucks are a great Friday and Saturday solution to keep us in the neighborhood so we don’t venture east (thus driving and wasting fossil fuels) or north (we love Santa Monica but it’s nice to keep it local as possible) or South (who really hangs in the South Bay anyway after they have left USC?)

Oh midnight and ghetto bird overhead. I love Venice. I’d like to have dinner here on Friday and Saturday nights so let’s keep the trucks rolling in.

First Friday in Venice

Headed out to Abott Kinney at about 8pm tonight with my friend Jerry to meet Leah. The plan was to check out some art but first food. After a quick 2 minute ride to the main strip we found ourselves in a gourmet food court of trucks. From Asian to Indian to desserts to flavorful hydrids, we sampled from five trucks: @dosatruck, @bool, @lomiarigato, @flyingpigtruck, @Frysmith

Here’s the run down:

We started at Dosa where we met the owner Lena. We overheard her telling a super cute and Venicey couple “I’ve been in a lot of businesses and the food truck business is one of the hardest.” Regardless, Sita’s Surprise was an excellent way to start off the evening. It was a some kind of curried potato wrapped in pancake of sorts. I am sure my description is way wrong, but it was delicious nonetheless. I would say a not to be missed treat.

Next we went Peruvian with an Asian flair. I was a little confused at this mix, then Jerry told me there are is a large Asian population in Peru. Hmmm. News to me. The largest Sri Lankan population outside of Sri Lanka is in Canada, so who knows. After a tritip steak and rice dish @lomiarigato we cruised for a bit. We kind of were wishing there was a wine truck, but somehow that never appeared.

We wandered past a cupcake truck then back across the street to the Brig, which by this time had a line 10 people deep. We’re not really line people so we checked out @Frysmith, @bordergrill and eventually wandered down to @flyingpigtruck. Everyone claimed being full but I heard this was a not to be missed truck so I found room for a wafer thin duck taco and it was hard to even describe. It looked like it would be spicy but wasn’t at all and the soft, warm corn tortilla somehow went so well with the duck.

Watch Jerry and Leah chow down at @Lomiarigato and follow us for the rest of our journey down Abott Kinney on December’s First Friday.

We just ate a yummy yummy dinner at Fishlips Sushi. We were headed to a sushi restaurant and there was like a half an hour wait so what did we do? Headed to Fishlips on Abott Kinney in front of Intelligensia. My friend Dan is sitting here still in awe that he actually enjoyed sushi out of a truck as much or more than he would have liked our fancy neighborhood restaurant.

Not only did we chow tons of sushi for under $30, but it’s run by a cool bunch of Japanese folks that Dan practiced his limited language skills on. Awwww sad…..he can say Konbanwa…Good evening. “I can say more than that but that’s ok.” He’s laughing now.

After sushi we rolled down to the Brig parking lot where we ran into Mike West and his wife who own 686 clothing. They were checking out @Buttermilktruck and @Frysmith (who incidentally were roasting homemade marshmallows) as they served up the hip masses of Venicesters passing by the parking lot.

Now that we are happily fed we’ll be heading out to go dance off our sushi. Dang should have gotten a hot chocolate chip cherry cookie @frysmith

This week we are featuring the Little Spoon because the other night, which was my birthday, we walked out of the Brig at about 12am and saw a lovely florescent glow flowing out of Little Spoon. Being that I was tad hungry after dancing it up to Jazz night, I decided to grab a treat. Unfortunately I had spent all of my money on valet at the Canal Club. Luckily, a nice guy named Eric walked up and started chatting me up. When I told him it was birthday he offered to buy me a dessert and $3 later I had a delicious white chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup. Yum. Doesn’t get much better then that on your birthday!

A few weeks ago I found myself on a Saturday night not really feeling like going out, but hungry and not in the mood to drive to Trader Joe’s and battle the crowds, or get cruised at Whole Foods in Venice. Feel a little broke and like I didn’t want to hit up a restaurant alone, I suddenly thought about all of the trucks rolling around Venice. I had only hit them up a few times late night before and in all honesty I can barely remember what I ate.

On this night I wanted sushi. So I remembered one truck called FishLips Sushi and so I hopped on the computer and GOOGLED Fishlips Sushi and there it was….A Twitter announcing that the truck was 5 blocks away from me. I jumped on my bike and headed North. Fishlips was just opening up when I arrived so a few of us stood around and chatted while I waited for sushi. We began swapping foodtruck stories and which ones everyone had sought out.

Ten minutes later my friends Adam and Denis walked by with their dogs. Then Sean 1 rolled up on his bike and Sean 2 rolled up with his x-girlfriend’s little pint sized dog, B. Pretty soon we were all eating sushi on the street and discussing Obama and other current affair topics.

All I can say is that it was one of the nicest dinners I had had in a while in Venice. It was delicious, fun, politically aware and all for under $10. Not a bad Saturday night outing.

In this time of economic instability the food truck phenomenon has been an awesome evolution of food that I hope can sustain itself for a long time to come.
We’ve built out this site to help you find food trucks and to tell us about your experiences, good and bad, at your neighborhood trucks.

Happy eating

–Zeno Supper Club Crew