The list of official nominees for the next category in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate is parked here! It’s the award for the Best Mobile Food Vendor Location in and around the city.
Where’s the best go-to spot for H-Town grub-on-the-go? And what makes it that way? The nominees in this category were picked out by Swamplot readers. Now it’s time to look over the menu and vote for the winner.
You can vote by leaving a comment below or through email, Facebook, or Twitter. You can use all four methods (once each) to vote — but that’s the limit. Please note that this year we’ll only be counting votes submitted via the first 2 methods from voters who’ve signed up for the Swamplot email list. (If you haven’t done so already, you can join it through this link or the box at the top left of this page.) When you vote, please tell us why you think your pick should win.
The nominees for the 2014 Best Mobile Food Vendor Location are . . .
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1. Houston Food Truck Park, 1311 Leeland St., East Downtown. “It’s proven so popular, it’s expanded to a second location a few blocks away, and a third is reportedly being considered as well. The park provides Downtown employees a regular handful of wheeled-food options — in spite of metered parking and inflated parking lot prices.”
2. Museum of Fine Arts Parking Lot, Bissonnet St. at Main St., Montrose. “If you eat lunch there, you can pick up a card that grants you free admission to the museum right then and there. It’s a lunch date! Even if you don’t go inside, you can sit down in the shade of the Cullen Sculpture Garden to eat your meal. That’s quite a dining room.”
3. West Alabama Ice House, 1919 West Alabama St., Montrose. “The ice house is a great place to kick back all day and is dog-friendly, too, but the lack of food is a problem. I’m glad a couple of mobile eateries now call it home.”
“The line at the Tacos Tierra truck across from the West Alabama Ice House speaks volumes.”
4. Any outdoor festival. “Before the modern Food Truck Era, food at large outdoor events was almost uniformly awful. You’d have captive concession stands with highway truck-stop convenience-store-quality food or a carny-esque traveling food vendor with a tent, grill, and lots of undercooked turkey legs and burgers made from frozen Sysco meat. Houston has a lot of great outdoor festivals and venues. For the ones that allow mobile vendors onsite (or nearby), it’s nice to be able to go these events and have your pick from a bunch of different food trucks.”
5. Central Park, Post Oak Central, 1980, 1990, and 2000 Post Oak Blvd., Galleria. “The second Tuesday of the month, food trucks gather around the central park at the Post Oak Central office building complex for Tasty Tuesdays. Wish they would do it more often!â€
6. Anywhere Downtown. “For certain mobile food vendors looking to set up shop Downtown, it’s been a long journey. Rules barring truck-kitchens powered by propane tanks — motivated, it appeared for some, by fears of food truck terrorism — kept the shifty-looking vehicles out of Houston’s central business district for decades. It took a campaign that lasted more than 2 years and an assist from the mayor (shown contemplating a burger but settling for brussels sprouts outside the Central Library, above) to change that. Downtown was at last made safe for the food cavalry — as long as the propane tanks don’t get too big — this September. Time to celebrate!”
Which one of these nominees oughtta be the winner? Put down that taco and add your vote now!
- How To Vote in the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate [Swamplot]
- Swamplot Awards Ballots 2014 [Swamplot]
Photos: Curbside Sliderz (Houston Food Truck Park); Lisa Crispin (Museum of Fine Arts parking lot); Flickr user blogjam_dot_org (Tacos Tierra Caliente; license); Christine Ha (Free Press Summer Fest); Post Oak Central; Houston Public Media (Mayor Parker at the Modular)
Are we done with food trucks yet? You know, there are places you can actually go to that aren’t filled with smoke and loud noise from generators where you can SIT DOWN at a table and eat BETTER FOOD for LESS MONEY.
People are still excited about eating out of trucks? I thought that fad had passed.
4
Food trucks are dumb. Just go to a real restaurant instead of wasting your money being cool.
I like the Museum of Fine Arts. A short ride down the rail line from either direction and bam! Lunch time. Going down there Thursday? There’s the added bonus of free admission to the MFAH all day and afternoons the Museum of Natural Science.
Yeah. There is a hipster donut truck by mercantile by my house. $3 for a donut. From a truck. Nuts.
You got my vote … for the most stupid Swamplot award category!!!!
2. MOFA
Oh come on you big bunch of old fuddy duddys. “Oh no, those kids today with their food trucks and interweb chat rooms.” Go get in line at Luby’s and enjoy your green jello desert.
Food trucks are great. It is a prerequisite for a food truck that the food has to be innovative and high quality. We are not talking about mobile versions of TGI Friday’s and Quiznos. These are very talented young chefs who are setting themselves up for brick and mortar opportunities. There is probably no bigger exemplar of the free enterprise system at work in Houston than the food truck industry. No meritocracy, no political/family connections needed, no reward for brown nosing or riding coat tails. You just get a few bucks for a truck and kitchen gear, come up with some great food, and get at it.
Oh, and I vote for anywhere downtown. Can’t wait to go to the new food truck park just south of downtown. Just a few blocks walk from my office. Beats the crap out of Subway and Murphy’s Deli (and there are only so many days a week that one can eat at Treebeards).
I totally agree with Old School.
#5, now that’s what I call a food court!
#4 – any outdoor festival, especially events like Sunday Streets.
#3, please!
#5 for sure
My vote is for #4. I also agree with Old School. Food trucks are awesome. Stop whining.
#One – a hopping place every day!
#2
Museum of Fine Arts
anywhere downtown because I figure food trucks are meant to be walked to and they had to fight for it