The Red Stick's food truck revolution

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - We know turkey and all the fixings before Thanksgiving, but how'd you like to get your next great meal out of the back of a truck? Here's the skinny on a new food trend here popping up on street corners across metro Baton Rouge.

Fresh sushi, interesting waffle creations, burgers topped with praline bacon. All foods you can find anywhere in town, now that food trucks have become a local phenomenon. It was experiences with food trucks in other towns that made some of these guys step away from their careers and into the food truck world.

"I walked out of one of the bars in the LSU area, being from New Orleans, there's late night food everywhere. And my options were McDonald's and Taco Bell. And I thought maybe there might be a niche for some gourmet, late-night food," said Nick Hufft with Curbside Gourmet Burgers.

As it turns Hufft was right. In any given week, somewhere between 15 and 20 food trucks are rolling around town.

"We call this thing the food truck revolution, and it really is that," said John Snow with Taco de Paco. "It's encouraging chefs to step their game up and kind of out of venture out of a comfort zone."

Customers say the trucks are making them step outside of the box and try new foods.

"They may hear about them, but wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable going into that particular type of restaurant but can stand here, see the food, see other people try it, talk to other people before they make their selections," said Christi Roberts, a local who's enjoying the growing food truck scene.

"What I'm trying to do, and my fellow food truck owners, is bring the gourmet to you on a fast food price," said Bogdan Mocane, owner of Dolce Vita Pizza.

On their rise to success, food truck owners have taken some heat from some traditional restaurants here in town who complain they park too close by and add to their competition. But local food critics say food trucks are simply adding a different dynamic to the city's cuisine…a dynamic their customers love.

"It's not corporate chains. It's not some sort of giants where you don't know where you're profits are really going," said Jay Ducote, local food blogger with Biteandbooze.com. :These guys are local business, they're buying local food, they're cooking right in front of you on these trucks and their doing a phenomenal job on it."

And they're easy to track. Some of these chef's are using social media to tweet their locations or let customers follow them on Facebook.

"All these different types of foods can get together, and there's something for everyone, like I said, and it just brings people together I guess," said Summer Betz, who's family attends food truck roundups almost weekly.

From the barbeque truck ThreeBones barbeque; to Fresh, a moving sushi restaurant; to Taco de Paco, specializing in Mexican fare…these trucks have a wide variety, and seem to be adding new fans on each corner where they set up shop.

Click here http://www.facebook.com/brwroundup?ref=ts&fref=ts for more information on where you can find these trucks every day.

Copyright 2012 WAFB. All rights reserved.