San Jose's inaugural food truck festival SJ Eats took place this Saturday, and just as organizers of street food events in San Francisco such as Off The Grid and SF Street Food Festival learned in their early attempts to bring diverse mobile eating to the public, interest was high. Much higher than anticipated, in fact, leading to long and confusing lines that lasted several hours in some cases.
Ryan Sebastian, owner of the karaoke ice cream truck Treatbot, assembled a lunch and dinner shift featuring popular mobile vendors from throughout the Bay Area, including Sam's Chowder Mobile of Half Moon Bay, San Francisco's Hapa SF, Chairman Bao, Santa Clara County's Louisiana Territory, and Babaloo—an I Love Lucy-themed Cuban offering that is Monterey County's only food truck. But thousands more than he expected showed up; in a letter apologizing for the long wait times, Sebastian estimates that more than 10,000 came.
It looks like good news ahead for South Bay residents as SJ Eats contemplates more regular events and Off The Grid slowly makes its way down the Peninsula with plans to debut regular events outside of San Francisco. It's all delectable evidence that mobile food isn't destined to be a fleeting trend in Northern California. [The Feast]
—Original video produced by Mike Anderson/NBCBayArea.com
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