Live from the Abbot-Kinney Food Truck Fest

Los Angeles' finest food trucks set up shop every first Friday of the month in Venice. Here's a quick run through. Also starring my finger in the upper left.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Foodtruck
• Venice
• LA
• Losangeles
• Food

[bohemiandeborah]

Lots of customers are WONDERFUL for business! I'll take it any day! But when you get hoards of people it is not so great. And, let's face it, most weren't here for the galleries, the restaurants, the shops, the hair salons, the yoga and workout studios on the street, they came for the food trucks. Our wonderful customers who love US and did not want to be in the midst of the hoardes stopped coming. So who wins here? Not us. Not the ones who struggle to make rent each month. Thanks for listening

[cybersalad]

@bohemiandeborah Well I will say I did come back and check out a few of the restaurants after First Friday that I hadn't been to before.

[bohemiandeborah]

We tried talking with the food truck association to see if we could somehow limit the number of trucks to a reasonable amount to no avail. Like I said, all the merchants would like to have a reasonable number on the street for events like First Friday. It definitely adds to the festiveness! That's why we let it go for so long, we thought we could come to a good compromise for all. But then when more and more just kept coming and we found out that their scouts park their cars all day all along

[cybersalad]

@bohemiandeborah Hmm--well maybe now that you guys banned them all, they'll come back to the negotiating table. Still, I figured the insane amount of foot traffic on First Fridays would be good for the local merchants. I never really went down Abbot Kinney until then.

[bohemiandeborah]

These food trucks wrecked First Fridays.It was never their event. We had great fun before they completely ran over our awesome event. Some trucks are wonderful and welcomed but 40-50 on a small street is just victimization. They will not work with the merchants who have tried to negotiate with them. They just come and take over. We locals want our street back! And we are not bad guys for that, whatever the food truck owners say.

[cybersalad]

@bohemiandeborah So what was the negotiation about? I was kind of bummed to see there weren't any trucks last time. Since that's the only reason why I came down--I don't want to chase trucks around, but I like trying them all in one place. But I don't know the back story.

Still, nothing seemed to be going on at the new truck-free First Friday. What was it like before?

[bohemiandeborah]

I'm so glad! Thanks for supporting us. I hope that you will come back. It really is a great party down here. (That's exactly why the food trucks crashed it!)

Yes, once in awhile we get a person or two from a recent First Friday but not many at all. You are a rare exception in my experience....and thank you again. I am really glad to have a real discussion on this subject. It has gotten so heated....

[bohemiandeborah]

the street, taking customer's spaces and it got so that you cannot walk on the sidewalk because of the lines....etc, etc, etc Before we had GREAT events! Gallery openings, music, dance, food, fashion shows, parties, trunk shows, so much....but most stopped them because the food truck crowd could care less and the locals got scared away by the rowdy crowds that the food trucks bring. Many stores now close on First Fridays! But we are planning LOTS as we get our street back. Stay tuned....