Tuesday, May 05, 2009

taco truck tattoo?


Sac in the ny times.

Thumbs up for Anvil: The Story Of Anvil.  Who knew that the main dudes in the band are two sensitive Jews?  It was really touching to see them play afterwards.  A special night.

OK, so the taco truck thing.  In addition to the SNR story, Edible Sacramento had an informative piece on it.  What can we do?  Those of you with knowledge of the working of city government give me some insight.  I want to do something.  I'll collect signatures.  I'll put together a power point that shows all the taco trucks in their beloved Portland.  I'll shave my head and paint a taco truck on it.

What's up with this Fiscalini cheese?  Have you guys had it?  Where do you get it?  Is it as good as Oprah says?

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you see the piece on the Portland trucks in last month's Sunset magazine? There's some really good fodder for an argument in that article.

If the same troops that rallied for Corti's could be gathered again, it seems like the city might rethink this one.

Dani

Anonymous said...

I had the bandage wrapped one, it was good.

I'm a sucker for the soft ripened cheeses of the world. Have you had Brebicet? It is Sheeps milk.

Have you had any Goat milk goudas?

-ella

Anonymous said...

I am with you on the taco trucks, and what about biz's beloved Senor Burrito? Do carts count too?

Dani is right, maybe an public outcry is a good start.

-Natalie.

Snufkin said...

Sacramento's loss is Rancho Cordova's gain. I work right on the line between the two and have definitely noticed an uptick lately of more and more trucks parking in the neighborhood. There is ALWAYS a line of very happy people waiting, especially for Tacos de Oro. If there's supposedly an issue with health and sanitation, can they actually produce evidence of people getting sick to justify the decision? Because otherwise, it sounds like it's a decision made clearly on supposition.

Oh and another thing I've noticed, the city sheriff's dept seems to be big fans of Tacos de Oro. So maybe next time I see somebody from there in line, I'll ask them about the possibility of passing on their opinion to the city council.

Anonymous said...

Sheriffs are county, not city, but maybe someone could ask the city police if any of the alleged problems with taco trucks (the nuisance stuff) has actually occurred.

KW said...

I've had Fiscalini cheddar, both the bandage-wrapped and regular. It's indeed very good (I really love sharp cheddars). I think I've seen it at Taylor's sometimes, and possibly at the co-op? I am sure Whole Foods has it but even for great cheese I won't drive out there.

I only comment on cheese, apparently.

Anonymous said...

Did you go to the trucks in Portland? I saw that in Sunset and we are going to go to at least one (Tabor, the Czech truck.) Oh, and probably Moxie RX now that we are staying in the Sabin nabe. I will photograph the trucks!

-Anna

DJ Rick said...

All the Portland taco trucks I've tried suck. And I have tried a lot of them. But a great part about Portland's foodscene is the many trucks and carts selling so much variety of international flavors. My favorite is the New Delhi Chaat truck which sets up camp on SW 14th @ Yamhill every weekday. This meat-eater even approves of this veggie-only truck.

If Sacto's powers truly believe that taco trucks hurt restaurant biz, then they surely aren't paying attention to the city they wanna model everything after.

beckler said...

I tried one taco truck in portland, and it was not so great. But I haven't eaten at the spot downtown where they all set up. This whole UNANIMOUS city council decision was based on supposed harmful effect to brick and mortar businesses. i'd like to see some data on that. also, it shows how they are always picking on the little guy, because when the same objection was raised about the mermaid bar those pinheads voted unanimously the opposite way!

beckler said...

p.s.-did they have to call the cheese "bandage wrapped"? i try not to eat anything that has touched any kind of bandage.

Anonymous said...

When people go out to eat they pretty much always have someplace already in mind. To suggest that these trucks are taking anyone's business away is ridiculous. It's not like people are on their way to a restauranr, see a taco truck & go "WAIT! STOP! Let's eat there instead!". Any restaurant owner that thinks they're doing poorly because of a taco truck is deluding themself. Grabbing a quick couple of cheap tacos from a truck rules & it's a totally different experience than eating at a restaurant. That the city voted unanimously to ban that experience further suggests to me that they're robots. This is something that Sac will truly be laughed at for if it ends up happening.

-miller

Snufkin said...

Another thing along the lines of Cortis - isn't Yum Tacos (which has been covered by NPR) based in Sacramento?

Anonymous said...

It's like Footloose. Ban it!!

Those dumbos don't realize that Taco Trucks feed the Working Man, and Woman! Sure is a lot healthier than McDonalds! Why don't they ask their gardeners if Taco trucks need to be banned?

What gated community did these square suburbanite politicians come from?

In my southern californian village, a taco truck and a liquor store are the entire infrastructure of the place. No gas station, no zip code, no city council. who needs 'em?

-ec

Anonymous said...

Getting rid of taco trucks is the first step to making Taco Loco edible.

-- Patrone

The Armeniac said...

City Council meetings and the Board of Supervisors meetings are the best way to get anything acomplished. Raise a taco truck stink with them, hahaha, and you might move some hearts. Those two orgs are the ultimate arbiters of whatever happens in the city or county. I would advise asking mechanics and construction workers if they'd go down to some meetings and yell at bureaucrats. Not kidding, might work. Plus you can hang out with hunky working men!

Anonymous said...

what the trucks need most is money for legal fees to push the grandfather date back. so, basically, we need a few carne-ass kicking taco truck concerts where we can get 200 people to pay some $10 top see a slate of tight bands.

Anonymous said...

I've been meaning to try this Taco Loco place but I keep getting sidetracked by a taco truck.

-miller

beckler said...

The other day Scott and I were on our way to eat at Three Monkeys and afterwards go dancing at that new, grown and sexy nightclub, Frisky Rythyms, but then we spotted a taco truck, said "fuck it" and just ate two tacos each and went home and danced to some loggins and messina records.

Anonymous said...

The city council are typically clueless, and as usual are just doing what the upscale developer/restaurant crowd tell them to do. Making a big deal of it may get them to actually pay attention. Pointing out how this makes Sacramento look totally lame compared to Portland, San Francisco, Austin, L.A., etc., may cause their insecurities to flare up enough that they'll take a second look. It can't hurt to play the race card, too, pointing out how most of those affected are minorities. I'd suggest playing the poverty card, but we all know the city council doesn't care about poor people.
The city council's ideal city is obviously an upscale suburb. I doubt any of them has ever lived in an actual urban area for any length of time.

Anonymous said...

Sac city council loves to claim they're modeling this city after cities I'm betting they've never lived in. Shit, I'm betting half of them don't live in Sac. "Granite Bay" isn't Sacramento.

My guess is that any restaurant owners backing this bullshit are owners of mediocre to shitty restaurants. No other options = more customers for them. Its healthy competition that drives higher standards in any business environment, higher standards produce better businesses which in turn gain more notoriety for an area. If Sac City Council wants Sacramento to truly be a World Class City then they need to recognize that and cut this nonsense out.

Anonymous said...

forget Taco Loco and taco trucks, the taco train is where it's at! Taco Locomotive will travel between 19th and 20th streets and it's almost as cool as getting to sit in the train car while dinning at Old Spagetti Factory.

Liv Moe said...

We seriously should do something... draft a fancy letter, get an item at a city council meeting, whatever the most effect first step would be I'm there. Aside from loving a good taco truck this is simply the exact shit about our city council that makes me want to throw my hands up and say fine keep making lame decision that counter what the citizens of this city actually want. It's really, really irritating.

Fiscalini+asparagus+EVO+lemon juice=yum!

Anonymous said...

extra virgin olives? yummo rachael ray

Anonymous said...

Write an email to KJ really quick:
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/mayor/contact_information.html

Find and write your City Council Member:
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/council/contact-us.html

... piece of cake, everyone should do it. I just did, took 2 minutes.

Anonymous said...

I am really concerned about how often city council votes unanimously. Who is the puppet master?

I am looking at you, Ray Kerridge!

Gbomb

Anonymous said...

Steve Cohn is the council dude for midtown. scohn AT cityofsacramento DOT org

wburg said...

Don't look directly at Ray Kerridge, he will use his evil powers to blind you or turn you to stone unless you make a saving throw vs. polymorph.

I totally want a taco train now.

And yeah, they basically banned the taco trucks because some of the high-end restaurant owners fed them a line of bull about how they take away business from brick-and-mortar restaurants, and also because in every world class city, there simply aren't any poor people or homeless people or working people or even middle-class folks with dirtbag tastes; everyone eats at fancy restaurants, drinks at ultra lounges and lives on the 99th floor of the urban loft living.

Anonymous said...

http://foodcartsportland.com/

-Anna

Libby said...

What you need to do is form an association, chose one of the members of the association as your spokesperson, print up some letterhead with the association's name on it...and most importantly, do a public records check to track the campaign contributions by the California Resturant Association, Sacramento Resturant Association and individual Sacramento resturants (and resturanteurs)...these "unanimous decisions" rarely have anything to do with salient arguments or grass roots opposition...follow the money.