Wednesday, June 13, 2012

That Truck has left the station


Spotted the other day in front of TBWA Chiat/Day where I am now doing a short freelance gig.

I haven't sampled Mr. Schmuck's pastrami or his knishes or even his creamed herring and frankly I don't intend to. I've never really bought into the whole food truck concept. Though I know it's big with the kids.

To me, they will always be Roach Coaches.

Perhaps it stems back to the time when I first moved to California and took a job driving a forklift. It was at Brownell Electro on the south side of Gardena, just on the outskirts of Compton. I, like all the guys in the warehouse wore blue jeans to work, thus preventing us from frequenting any of the nearby restaurants which were all officially in Blood territory. So when noontime came around we had no other choice but to eat from the trucks.

The food was awful.
Thankfully, the portions were large.
And the ptomaine was free.

Fortunately my life took a different trajectory and I did not make a career in the lucrative world of electric cable and motor parts distribution. But while my vocation changed, my attitude towards food trucks has not.

I still don't like the idea of meals on wheels.

Nevertheless there was a time when my wife and I seriously talked about leaving the world of advertising, rolling up our sleeves and redesigning a Winnebago into a rolling restaurant. Ironically enough we discussed NY delis. I wanted to recreate the famous delis that are our first stops when visiting the Big Apple: the Stage Deli, Second Ave. Deli and of course Carnegie's.

But I couldn't summon the matzo balls to make this huge leap.
And now Schmuck With a Truck already has.
I guess that makes me the Putz With No Guts.


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