Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Food Truck Craze Arrives in Silicon Valley!

Food is at the heart of most cultures and community. Here, in Silicon Valley, it’s no different; we really like to eat. The food truck craze is everywhere and this summer you can enjoy a variety of foods all within a few steps of each other. For Los Gatos and Saratoga, we will be spoiled this summer with two food truck events locally. No dining dress code at these events, in fact, organizers encourage you to bring your own table and chairs! On the fourth Saturday of every month, Moveable Feast will make its appearance in Saratoga doing what it does best—bringing together an array of great food. The kick-off event, “Foodie Fun On The Run” took place 4-8 p.m. on Saturday, May 26 at the corner of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road light before the railroad tracks at Sea Gull Way in Saratoga. With over 450 people attending this first event, it’s off to a good start. They were eating everything from lobster rolls, to gourmet pulled pork sandwiches and ice cream by Scoops. There was dancing to a live band and all the eating was done for a good cause! Every month Movable Feast will donate part of its proceeds to a non-profit. May Relay For Life of Saratoga, sponsored by the American Cancer Society was that benefactor. Other companies will donate by sponsoring the non-profit for each month, by having a booth to sell goods and then donate back a certain percentage of their sales to the non-profit of choice for the month. The public can park at 12341 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road or the adjacent parking lots. You can check the Gateway Businesses Facebook page for more details. All the businesses are excited about hosting this monthly event! Some of the bands playing this monthly event will be Sound Eclipse, The Ones, Blues Angel Band, Lucky Lady and Johnny Neri Band! Other dates for this event will be June 23rd, July 28th, August 25th, September 22nd and October 27th. In Los Gatos the La Hacienda Inn Hotel Food Truck Fest, 18840 Los Gatos-Saratoga Rd., on Friday nights. Organizers have had people piling in and celebrating their Fridays with dancing, beer and food during the past few events. Los Gatos Food Truck Fest has had successful events consistently every Friday since April 27, 5-9 p.m., and will continue June 15, 22 and apparently all summer on Friday nights. Some of the same food trucks participating in the Los Gatos Food Truck Fest will be in Saratoga also. With hundreds of food trucks in the Bay Area, your choices and locations to eat on the low down are limitless. Sam’s Chowder Mobile, House of Siam, Treatbot (owner of Moveable Feast owns this one), Chairman Bao Truck, Soulnese, Sanguchon, Lobster Shack and Bigg Shrimp'n and MoGo BBQ, are just some of the food trucks in the area. Chairman Bao Truck is a great example of the success these restaurants on wheels are having. The business has more than 11,000 people following its Twitter account! Other close-by locations for food truck events are Friday nights in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood, 2310 Canoas Garden Ave., and South San Jose, 525 Blossom Hill Rd. Villa Montalvo had nine food trucks at its recent "Arts Splash" event, which was part of its centennial year-long celebration. More food truck events this summer will be coming up everywhere and according to Saratoga Mayor Chuck Page, "We will be working with the community as part of our economic community planning fund to help with permits." Zoe Alameda, from Alameda Family Funeral & Cremation, is one of the businesses in the Gateway area of Saratoga, which helped push for the Saratoga food truck event. Also helping her were Brenda Kashuba, from 4EverFit Personal Training Studio, and Deni Green, from Azule Salon. Zoe said this about the plans for the event, “Food is the essence of life and community. We wanted to have an event that would bring the community together and the proceeds would benefit our community. Each one of our food events will benefit a local charity." Super Starts and Silpada Jewelry participated in the Saratoga event on May 26th and are donating part of their sales to the ACS's Relay for Life event in Saratoga. That event is on July 21st and you can click the link above for more information on donations and volunteering for Relay. Other non-profits that will benefit for the summer food truck event in Saratoga are: June the West Valley Community Services Dash For Hope, July the Saratoga Senior Center, August the Youth Science Institute, September the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce and October the Saratoga High School Football team. For me, I think date night this summer will be all about tasting each food truck that I can all summer long! *A note to readers- this blog was posted to Los Gatos Patch.com, and the above is the updated version. Original Blog can be seen here: http://losgatos.patch.com/blog_posts/blog-food-truck-craze-arrives