Want to check out some of the excellent food that Albuquerque has to offer? Stop by Talin Market at the southeast corner of Central and Louisiana!
“It’s Wednesday at high noon. A half-dozen food trucks line the parking lot at Talin Market, and they’re ready to serve up more than the usual hot dog. I’m here to sample the goods, beginning with The Chopping Block’s soft fish taco garnished with mango salsa. I wash it down with organic limeade at Make My Lunch, then head to Oz Patisserie’s over-the-top desserts, where I’m handed one of the best crème brûlées I’ve had in town.
I make my way back down the row and try a Bill’s BBQ pulled pork burrito and get through half of the generous serving. The rest is going to be my dinner. Alison’s truck will have to wait until next week. I barely have room for a shave ice at Coconut Mike’s, where I instantly become addicted to the piña colada. Total tab: 16 bucks.
This is a pod—a convergence of multiple food trucks parked in one place. Individual trucks are also showing up all over town, mostly at lunch- and dinnertime. Burqueños are already used to dining from hot dog stands, paleta carts and burrito trucks, but these mobile kitchens offer upscale, innovative dishes—and the people who run them mean business.
The movement first emerged in vanguard cities like Austin and Portland. For some owners, being able to pick up and change locations is the answer to a worrisome economy. A strong independent streak also runs through these entrepreneurs—they work for themselves in fields they love.
Steps, an entrepreneur resource team, opened doors for Albuquerque’s food truck industry in 2010 with a series of workshops geared toward developing mobile cuisine models. The nonprofit was founded in 2006 to encourage business development in Albuquerque’s Southeast Heights. It launched the first pod in March at Talin Market to take advantage of the area’s international flavor. The idea has grown, and now Steps offers advice and coaching to all of Bernalillo County.
Cynthia Beiser, Steps executive director, tells me that anyone can come to Steps with a good idea—architects, artists and food truck owners among them. Workshops provide guidance on business plans, financing, marketing, and obtaining permits and regulations, as well as a network of resources to bring the ideas into reality. Councilor Rey Garduño’s City Food Cart Task Force now counts Steps as a member.
The pods are a growing, and they park at several locations throughout the week. The Talin Market (Central at Louisiana) pod meets on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. Office workers near Masthead at Jefferson can choose from several trucks parked there on Thursdays and Fridays around lunchtime. And the Downtown Growers’ Market is collecting one of its own on Saturday mornings: Breakfast might be a Firenze Mobile wood-fired ranchero pizza—red sauce, mozzarella, green chile, Keller’s hot sausage and a free-range egg—finished off with a Fresh Squeezed! sweet limeade.”
Learn more about Talin pod owners, their stories, and their menus at http://alibi.com/food/38530/Food-Truck-Takeover.html
