“We’re hungry bastards,” says www.wherethetruck.at founder Tom Kinsman when queried on their simple, one-page Google mapping system that plots the locations of food trucks at any given hour.
“We just love the idea of great grub that’s cheap, easy and fast. It's such an awesome way to eat and socialise and that shared experience makes life fun and simple,” he says. “But from a commercial point of view our strategy is two-fold.”
Kinsman has established the site with business partner Xavier Verhoeven, who incidentally works alongside Kinsman as a marketing consultant at another Broadsheet favourite, Temple Brewery & Brasserie. They track Beatbox Kitchen, Cornutopia, Taco Truck, Gumbo Kitchen, Dhaba, Grub Food Van, Le Sausage, Grill’d Airstream and more on their charting page.
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SIGN UP“We're working on a back-end as fast as we possibly can at the moment in order to allow anyone to upload their truck pending our approval, so we'll be rolling out into Sydney ASAP as they've just launched a pilot program for 10 food trucks,” he says.
Trucks roving throughout regional areas can also be traced. “Yeah, Dhaba curries are amazing and have recently been up in Woodend so we’ve been following them too,” Kinsman adds. While Le Sausage has recently sold the business (the new operator will continue it as a food van of some description), Kinsman confirms that yet another player will shortly be legally operating also.
“The new guy on the block is Big Moose's Parma Dogs, but he hasn't got council permission yet,” he says. “He’s awaiting council approval and has popped up a few times before that so he's been stung a few times… he’s a 'rogue' but will be right soon.”
And as to what other vans he’d love to see journeying the streets, Kinsman tells of his experience travelling through Los Angeles last year.
“We need Phamish’s Banh Mi and we need it badly,” he laughs. “I had one from Nom Nom Truck and they're amazing. Bloody good pizza vans wouldn't be too bad either, like a Ladro or D.O.C kind of vibe.” Sounds perfect.