It’s a cold night in February and my wife and I and several friends are standing around in the darkened parking lot behind the failed Greens mini golf course restaurant on Valencia and McBean. The only thing we can really see is our breath and countless people tapping furiously on their touchscreen smart phones. People are cursing. Some are smoking…stuff. There’s a general atmosphere of impatience, but we are all like-minded and share certain interests. There are hundreds of us milling about in the darkness, hours after all decent SCVers have gone to sleep. What were we doing there?
Food truck mania had hit the SCV and Kogi BBQ, a “Korean Fusion” truck, was on its way to town.
The experience back then in February underscores in my opinion what food truck dining is all about. It’s somewhat edgy. You need to be dedicated to be a food-trucker. It requires work, patience, skills and sometimes sprinting, Usain Bolt-style, to get in line. In other words, you have to be a true believer: a believer in the food truck scene, a believer in your friends’ recommendations, and a believer that you’ll be satisfied after consuming a tasty treat. There’s a lot of risk involved (like will the truck even come to the location you’re at? Will they run out of food before you get to the front of the line?), but sometimes the reward is really great.
Indeed, standing there in the dark with hundreds of other culinary comrades, hidden from the street, the Sheriff’s Deputies and all reputable SCVers, you almost got the feeling that you were an outlaw. “Hahaha,” you laughed, “I’m not eating at the SCV’s shitty chain restaurants tonight and none of my tax dollars are going to the City! Haha!”
All that’s changing now though. What was once authentic, underground, viral, the domain of the young and young-at-heart, the pride of the internet-connected SCV food snob, is now going mainstream in the worst possible way. Behold the death of an original SCV underground tradition: corporate multi-headed hydra and internet-savvy Newhall Land, the pater familias of the SCV, the very definition of the SCV Establishment, is organizing a “food truck festival” next month at Bridgeport Marketplace:
They just couldn't resist putting "Awesometown" in the ad, could they?Also, food trucks don't have hours. They start serving food whenever they get there, they stop serving food whenever they run out.
What was once in the dark will be in the light. What was once the domain of hipsters and cool people will now become the domain for khaki-wearing SCV dads and overprotective SCV moms driving their gigantic SUVs.
There will be bounce houses for the kids.
Clowns who tie animal balloons.
Who knows, there might even be a petting zoo. I’m sure the ducks in the Bridgeport Pond will be a hit with the kids.
And that ever present feature of the SCV events scene: the ubiquitous vendor booths- they will stretch for miles around the vacant Bridgeport Marketplace parking lot. While they try to sell you on a new mortgage, or new lawn care products or some new wonder car, they will hand out free schwag, schwag which you will only be too happy to take.
And like all scripted events in the SCV, this one will finish at 9pm so that little Riley and his sister Savannah can get a good night’s sleep before church the next morning. Speaking of, there’s a church right next door in case you want to say grace before you eat.
Oh woe is my generation. Our new-found, authentic tradition, which we lobbied for, created, and sustained for countless hours in the dead of the night -by ourselves- is being co-opted by corporate titans. Legitimized by the founders of Squarville. First the City took over our libraries, now Newhall Land takes over our food trucks. I dare ask, what’s next?
I am despondent. Along with scrappy, bohemian Old Town Newhall (which the food trucks started visiting recently, but I suppose that’s over as they abandon us for the squares in Valencia), the food truck scene was one of the few authentic aspects of life in this town. And now, like so many underground trends before it, it’s gotten too popular and it’s being brought out into the open. Sadface.
That said, I can’t wait. Hey Mike, Scott or NickelDime, save me a space if I’m late. See you there!
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