Posted May 11, 201015 yr This tour was organized by Taco Trucks Columbus, Columbus Rides (run by a prominent local cyclist aside from moi), and Hal & Al's (bar, live music venue, and best vegan restaurant on Parsons). It was a cloudy day, but at least it didn't rain until we were a couple of blocks away from Hal & Al's. MAP (of taco truck locations & their specialties by Taco Trucks Columbus) Just crossed the Broad St bridge leaving Downtown. Video of us heading west on Sullivant to taco truck galore in the sprawling western end of this road which dead-ends into Georgesville Rd. Here we're in the urban stretch just having crossed under I-70. Gordita de buche. Not too bad. Blurry deliciousness Next door. Used to be an airport here. The hanger on the left is now a bar and the one on the right an auto shop. A little too much parking. Off to Georgesville Rd, which is industrial and car-oriented. Yup, there's head tacos. Steak gordita. I really liked the green jalapeño sauce. Bar up the street. I wonder if any not-so-bright parents ever took their kids to buy them candy at the "candy store". An actual vegetarian offering: cactus is tasty. We went down Greenlawn on the way back and took a small detour at the abbey. We arrived at Hal & Al's. It was down pouring for a while, so I had a handful of beers (or so) and some vegan food from Rad Dog (which operates inside of the bar. Parsons ain't so bad, though the owner told me a couple of residents were having a tiff in the street. Can't wait to try it out! Might be the first bike rack on Parsons and I got some installed in Franklinton and Linden. The city may have forgotten these streets, but not me.
May 11, 201015 yr The Georgesville Road area inhabited by the taco trucks is partly suburban and partly post-industrial. You can see the large grain elevator and storage structures in the background of some of the shots. I don't know whether its still in operation, but it used to be fed by the railroad tracks which still cross Georgesville Road at-grade. Good catch on the two repurposed airplane hangers from the airport that used to be in the area. Which must have been a long, long while ago because I have no memory of it and know very little about its history. Also, these truck locations are within a mile of the massive GM/Fisher Body/Delphi plant that is currently being demolished for the Columbus casino. Thanks for posting these Columbusite.
May 12, 201015 yr The food looks good, but this part of the city looks pretty ugly and suburban. Think of it as Queensgate meets Westwood. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
May 12, 201015 yr I am impressed it appears you can get some really authentic tacos there (lengua, chicharron, cabesa!). The whole ground beef thing is hardly the real deal. How does one track these trucks? do they move or are they fixed? I do get to Columbus from time to time, so I may want to check these out.
May 12, 201015 yr I am impressed it appears you can get some really authentic tacos there (lengua, chicharron, cabesa!). The whole ground beef thing is hardly the real deal. How does one track these trucks? do they move or are they fixed? I do get to Columbus from time to time, so I may want to check these out. At the awesomely great website: TACO TRUCKS COLUMBUS
May 12, 201015 yr Yes, it is not at all the most picturesque part of the Hilltop, much of which isn't too picturesque in the general sense (I like the grit) and I did in fact leave this stretch of Sullivant out of the Hilltop thread for that very reason. West of Demorest it's pretty much all a suburban style layout. Once you go west of 270 you're in Lincoln Village which is a weird hybrid of urban residential grid with a suburban commercial center along W Broad, so it's actually quite walkable and bikeable. As for the taco trucks they were notified ahead of time and there were twice as many as originally anticipated: around 40. If you want to know where they are Taco Trucks Columbus has a Google map with all of the locations of each truck: they go out of their way to search for them and keep their list up to date. Funny that the casino was mentioned, I forgot to mention that this area is within walking distance of the casino with Los Potosinos directly across the street and one of the most popular trucks with offers a unique pollo al carbon, which you won't find elsewhere. Despite not being the most ideal roads, they are fine for vehicular cyclists since drivers just pass in the left lane as seen in action in the video above, which was an avi video but won't post correctly...I'll get that fixed. Oh, and I also left out a few photos at the end which I added showing Parsons around the bar. The markings for a bike rack are thanks to my request to the city to install one. I'm guessing there's another because someone else, likely the bar, requested one too.
May 12, 201015 yr Taco trucks, what a great idea. And I've had Cactus salad before (not yet tacos -- they sound terrific though), it was very good. Good to see there is an effort underway to restore the Abbey.
May 17, 201015 yr Nice, a lot of those tacos looks quite authentic. Columbus has a decent Latino population on the west side of town. The whole taco truck thing is extremely popular in LA now, but they have a lot more than just ordinary tacos. Restaurant entrepeneurs use the trucks as mobile testing grounds for their products. We have Banh Mi trucks (Vietnamese sandwiches), Korean fusion taco trucks, Japanese fusion hot dog trucks... etc. The brilliance is that it's a cheap way to start a new business, you can move to wherever the action is (like campus on a friday/saturday night), and you develop a base of customers that use your Twitter/Facebook feeds to find where you are on any given day. Someone should totally start a Skyline Chili truck... I would but they don't franchise in California :(.
May 17, 201015 yr ^Yeah, the LA food truck scene is really amazing. Right around the corner from my apartment seems to be a popular place for them to line up, and I've seen just about every type of food possible. There's dim sum, Korean BBQ, Philly Cheesesteak Truck (also serves up a Korean BBQ Philly Cheese Steak), pizza, cupcakes, ice cream, Mexican, Vietnamese, Indian, and even a vegetarian/vegan only truck. It really adds to the food options in the neighborhood.
June 7, 201015 yr ^ yeah we have all those pan-ethnic trucks around ny too now as well as a bunch of goofy ones like the big gay ice cream truck, the cookie truck, etc. -- of course out here its not endemic like in la its just a trend so who knows how long it will last? fun thread, i felt like i was along for the ride...except now i'm hungry!
June 7, 201015 yr Those things are unsanitary roach motels! callate la boca cuchifrito breath!! have you been in any of your pr peoples joints? por favor can i have some gandules on my waterbugs? you should talk!! :wink:
June 8, 201015 yr Those things are unsanitary roach motels! callate la boca cuchifrito breath!! have you been in any of your pr peoples joints? por favor can i have some gandules on my waterbugs cucaracha? you should talk!! ;) LMAO! There a place called La Taza by you that is a straight dive - but the food is good. Yesterday I had some cuchifritos and chicharrones when I was in Queens.
June 8, 201015 yr Those things are unsanitary roach motels! From Taco Trucks Columubs FAQ: Taco Trucks are inspected by the Columbus Board of Health. Each truck should display a green Columbus Health Department Color Coded Inspection Sign with the date of the last inspection. Inspections occur at least once per year, just like any restaurant or food supplier. Taco Truck owners must have a peddlers license as well.
June 9, 201015 yr Among others are Central American (Honduran and Salvadoran) and South American (mainly just Colombian so far) represented in truck form; it's not just Mexican fare, although I won't complain about their abundance. I don't know of any purely Puerto Rican truck, but there is a Dominican one and aren't they just basically the same thing anyway? ;) We're about to get a Japanese crepe stand in addition to an existing array including a vegan hot dog stand, a BBQ truck (widely regarded as the best around), and a gourmet food truck, err, "mobile kitchen".
June 9, 201015 yr I don't know of any purely Puerto Rican truck, but there is a Dominican one and aren't they just basically the same thing anyway? ;)
June 10, 201015 yr I'll take that as a capital "N", capital "O", and a healthy dose of "!!!". Its the same as calling someone who is Persian, Arabian. Or calling an African American, West Indian. ;)
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