TOTALLY TRUCKED
Two different events created a schism by attempting to unite Reno’s food truck scene
by Brad Bynum bradb@newsreview.com
On May 10, a blog entry titled “Lessons in Shady Business Practices” appeared on Notes from Food Truckin’, a blog maintained by Haley Wood and Jesse Watnes, the proprietors of GourMelt Grilled Cheese Truck, one of the most prominent food trucks in Reno’s now burgeoning mobile food movement. “Reno Food Truck Fridays took a few months and lots of leg work by the two of us to plan,” the blog entry begins. “We had never planned an event before. Our goal was to bring all of the trucks together in one location in order to show Reno what we’re all about. … The success of RFTF was amazing and unexpected. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people came to the first two. This was a great turnout, but, of course, it did lead to long lines.” The entire post can be read at foodtruckin.blogspot.com, but the controversial bit comes a few paragraphs later: “Then yesterday, we received a call. We were invited to attend an event on Friday nights (other than first Fridays) at the same location, with live music and local artisans and ... wait ... this sounds familiar. Someone had called to invite us to our own event. The idea that we had and created and did all the work for is now being taken over by a company who wants to charge a fee plus a percentage. (Wow, they will make some money off our idea.) I am amazed and astounded. Does this happen in real life? Do people just copy an event verbatim and call it their own? These are businesses we have worked with before and thought of as colleagues. In fact, they asked me for a list of food trucks so they could do a page in their publication devoted to food trucks. Little did I know that list was needed to poach our event. They didn’t even talk to us about extending the event or consult us. They just swooped in for the
markeing and public relations company, and Goodman is the co-publisher and advertising director of Edible Reno-Tahoe Magazine. Joe Horn of Dish Café is a silent partner. The first Reno Street Food event is from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, June 8, at the old Regional Transportation Commission Citicenter bus station near the corner of Fourth and Center streets in downtown Reno, featuring many local mobile food units, like Dish Truck, serving up gourmet and artisan cuisine, as well as beer from the Great Basin Brewing Co. and activities for all ages.
kill. I am beginning to realize that as much as Reno talks about supporting each other, that is definitely not always the case. These people want to make money off of what they see as a successful event.” The blog post went viral among local foodies, who reposted it on Facebook and other social media sites, and discussed it at length on their own blogs. The tone of the commentary was often incredulous. Here’s the first comment beneath the original blog post, for example, with internet-casual grammar and punctuation intact: “incredible. i say expose them—name names. i would prefer to support YOU, not some copycat.” Much of the commentary included demands to reveal the identity of the “copycat.”
“It was just taking a chance, a leap.”
OUT ON THE STREET “Reno Street Food is a new company,” said Steve Schroeder over coffee on a recent weekday morning. “It’s a food event production company, so it’s not just limited to the one event. For organizations, RSCVA, events in town, Reno Street Foods is a one-call turnkey. ‘Hey, we want to put on an event. Can you bring trucks?’ Rather than the event producer trying to rally trucks, call each of the owner-operators, go through the health department, ‘Do you have your business license? Give me a copy of your insurance.’ They call us, we’ve already got it handled.” Schroeder is co-owner of Reno Street Food with Jaci Goodman. Schroeder is also the president of Synergy Communications, a
Haley Wood Co-proprietor, GourMelt Grilled Cheese Truck
Perceptive readers might notice a superficial resemblance to Reno Food Truck Fridays, last held from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, June 1, at the old Regional Transportation Commission Citicenter bus station near the corner of Fourth and Center streets in downtown Reno, featuring many local mobile food units, like Dish Truck, serving up gourmet and artisan cuisine, as well as beer from the Great Basin Brewing Co. and activities for all ages. Of course, food trucks are not exclusive to either of these events. For
instance, the Whole Foods Farmers Market in Sparks, which opens this evening, will have a food truck court. The first RFTF event was held on April 6. News coverage leading up to the event, including in this newspaper, focused on the up-and-coming culinary trend of gourmet mobile units, and postulated the event as a unifying gathering among the food trucks and local foodies. The event is recurring on the first Friday of every month through the duration of the summer, and though the first two events were considered successful, they did attract certain complaints, largely because the events were so successful, which led to long, unwieldy lines and wait times. “There was talk amongst truck owners about if we should increase it to maybe bimonthly or something like that, but it being so new and only having two—actually when the first discussion came up, we’d only had one event, the first one—so we thought maybe, let’s see how it goes into the season, maybe that was a fluke,” said Wood in a recent phone conversation. “So nobody actually talked to us about expanding the event before going ahead and applying for the permits. The only way we found out about it was by getting an invitation to the new event.” Though Wood sees Reno Street Food as an imitation event, for Goodman and Schroeder, the two events are both part of the same larger cultural movement. “Well, if I opened a restaurant, would every restaurant owner think I was copying them?” said Schroeder. “We’ve had an interest as a new business in the food truck movement, the mobile food truck movement, the pop-up restaurant movement. There’s a food movement taking place in the United States, and Reno is now on the map. We’re not behind. We’re not ahead. We’re right there. It’s taking advantage of the movement of what people are seeing in Portland, San Antonio, San Francisco, Austin. So we’re not copying something in Reno. We’re copying something that’s taking place nationwide as a gourmet food movement. It’s not just a barbecue movement. It’s not just a farmers’ market movement. It’s a gourmet food movement—the folks that have invested in artisan stuff. Someone’s put together a truck or a mobile trailer or even a pop-up tent. But what they’re offering is unique ingredients—maybe they’re locavore ingredients, maybe not—but they’ve gone out of the box to create something that’s unique. That’s what we’re celebrating.”
UCKED” “TOTALLYconTR tinu ed on pag e 12 OPINION
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NEWS
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ARTS&CULTURE
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ART OF THE STATE
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FOODFINDS
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FILM
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MUSICBEAT
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THIS WEEK
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JUNE 7, 2012
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RN&R
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