Miami Food Truck Events & History All Over South Florida

Very few folks were familiar with the food truck movement sweeping across the U.S. when the rumblings started in Miami.

I had seen pictures and read about the growing scenes in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and New York.

MIAMI FOOD TRUCK BEGINNINGS

I was excited to see what kind of flavor Miami would bring to the food truck scene.

The gastroPod ushered in the food truck revolution in South Florida with his temporary trailer nicknamed The Shiny Twinkie.

The gastroPod’s 1962 Airstream Trailer that would be closely associated with Miami’s mobile food scene’s early days did not make its debut until January 2010.

Jeremiah Clauser, chef and owner of the gastroPod, had been planning its debut since late 2008. It would take almost a full year until his plans were realized.

On November 3rd, 2009, Chef Jeremiah posted this comment on his Twitter account.

Latin Burger & Taco (who had celebrity chef Ingrid Hoffman behind it) and the Yellow Submarine food trucks followed not too long afterward.

MIAMI FOOD TRUCK EVENTS

By the summer of 2009, the number of vehicles was hovering around ten.

A few short months later, on September 12th, 2009, I curated the 1st food truck event in Florida, the Fall for the Arts Festival.

It started the craze of events down here that led to the weekly Miami Street Food Court, B.T.T.R., and the now-legendary event Lexus of Kendall.

The latter was a mega event where thousands descended upon a car dealership with their families to eat on a Friday night.

Over the years, we’ve had out of town food trucks visit like AZ Canteen and CoolHaus.

On April 20th, 2013, the Miami Food Trucks set the Guinness World Record for Largest Food Truck Parade with 62 mobile vehicles at Magic City Casino.

I need to include honorable mentions for AC’s Icees, serving lemonades in Coconut Grove for over 30 years, and Pincho Man, the original Miami food truck megastar.

Both are still around today.

Unfortunately, at the moment, there are very few recurring Miami-Dade County events.