This afternoon a friend posted a link to Facebook about the local parks department hosting a gaggle of catering trucks this afternoon by the lake, and I was up and out the door. Few things can rival my enthusiasm for the park trails on a sunny day and food. Sweet, glorious, catering truck food!
There are a couple of street food gatherings in the area, between Munch Monday, Tasty Tuesdays, and the wealth of farmers markets. It was so nice to be able to visit Spring Lake and have a late lunch, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Sonoma County Parks. A number of rangers were around to speak about the park, offer memberships, information, and told me about some of the great education programs they offer. We are so lucky in Sonoma County to have 45 (!) community and regional parks! I typically hit the trails around Spring Lake and Howarth park three days a week, I love having access to such beautiful, well maintained, and abundant trails.
The parks department is considering making this a regular event, depending on the feedback and support from this afternoon. It was a beautiful walk on the trails to get to the boat launch, where three local food truck purveyors offered everything from burritos to calamari.
La Texanita offered tacos, tortas, flautas, and burritos. The Sebastopol Road restaurant, which was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, was established after they had the popular catering truck.
Alma Mendez of La Texanita also co-owns Street-Eatz with Jilly Dorman, with a menu full of pulled pork tacos, chicken pesto, rosemary fries, and a number of tasty fusion dishes. The Street-Eatz truck is a regular feature at the Wednesday Night Markets and Summer Nights.
Charlie Bruno’s Chuckwagon is a fairly new offering from Bruno’s on Fourth. Their tagline is “Mobile Comfort Food,” and they do not disappoint. They offered calamari, hot dog sandwiches, sausage rigatoni, and sweet potato fries, with a pair of umbrellas out front of their burnt orange truck to shade the patrons waiting for their orders.
Though in some places street food is synonymous with cheap food, don’t expect to find anything for less than about $5 from these trucks. With almost a full kitchen in each, it’s more like restaurant food (and prices). Few trucks take credit cards (Street Eatz offers to take cards with a .25 cent surcharge), and most meals are in the range of $8-9 each and $2 drinks. Hopefully the parks department will continue hosting Park-n-Eat at Spring Lake, any relevant updates will be made on the website and Facebook page.
And how often do you get a chance to enjoy some fresh food and a goose view? I just hope we see more vendors parking their trucks at the lake for such a nice mid week treat.
** June 22 Update**
The Sonoma County Regional Parks department has just announced that they are hosting Park-n-Eat at Spring Lake every Tuesday from 4 to 8pm through August 30th. 10% of each sale goes back to Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation to support children’s scholarships to the Environmental Discovery Center.
(c) Cath Tullysmith
Cath Tullysmith writes about her house, family, food, and living Waldorf at home at waldorfmodern.com. Her house projects have been featured on Soule Mama, Apartment Therapy, the Kitchn, and AOL’s DIY Life.
