Sitting at the window table of Rickshaw Dumpling Bar‘s Flatiron restaurant, it’s hard to see why they need a food truck. The restaurant is nice, well-located (they have another in Midtown Manhattan) and the food comes out quick and tasty. Why ruin that with what is essentially just fancy-pants street food?
The answer is, because it works. Food trucks experienced a boom just as the economy started to tank. Restaurateurs who were hesitant to drop serious cash on launching a restaurant turned to mobile trucks as a less expensive way to sell food in a down economy. Social media has played a large role in not only making the trucks more accessible, but allowing them to cultivate the crucial element of community.
“It’s the social aspect,” says Kenny Lao, Rickshaw’s co-founder. “It’s really about shared experiences around food. I think what we’re doing with Twitter is an electronic version of that share.” He sees his restaurants as an older, established sibling living uptown, while his truck is like the younger brother fresh out of college and living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — different energies toward the same purpose.