Vegas Streats Festival Food Trucks Ran Over by Crowds

August 14, 2011

Fukuburger Truck

Muncheeze - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Tasty Bunz

The monthly Vegas Streats Festival was held on August 13, 2011. This was the 6th monthly festival in a row and is growing larger each month. East Fremont was hammered by flocks of people to get a chance to listen to some music, see some art and stand in extremely long lines for food from speciality food trucks. Has the Las Vegas Streats Festival become too big to handle the crowds?  Well, I went down to East Fremont about 8:30pm, again a long line just to enter the festival area like last month but bigger. My intention was to sample a few new trucks this month.  I wanted to check out Fukuburger, Muncheeze, and stop by Snow Ono for a tasty cool treat. But, the lines. The lines were quite long. They were 30-40 people deep at most trucks just to place an order.  Fukuburger, I know you have lots of fans, but damn, that line was ridiculously long. I had to pass you guys up this time (Fukuburger), catch you at a different venue.

I got in the line for Muncheeze, I was hoping these guys were cranking it out.  Well it took over 30 minutes just to get up to the window and to place my order.  I walked around while the food was getting prepared., came back, and then walked around some more.  Now the thing I noticed over the previous month was the masses of people at the festival lined up at the trucks.  There was a continuos line of people outside waiting to get in and it extended half way down the block to the Beat Coffee shop.  I went back to the Muncheeze truck to see if my order was up. Nope. I even spent some time talking to a girl who was handing out menus for Muncheeze and she pointed out what was the most popular items on the menu.  She even mentioned something about a management change and that it was now a family business.  I even got to visit the inter sanctum inside the truck to snap a few photos.

About 30+ minutes passed after placing my order, the food was ready.  My food review will be in a separate post from this one. Spoiler – I like the food from Muncheeze.  Now, I am a great fan of food trucks, but this will probably be my last time at the Vegas Streats Festival.  I really don’t blame the guys and girls in the trucks, but they need to step it up or scale it up a little to move the food out faster.  Now this was just not a problem for this food truck. This seemed to be the theme affecting all the food vendors.  I went over to the Snow Ono truck and there was no line at the window, I walked up ready to place my order and the guy said that there is an 1 hour wait to get your order.  At this point, I said to myself, the Vegas Streat Festival (at least for the food trucks) have hit their maximum capacity.  I will meet up with them on an individual basis at other venues, not here for future food eats.

My hopes for the Vegas Streats Festival, I guess was too high. The music was good, the mix of people, the artists, even the El Cortez placed at least a half dozen more tables out since last time, but fell short in delivering enough food out their windows of those fabulous trucks.  I will just have to track your trucks down in a less crowed place.

Food trucks and business mention in this article:

http://muncheezetruck.com/
http://snowonoshaveice.com
http://www.fukuburger.com
http://www.thebeatlv.com
http://vegasstreats.com
http://tastybunz.com
http://www.elcortezhotelcasino.com

Photos by LasVegas360.com

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Taking it to the Streets – Vegas StrEats Festival

August 11, 2011

The Food Network is getting ready for the premiere of the second season of The Great Food Truck Race, which airs Sunday August 14, 2011 10pm/9c.  Now, you have to chance to experience Las Vegas’ food trucks in the monthly Las Vegas Streats Festival.  The Festival starts at 6pm – 2am August 13, 2011 in Downtown Las Vegas across the street from the El Cortez. Admission is free and there will be Live Music, Dj’s, and Artist, and along with Vegas’ own upscale Food Trucks. Including: Slidin’ Thru, Fukuburger, Tasty Buns, Snow Ono, Muncheeze, Lulu’s On the Move and others. Great food and music bringing new life to the downtown, see you there.

For a quick recap of last month’s Vegas Streats Festival – see July’s post and pictures.

VegasStreats

Vegas Streats Festival - Saturday August 13, 2011 @6pm-2am

Visit their website http://www.vegasstreats.com

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Luv-It Frozen Custard

July 26, 2011
Luv-it Frozen Custard

Luv-it Frozen Custard

Every town has a favorite ice cream shop.  I left behind my favorite custard stand, Glen’s Frozen Custard, when we moved from our small town of Springdale, Pennsylvania to Las Vegas in the early 1970s. Lucky for me that same year, 1973, Luv-It Frozen Custard, opened in Las Vegas and has been serving up delicious, frozen custard from the same location to loyal locals for nearly four decades.

Luv-It is located just off of the Las Vegas Strip, next to Olympic Gardens Gentlemen’s Club, it’s not in the best neighborhood, but that only seems to add to its authenticity. The small building serves frozen custard through a small walk up window and has survived mainly on word-of-mouth advertising for 38 years.

Luv-It Frozen Custard specializes in sundaes, cones, shakes, malts, and floats.  Root beer floats, whips, luv sticks and chocolate covered frozen bananas are also favorites. They have basic sundaes banana splits etc… but are known for their own creations. Their top seller is the Western, which is vanilla custard topped with hot fudge, caramel and salted pecans. But my personal favorite is the Scotch Jimmie, vanilla custard, butterscotch, bananas and chocolate jimmies or sprinkles. You can get a regular size (3 scoops) or a junior size (2 scoops). Pints, quarts and half gallons are available as packaged to go products.

Like many long-time Las Vegans, I have had a long love affair with Luv-It Frozen Custard, beginning in my early childhood when I would beg my parents to take me there as often as possible and through my teenage years where I drove past the store to and from high school (and usually stopped on my way home from school).  As a young adult living near-by, I would stop by to get a late night treat and now I proudly take my children there so they can enjoy what has been a favorite of mine for so many years.

Luv-It Frozen Custard is located…

Just off The Strip (Las Vegas Blvd. just one building away)

505 E. Oakey Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89104

(702)384-6452

Located within WALKING DISTANCE from the Stratosphere (one light) between Sahara Ave. and Charleston Blvd.

Hours of operation are:

1pm-10pm Sun-THU

1pm-11pm FRI-SAT

CASH ONLY

Luv It Frozen Custard on Urbanspoon

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Slidin’ Thru – Hittin’ the Hot Streets of Vegas

July 22, 2011

In 2010, I got hooked on the Food Channel’s The Great Food Truck Race which is a reality television show featuring teams of specialty food trucks competing against each other. The show was very engaging as they competed across the United Stated, cooking, driving and selling food to make money. After watching the series I told myself that the food looks like it would taste real good and I would go to one in a heartbeat. Remember, that this is not your run-of-the-mill “roach coach” frequented by construction workers, these are speciality food trucks dishing up highly sophisticated meals with a twist.

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to go to the Vegas StrEATS Festival, it was held downtown and offered about ten different food trucks. The Festival has been held since March of 2010 and happens on the second Saturday of each month. Many of the trucks use Twitter or their web site to keep everyone posted on their whereabouts. Facebook also enables them to talk to their fans and keep everyone up to date. This was the first time that I tried out the Slidin’ Thru slider truck, they specialize in mini gourmet burgers. The term “slider” usually conjures up the grease laden belly bombers from White Castle from back in the day. Well these aren’t your dad’s sliders, these are mini bites of flavor with ingredients like grilled eggplant, Roma tomatoes, arugula, caramelized jalapeño, feta and balsamic reduction.

Slidin' Thru Food Truck

Slidin' Thru Food Truck

I recently had a second chance to sample most of the slider combinations they offer. I had the Pep Pep, Captian’s Order, and the Pulled Porky, the time before was the YaYa and the Barby. So I have covered all of them except the Carprese (next time). I will give you the run down in order of my favorites, Pulled Porky was the best, follow by the Barby, Pep Pep, Yaya, and Captian’s Order. All of the burgers were fully loaded and had a lot to offer. The Porky was stuffed with pulled pork which contrasted with the spiciness of the caramelized jalapeños and the sweetness of the BBQ sauce and I needed a fork to gather up the spilled bits of goodness, nothing to waste. The Fries both regular and sweet potato fries really surprised me with how good they are coming out a food truck. The burgers were cooked to perfection and prepared with detail in mind. This actually seems to be one of their down falls, the waiting time.  If you are in a hurry and there is a long line, be prepared to wait a while.

The colorful Slidin’ Thru truck is wrapped in a comic book style motif and can’t be missed.  The Mexi-Cokes and Sprite drinks are all served in  old school glass bottles and need to be opened with a bottle opener. The prices are good, $7 will buy you 3 sliders in any combination, and at 3 you will be full.

They currently have a sit down restaurant located at 955 Grier Drive near Sunset and Paradise, phone 702-220-3888  slidinthru.com

Hours are: MON-THU (10:30 AM – 12 AM) and FRI-SUN (OPEN 24/7)

They also tell us that they have two more stores opening soon on the northwest and southwest end of town.

Slidin' Thru

From left: Pep Pep, Captain's Order and Pulled Porky

Slidin' Thru Comic Book Motif

Slider Truck on Urbanspoon

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Armagosa Sand Dunes, Nevada

GPS Position: N36o 39.00 W116o 33.83 (WGS 84)

Armagosa Sand Dunes, Nevada

Armagosa Sand Dunes, Nevada

Just a short hour and a half drive North of Las Vegas is the Armagosa Sand Dunes. Amargosa or Big Dune is a playground that covers about five square miles of dunes and dips, and its centerpiece is a peak that tops out at 500 feet. These hills, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, are a well-kept secret and mostly used by locals, but expect to find plenty of other off-roaders on the weekends. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the entire dune system is open to all types of motorized vehicles, except for a small five acre enclosure delineated by “Carsonite” posts. In addition, there are several trails leading into the mountains southwest of the Dunes which are fun to explore.

How to get there:

At the starting point of Hwy 95 and Ann Road in Las Vegas, travel on Hwy 95 North 76 miles until the Death Vally/Armagosa Valley junction. Continue through the junction and travel 8.2 miles to Valley View Rd./Armagosa Farms Rd. Turn Left and go 1.1 miles then turn right onto a dirt road and proceed 1.3 miles until you reach the dunes.

Posted by: Webmaster      catagory Off The Beaten Path, Way Off the Beaten Path comments 1 Comment