Taco trucks

Taco trucks are mobile kitchens, usually converted vans, step vans or trailers, that sell tacos and other Mexican street food at curbsides, work sites and parking lots across the United States. Long a working-class institution of Mexican American neighborhoods, especially in Los Angeles, they gained new visibility after 2008, when the Korean taco truck Kogi helped launch the gourmet food truck boom.

History

Mobile food sellers have long fed workers in Southern California, parking along roadsides and at construction sites; for decades their trucks were dismissed as roach coaches, National Geographic notes. In Los Angeles the Mexican lonchera became a defining part of the street landscape. Gustavo Arellano has named King Taco among the most important tacos in history: its founder, Raul Martínez Sr., built his first taco truck by converting an old ice cream truck, and the business grew into a Los Angeles restaurant chain that celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2014.

In 2008 Roy Choi's Kogi BBQ truck began selling Korean short rib tacos and announcing its locations on Twitter, drawing crowds of young diners. L.A. Taco writes that the city's taco trucks are often divided into those founded before and after 2008, and that Kogi took its cues from the existing loncheras while bringing new energy to them. The recession of that year made trucks attractive, since they cost a fraction of a restaurant, and by 2015 National Geographic described a gourmet food truck industry worth about 800 million dollars a year in cities including San Francisco, Austin and Washington.

In politics and culture

Taco trucks became a political symbol during the 2016 US presidential campaign, when Marco Gutierrez, founder of the group Latinos for Trump, warned on television that continued Mexican immigration would lead to taco trucks on every corner.

Operations

A typical truck or trailer works from a flat-top griddle, sometimes with a vertical trompo for al pastor, and a short menu of tacos, burritos, quesadillas and tortas, with salsas, onion, cilantro, radish and lime set out for customers. In Texas, where many taquerías operate from parked trailers, owners endure extreme heat: Texas Monthly reported in 2024 that the interior of one Austin trailer, running fryers, burners and a flat-top all day, reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit, and that several operators cut hours or staff during summer as sales fell by a third or more. Regional specialties now travel by truck, from Oaxacan dishes in Austin to birria, which spread through Texas in the late 2010s partly from trailers such as San Antonio's El Remedio.

Where to try it

• King Taco, Los Angeles, California: Began as Raul Martínez Sr.'s taco truck built from a converted ice cream truck.
• Kogi BBQ, Los Angeles, California: Korean taco truck launched in 2008 that sparked the gourmet food truck boom.

Reviews

See also

• Korean taco
• Cal-Mex tacos
• Birria boom
• Tacos al pastor
• Tacos de carne asada

References

1. "The 10 Most Important Tacos in Taco History". OC Weekly. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
2. "How One Korean Taco Truck Launched an $800 Million Industry". National Geographic. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
3. "Highlights from the Rogue 99 ~ Kogi BBQ". L.A. Taco. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
4. "Summer Weather's Been Hell for Taco Truck Owners. Here's How They Deal With It.". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
5. "Taco truck". Wikipedia (lead for the 2016 Marco Gutierrez remark, originally reported by NBC News). Retrieved 2026-10-10.