JOSH HILLER AND MORRIS APPEL

Partners, RoadStoves, L.A.

What’s watchworthy? Without them, there might not be a Kogi Taco Truck.

Little more than a year ago, you would probably scoff at the idea that two guys selling Korean tacos prepared inside a roving truck would launch one of the hottest food trends of the year. But Kogi, thanks to a company called RoadStoves, changed all that.

Hiller (the tall guy, below) and Appel (in the shorts, next to dad Herman) helped Kogi Korean BBQ founder Mark Manguera get moving by renting him a truck to could bring his food to the tweeting masses.

Kogi caught on quickly not just for its taste, but for the vehicles and the use of social media to promote their locations. The trucks and the promotions created a buzz and a receptive audience almost from Day 1. Read the full article HERE

The King of the Streets Moves Indoors

His Korean taco trucks took L.A. by storm. Now Roy Choi is tackling the restaurant business

Wall Street Journal – January 8, 2010 – By Katy McLaughlin

Chef Roy Choi is standing in front of the restaurant space he closed on a day ago. It’s a 10-table, bare-bones dive, with the previous operators’ pen-drawn signs for $4.95 entrees hanging in the windows in a small West Los Angeles strip mall. Mr. Choi says he plans to open in late February. He and his partners have decided not to redecorate.

“Come back here in May,” he says. “There will be pandemonium in this parking lot. Cars backed up 20 deep.”

From any other chef, the prediction would seem ludicrous. But Roy Choi has achieved unlikely success before: He turned “Korean tacos,” served from a truck, into one of the most talked-about food trends of last year. Now, the 39-year-old, Tupac Shakur-quoting chef is aiming to prove that his street-food success was no fluke and that his unique culinary persona—part flavor-fusion visionary, part classically trained chef, part street rebel—can change the future of food. Read the full article HERE

ECONOMIST.COM – More Intelligent Life

In these lean times, few have the capital to open a brick and mortar restaurant. Crafty chefs and entrepreneurs are turning trucks into kitchens and hitting the road in some American cities. Jessica Machado investigates …

Ah, the California Dream. Girls in short shorts, sunny afternoons in Venice Beach, drives down the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A cheesy truffle burger named “the cougar.”

The ladies behind Baby’s Badass Burgers in Los Angeles are living the young entrepreneurs’ fantasy: a cheap start-up (under $15,000), a hip theme (hot chicks serving meat) and a lucrative trend that’s only gaining momentum (mobile food).  Read the full Article HERE