List of Nation's 101 Best Food Trucks Announced

The Daily Meal’s latest annual report, 101 Best Food Trucks in America 2013, is out.  Here’s a peek of the results.

Red Hook Lobster Truck

Photo by Jane Bruce

1. Red Hook Lobster Truck                     NYC
2. Kogi BBQ                                            LA
3. Fojol Brothers                                      Washington D. C.
4. Big Gay Ice Cream Truck                     NYC
5. The Lime Truck                                    Orange County
6. East Side King                                      Austin
7. Rickshaw Stop                                     San Antonio
8. The Cinnamon Snail                              NYC
9. Where Ya At Matt                               Seattle
10. Chef Shack                                          Minneapolis

Some quick facts to point out – Los Angeles once again dominates the list, with 16 food trucks to its name. San Francisco and New York follow close behind with 11 and 10 trucks, respectively. Last year’s victor, Kogi BBQ  (Los Angeles), slipped to #2, while Red Hook Lobster Truck (NYC) grabbed this year’s #1 spot.

The Daily Meal shares insider info regarding the ranking . . .

To come up with a comprehensive pool of candidates we canvassed more than 40 cities, seeking out nearly 450 street vendors. To those we added staff favorites, and any trucks not already included that have been singled out for praise by organizations, and national and local publications, both in print and online.

First, a few notes. Only trucks were considered. If it was a trailer, or a cart, if it needed something to pull, drag, push, or carry it, if it wasn’t on at least four wheels and didn’t have the ability to move on its own power from parking ticket to parking spot, it was omitted.

Also, this is a list of food trucks. While a few dessert trucks ranked, they were the exceptions. If you just make cupcakes or serve coffee, you’re not a food truck — you’re a cupcake truck, or a coffee truck. That doesn’t mean you’re bad people. Nobody disputes the challenges of creating innovative desserts for mobile distribution, but with rare exception it didn’t seem fair to include trucks serving shaved ice, slushies, and ice cream with those doing full savory menus.

These factors eliminated quite a few contenders. Even so, it left at least a good 270 food trucks for consideration. These were judged on three criteria: critical review, social score, and originality.

We consulted popular review sites and tallied reviews and critical appraisal. We analyzed trucks’ number of Twitter followers and tallied visibility on Facebook. For originality, we examined menu innovation, concept, concept relative to inception (to wit, Asian tacos have become about as original as truffle oil fries, or a beet and goat cheese salad), and how that all might play into geography.

Although many trucks from our 2012 list are featured here, several of last year’s vendors have either closed or established brick-and-mortar locations. Eliminating them from the competition left significant room for newcomers. In fact, some of this year’s additions ranked highly enough to push out some of last year’s trucks that are still open.

Needless to say, despite everything we knew about the country’s best trucks, we discovered more — an impressive, growing legion of amazing people making some terrific food on trucks across America.

To check it out, go here.