KEEP ON TRUCKING: Food trucks seek to simplify the dizzying menu of municipal regulations.

• Author: Taylor, Adva

Ten years ago, people were of two minds about food trucks. Either people envisioned sandwich carts that set up shop outside construction sites, or they saw them as what many called "roach coaches" serving "street meat"--in short, not exactly places you'd want to buy a meal if you didn't want to regret it afterward

"People thought of food trucks as roach coaches, but most of the food trucks in operation are at least as well run as a restaurant kitchen," says Maxwell Powell chairman of the Utah Food Truck Association and co-owner of food truck Thiep's Eats. "I can say that--we have a [brick-and-mortar] restaurant too, and compared to a restaurant, we're monitored even better by the health department and the city."

Then came the food truck revolution. Those with culinary ambition realized they could open food trucks for less financial outlay than a traditional restaurant, and they could also specialize in whatever culinary niche they truly loved: ice cream, crepes, Hawaiian BBQ, Philly cheesesteaks, etc.

Today, people have embraced food trucks--both in starting and in frequenting them. You can see food trucks all over Utah, from festivals to weekday staples, from Logan to St. George.

Powell says that while there's no official number (how would you count them, he asks--would you count things like taco carts?), he believes the amount of food trucks along the Wasatch Front has probably doubled or more in the past two or three years, from 50-100 to 150-200.

But while the number of food trucks continues to expand, the infrastructure around the industry is slower moving. Regulations for food trucks are simplifying but remain a mess to be untangled, while scheduling remains a difficult and costly hassle--and the influx of new trucks into the community means competition is constantly on the rise.

REGULATIONS: GETTING STARTED

When Daysha Filipe moved back home after school at age 21, she "just decided to open a food truck." She was armed with the knowledge she'd picked up from working at her family's Hawaiian restaurant since she was 12, and with a handful of recipes she'd worked on modernizing (like her Kalua pork sandwich with pineapple jalapeno barbecue sauce, fried onions and coleslaw). She expected the transition from her family's restaurant to her own food truck, The Salty Pineapple, would be easy.

"I started it by myself, so trying to be the cook, the accountant, the overall [operations] person--that was rough. I just had my little brother with...