That was the view from my table at lunch today. An Austin friend took me to Torchy’s, a taco trailer in the South Austin Trailer Park Eatery. Look at the menu:

 I love the idea of the food trailer park. They’re all over Austin, I’m told, but I’ve never seen them. Here’s what it looked like from my table:

Isn’t that great? Nothing fancy here — just picnic tables, a parking lot, and oak trees. In the left background, that’s a covered pavilion, so you can eat inside if the weather is bad. That’s Torchy’s next to it; there are a couple of other food trucks outside of the frame. I’m really excited about this concept, because it’s exactly what St. Francisville, my hometown needs. We could stand a greater diversity of cuisine and different places to eat, to mix things up. A food trailer park wouldn’t be all that difficult to set up, relative to a conventional restaurant, and could succeed with lower cost margins. Cooks could invest in a food trailer without a huge expenditure of money, and boy, would a place like this ever be popular. In my town, I could see a taco truck, an ice cream truck, and a Cajun food truck being sure-fire hits, and maybe something more eclectic and unusual, too. If I had the capability of doing something like this, I would figure out a menu that made ample and creative use of local produce during the growing months.

Anyway, Austin is always so much fun to visit. Great ideas here, and what a terrific food town! At some point over this weekend, I’m going to get to my favorite Austin restaurant, Curra’s.