Image by Cara Wilwerding | DN

LINCOLN, NE – It’s the grub of the road. Meals on wheels. Cuisine on the run.

Lincoln’s food trucks seem to be less numerous than those in bustling cities, but owners expect them to continue expanding in size and variety.

“It’s new,” El Rancho employee, Daniel Alejandro Melendez said about Lincoln’s food truck culture. “Inside in the restaurant, when I speak with Latino clients, they tell me that Chicago and New York have a bunch of taco trucks… It’s new, but I think it’s going to grow up.”

At this point, a proposed city ordinance may be the only roadblock standing in the way of these mobile kitchens’ success. The plan would allow trucks to park at certain downtown meters, after paying a $50 annual tax, a $25-per-employee fee, covering $500,000 in liability insurance, a $50 annual city permit, in addition to $10 per day for the metered spot. Designated parking spots would need to be at least half a block from downtown restaurants, but the Nebraska Restaurant Association still isn’t happy with the proposal, according to a recent Lincoln Journal Star article.

However, until the ordinance passes, food trucks are stuck vending only on private property.

“Right now, with the ordinance being the way it is, it’s kind of limiting a lot of people from opening up food trucks,” Heoya employee Charles Nguyen said.

Helping each other along the way, Lincoln’s food truck owners are trying to pave their way to success. Four trucks in particular seem to be leading the pack.

Find the entire article by Cara Wilwerding at dailynebraskan.com <here>