This is the first summer food trucks are making their mark in Portland; a flurry of registrations has come in — seven trucks are licensed to operate in Portland, according to the Portland city clerk’s office.
The attraction is spreading: Bite Into Maine got its start in Cape Elizabeth. Love Cupcakes has a location in Falmouth, and is applying for a Portland license for its second truck. Wicked Good Street Kitchen has an application pending for a second truck, too.
Also still awaiting city approval are the Small Axe Truck (@SmallAxeTruck) and Ana’s Mobile Gourmet, which doesn’t have a prominent online presence yet. Facebook scuttlebutt suggests the Gorham Grind — gorhamgrind.com — is also looking for a site to locate a mobile caffeination station, and there are likely others considering joining the fray.
But even with the existing menu, there’s plenty to keep you occupied. Whether you’re a gluten-free vegan or a devoted carnivore, you prefer eating straight from your hands or with utensils, and no matter the hour or your mood, Portland’s food trucks already have a broad range of options.
So there’s really nothing to do but line up outside, have a nice quick chat with a busy food-truck worker, shoot the breeze with fellow customers while you wait, and pay a few bucks to have a delicious snack — or a full meal.
There’s just one bummer: most of them are closed or reduce hours on rainy days. We get that people are a lot less likely to want to stand around outside in the rain waiting for their food, but we Mainers so rarely let the weather prevent us from enjoying life that it’s hard to handle when business sense gets in the way.
To test your knowledge of the food-truck ecosystem, and to whet your appetite for further exploration, we’ve assembled photos of the people behind Portland’s mobile countertops, their delightful comestibles, and the logos on the trucks.
See below to match each photo of people in a food truck with their logo and contact information, and then with the photo of the food they serve. Putting the letters (or other characters) together at the bottom of the page, you’ll get an important message about enjoying the summer in Portland. (Solution at thephoenix.com/abouttown.)
