Multi-City Edition

The Cassandras among us who predict the demise of the food truck seem to be missing the proverbial forest for the equally proverbial trees. In time, the singular food truck, parked alone on a commercial block, may fade. But it’s being replaced, and fast, by events that are virtual Woodstocks for food trucks. All 5,000 tickets for the recent LA Street Food Fest, held on the grass of the iconic Rose Bowl, sold out days before the event. The crowds at First Friday on Abbot Kinney in Venice seem to double from month to month. And now there’s one more monster food-truck rally headed our way: August 28 marks the debut of the OC Foodie Fest at the Honda Center (2695 E. Katella Ave.) in Anaheim from 11:30 AM–7:30 PM. Admission is $12 (in advance) for a chance to shop for arts and crafts in between nibbling on dishes from half a hundred food trucks – including Ahn-Joo, Barbie’s Q, Barcelona on the Go, The Buttermilk Truck, Coolhaus, The Dumpling Station, Fishlips Sushi, The Flying Pig Truck, Frysmith, Great Balls on Tires, India Jones, Komodo, The Gastro Bus, The Nom Nom Truck – even the fabled LudoTruck. Proceeds benefit St. Vincent Meals on Wheels, Pretend City Children’s Museum and Child S.H.A.R.E. For details, go to www.ocfoodiefest.com.

– Merrill Shindler

Limelight Marketplace

We already knew the Limelight Marketplace would be serving cupcakes and pizza (eventually – Grimaldi’s obviously didn’t make its midsummer opening date), and starting this weekend, it will offer the final piece of the junk-food trifecta: burgers. Limelight Grill is operated by Bruce Caulfield, the mind behind the Penn Station restaurant Tracks. Caulfield doesn’t just serve drinks to thirsty commuters. Back in 1990 he opened Bruce’s Burger, a teeny stand that served proprietary patties and chicken sandwiches.

Well, Bruce is bringing his signature burger recipe back, this time to the courtyard of the Marketplace. The restaurant can seat 40, and will be cash only for the time being. If you think you’ll be hungry after your weekend shopping, we scored the initial menu, which you can check out after the jump. And if you have any memories of Bruce’s Burgers, good, bad or meh, let us know in the comments!

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Come September, the City of Brotherly Love gets a new food happening when the first annual Feastival arrives as part of the Live Arts fest and Philly Fringe. The inaugural event on September 15 will include fare from dozens of local restaurants – including Amis, Buddakan, Garces Trading Company, Le Bec-Fin, MidAtlantic, R2L and Zahav. And just to keep things interesting, there will be an auction and a raffle too. Save the date and stay updated on Twitter (6–9 PM;  $200 per person; southwest corner of Fifth and Fairmount Streets; click here for tickets).

We were hoping Magnolia Bakery’s closure on Tuesday was going to be a quick blip, but it looks like those “mechanical and engineering” concerns might take a little longer to resolve. According to Eater, it’s now aiming to reopen Monday or Tuesday. Back to Sprinkles it is (323-951-0636).

Looks like Midtown is about to get a new megaclub. Reports are trickling out of the U.K. (like the ones here and here) that Manchester nightclub Sankeys is setting up an outpost on West 50th Street.

The club, which will be located in a former garage, will be able to hold 1,100 guests in over 16,000 square feet. U.K. club-goers love the original’s techno-heavy roster of DJs and strobe-heavy lighting design. The U.S. club promises the same elements, and plans to open in 2011. This will be the area’s second giant dance space, since Pacha is located a few blocks down.

Meet MAX (Maple Avenue eXpress), the latest addition to the truck fleet invigorating casual dining in and around DC. An offshoot of the up-and-coming Maple Avenue Restaurant in Vienna, the truck tweets its locations from spots in Tysons Corner, Reston and Mclean while dispensing winners from the eclectic American restaurant’s menu – think bulgogi banh mi, pulled pork with pickled slaw and maple bacon cupcakes. It also shows up at the Reston Farmers Market. Follow it on Twitter or Facebook.

Forget everything your mother said about drinking and tattoos. Hornitos Tequila is opening a pop-up on Sunday, 1 August, that will offer complimentary cocktails for the first 2,000 visitors and temporary tattoos for the willing. In keeping with its urban art theme, the Graffiti KiNGS will also be helping you access your inner graffiti artist, should the fancy take you. The event celebrates the end of a U.K.-wide search for a tattoo artist ultimately commissioned to design a limited edition Hornitos Tequila bottle (noon–6 PM; 020-7770-6000; Dray Walk Gallery, just off Brick Lane, E1; more info here).

– Roger Clarke

Because everyone loves dinner and a movie, Haley House Bakery & Café in Roxbury is presenting just that on Friday, July 30, as part of the Roxbury International Film Festival. The movie in question, Machete Joe, is a campy horror flick about a group of actors shooting a campy horror flick, while the grub will consist of plenty of local barbecue and summer salads ($25 per person; to order a ticket, click here; 617-445-0900).

For today’s edition of How Local Is It?, we thought we’d check in with Nuela. After all, if you head there tonight you can get some local cuisine and a free drink. Not too shabby.

Chef Adam Schop is cooking up a menu full of Latin American flair. Much has been made of his ceviches, but we decided to take a look at the seco de cabrito. After all, the goat in the dish is a native New Yorker (represent!).

The plate ($33) features roasted goat saddle, confit shoulder, croqueta and a mix of summer vegetables. But, it’s the Empire State livestock that interests us. It was raised on Whiskey Hill Farms, up in Waterloo, NY. So, how far did it have to travel to get here? To the map!

Distance: 273 miles
Driving time: 5 hours and 2 minutes
Passed along the way: Cayuga Lake (one of the Finger Lakes); Scranton, PA (shout-out to Dunder Mifflin!); The Edison National Historic Site

So, it’s not quite as local as our last dish, but you don’t see too many goats being raised on Brooklyn rooftops (at least we hope not).

Bruce Hill (Picco, Pizzeria Pico and BIX) brings his pizzaiolo mojo to Zero Zero, a new SoMa Italian specializing in Neapolitan-style wood-fired pies, along with house-cured meats, pastas and his signature soft-serve ice creams; the name refers to the brand of flour used to achieve the perfect crust, while the design of the bi-level eatery pays homage to 1900s, with flame-inspired lighting and bars upstairs and down, pouring classic cocktails.

826 Folsom St.; 415-348-8800

• See more new restaurants in San Francisco

• – What makes food stick-worthy? And Irish stew on a stick, really? [Chow]
• – Food trucks gain popularity in suburbs. [BG, via GS:B]
• – Meanwhile, Chicago inches closer to getting food trucks of its own. [Stew]
• – Aged meat, overrated? [Atlantic]
• – Investigating the POM papers. [NYer]
• – Did Graham Elliot Bowles drop the Bowles? [TOC]
• – Whole Foods’ shoplifting conundrum. [Chicago]
• – Why should anyone get preferential treatment in a restaurant? [ISSF]
• – America’s caffeine capitals. [Daily Beast]
• – Charles Barkley, great spokesman. [Forbes]
• – Rachael Ray, drawn in Cheetos. [Eater]
• – Would overweight people lose weight faster if we called them fat instead of obese? [Reuters]
• – Star Wars cakes are always fun. [SI]
• – WE.tv’s Put a Ring on It teams up with a New York man for an awesome restaurant proposal (skip to 5:07 if you are in a rush). [YouTube]