America's fascination with food trucks has grown over the past 15 years from the traditional sandwich, taco or ice cream truck to a long list of culinary delights.
Food truck cuisine became more sophisticated around the time food truck Kogi BBQ launched in Los Angeles in 2008 serving a combination of Korean barbecue and Mexican tacos, which gained national attention, Restaurant Engine reported.
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The timing also coincided with the Great Recession, which pushed talented chefs out of brick and mortar restaurants and into food truck kitchens to offer their tasty dishes to the public with faster, easier access.
The 10 most popular options to hit the road lately, according to the Food Liability Insurance Program website, interesting enough are grilled cheese sandwich trucks, followed by the classic tacos or Mexican food, barbecue, gourmet burgers, mac n cheese, Indian cuisine, Thai food, french fries, vegetarian food and pizza.
Sorry old-timers, the ham and cheese sandwich on white bread truck didn't make the Top 10.
But today, all of those tasty cuisines in fancy decorated trucks often line up at farmers markets and community festivals to feed the hungry masses. The demand for more trucks for the food truck business has pushed one of the leading food truck designers into the limelight, as financial issues has forced it into bankruptcy.
Image source: Shutterstock.
Food truck maker files Chapter 11
One Fat Frog, which claims to be the nation's largest food truck manufacturer, on May 24 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida facing several lawsuits for alleged failure to deliver products that customers had paid for.
The Orlando, Fla.-based debtor listed $1 million to $10 million in assets and liabilities in its petition. It listed over $4.8 million in unsecured claims, which include debt owed to vendors, merchant cash advances and a court judgment.
The company is facing financial problems as in the past year it has been sued a dozen times from creditors demanding payments or customers claiming One Fat Frog allegedly failed to deliver their mobile kitchens after several requests, Orlando ABC television affiliate WFTV-9 reported.
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Memphis, Tenn.-based First Horizon Bank is a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits filed on April 25 in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida seeking an order requiring the debtor to hand over a mobile kitchen trailer whose security the bank claimed possession of after a One Fat Frog customer defaulted on a bank loan, according to court papers.
Billy & Jo Creole Cooking of Youngsville, La., in April 2023 secured a $69,299 loan from First Horizon to purchase a mobile kitchen trailer from One Fat Frog and granted the bank security interest in the mobile kitchen trailer, according to the lawsuit. Billy & Jo Creole had reached an agreement with One Fat Frog in April 2023 that called for the kitchen trailer maker to use proceeds from the loan to purchase a trailer and convert it to a mobile kitchen for Billy & Jo Creole.
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After converting the trailer, One Fat Frog was required to send the trailer to Billy & Jo Creole, but never delivered the trailer after several requests from the customer, court papers said. Without the trailer to be used to generate revenue, Billy & Jo defaulted on its loan, and First Horizon sought to take possession of the trailer from One Fat Frog.
First Horizon sent a written demand to One Fat Frog on Feb. 16 demanding return of the trailer to the bank, but the debtor has refused to deliver the trailer to the bank, according to court papers. The bank filed a lawsuit on April 25 consisting of two counts, replevin of the trailer and civil theft.
The bank seeks return of the trailer in the replevin count and trebel damages, prejudgment interest, attorneys fees and costs and any any such further relief the court deems just and proper in the civil theft count.
One Fat Frog's bankruptcy attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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