Dining at a different type of truck stop

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Food trucks aren’t a new -- but a new mobile food court? The dining room was a 30-foot table with plastic chairs set up near four food trucks parked in front of the loading docks off Traction Avenue and South Alameda Street in downtown.

Portable food courts are the latest trend in the Twitter-fueled gourmet food truck craze, eliminating the need for the typical cat-and-mouse chases around town. Thursday’s event was a test run that vendors hope will address concerns about the vehicles, such as parking, littering and confrontations with restaurant owners, many of whom believe the trucks steal away potential customers.

‘We don’t want to make waves,’ said Matt Geller, vice president of the SoCal Mobile Food Vendors Assn. ‘We’re trying to keep things on an even keel.’

Geller, who organized the downtown event and is planning future mobile food courts, said he hopes to find property that’s not too close to restaurants.

Read the rest of Nicole Santa Cruz’s story here.