Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Jewish Food Trucks Hit the Road

When culinary historians look back at the first two decades of the 21st century, they’ll no doubt conclude that this was the golden age of food trucks. Brightly colored trucks with kitschy names roll out onto the streets of cities across North America each day, dishing out delicacies like artisanal ice cream sandwiches, snacks from the Far East and gourmet tacos roadside.

This is particularly good news for lovers of Jewish cuisine. From Austin to San Diego to Atlanta, trucks have been doling out a range of Jewish and kosher food. In Los Angeles you can munch on egg rolls stuffed with corned beef; in Toronto, sample divine deli sandwiches served out of a truck with a pickle spear, and in New York, feast on a perfectly fried falafel.

Though the Jewish gourmet food truck may be a product of the 21st century, its roots go back to the early 20th century Jewish street food of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Men with knish carts plucked savory pastries out of warming drawers, serving up a quick and portable lunch for workers on the go, while Jewish families bought ingredients from pushcart peddlers. “You could pick up a cup of seltzer, a chunk of bread, a herring and a pickle and cobble together a funny little meal,” Jane Ziegelman, the curator of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum Food Series told the Forward.

In the roughly 100 years since then, the tradition of street food spread across the country. Pushcarts morphed into venues both for those seeking a quick, kosher lunch or for Jewish food enthusiasts less concerned with dietary restrictions. It wasn’t always the most appealing cuisine: Greasy knishes sold from lackluster food trucks ruled the scene for decades. But in May 2011, former “Top Chef” contestant Spike Mendelsohn sparked a revival of moving deli done right with his Sixth and Rye truck, which had D.C. customers waiting in half-hour lines for mouth-watering pastrami. Dozens of like-minded foodies followed in his wake, breathing new life into the kosher food truck scene.

Some trucks are strictly kosher; while others just celebrate the soul of Jewish-American cuisine. In honor of a century of mobile Jewish-American fare, we selected the stand-out Jewish food trucks from all over the states (and Canada, too).

If you could have one food truck stop outside of your office for lunch, which would it be?

The Deli on Wheels

Rolling Reuben’s in Atlanta, Ga.

Caplansky’s Deli Truck in Toronto

New York on Rye in San Diego, Calif.

A Taste of the Homeland

Moses Falafel in Austin, Texas

Da Falafel King in Honolulu, Hawaii

Taim Mobile in New York City

The Culinary Diaspora

Takosher in Los Angeles, Calif.

Chutzpah Truck in Orlando, Fla.

Schmuck With a Truck in Los Angeles, Calif.

M.O. Eggrolls in Los Angeles, Calif.

K-Wheelz in Dallas, Texas

Old World Food Truck in San Francisco, Calif.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.