Specialty-food trucks popular in central Ohio

July 24, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

A line snakes early at Ray Ray’s Hog Pit, a barbecue truck in the Clintonville neighborhood where, on breezy days, the aroma of hickory-smoked brisket wafts for blocks.

The venture boasts no website, no tables and a terse posted reminder about the inventory: When it’s out, it’s out.

“My hand touches everything — from shopping and cooking to smiling at the customer,” said James Anderson, 32, who in November opened Ray Ray’s after operating a north side restaurant for four years.

Like dandelions through cracked asphalt, specialty food trucks have quietly sprung up around central Ohio, touting offbeat edibles such as egg- and hash-brown-stuffed breakfast tacos, white-truffle-oil grilled cheese served with arugula salad, and Asian-inspired crepes with fillings that include ahi tuna and fresh mango.

Viewed as a less-risky investment for newcomers — or an easy supplement to those with an eatery — area food-truck vendors cited startup costs ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, a fraction of the average cost to launch a brick-and-mortar bistro.

The notion of a more-manageable investment appealed to Carla Saunders, a former bakery owner who in June opened Three Babes and a Baker, a gyro truck she bought for $15,000 that has since been outfitted to bake and store cupcakes.

“It’s not too big, not too small,” said the 30-year-old Grove City resident, who sells varieties ranging from banana split to German chocolate on weekdays from a downtown parking lot at North High and Gay streets.

Kenny Kim and his wife, Misako Ohba, didn’t want to start a restaurant. They opted instead, on July 4, to launch the Foodie Cart, a pushcart peddling thin, Japanese-style crepes that Ohba perfected at a Tokyo pastry school.

Kim, who has worked in the kitchens of Mitchell’s Steakhouse and Dragonfly Neo-V, thinks the couple can turn a fast profit by cutting out rent, utilities and employee costs that restaurants must artfully balance to prosper.

“I figure that, if I’m doing all this work, I might as well do it for myself,” the 29-year-old east side resident said.

Others view mobility as a viable brand extension.

The nocturnal breakfast kitchen Eggfast this month opened an evening truck in a Harrison West parking lot at Pennsylvania and West 3rd avenues. With a limited menu of hash-brown casserole plus breakfast burritos and tacos, the truck helps balance the lack of business that the Ohio State University-area restaurant sees during summer break, said Eggfast manager Beau Foshee, 34, who was inspired by time spent living in the vibrant food-truck city of Austin, Texas.

Hungry nightclubbers can grab a nosh at Mike Sorboro’s Late Night Slice, a High Street newcomer — and an offshoot of his low-key pizza window and patio in the Short North.