This is the second anniversary of SideDish publishing a DFW food truck schedule and news. Food trucks first came into prominence in Dallas in May 2011. A reader comment at one point led us to start consolidating the weekly data and our first schedule was published on August 1, 2011. This week, however, I am gone. Off-grid. The table schedule will be back next week. In the meantime, I’ve worked with the Beecon Map folks to ensure that they still get the data this week and the map that you see above is accurate.
Let me tell you how this schedule gets put together each week. I have an ulterior motive, so stick with me. Each Friday, I remind the food truck operators who participate that I need their spreadsheet schedule by the next Monday at 10 a.m. Our tabular schedule is derived directly from the owner/operators. I’m not crazy enough to scour Facebook, Twitter, and web sites to derive each schedule. By Monday morning, typically, I’ve got less than 50%, so I send a reminder once more. By 2 p.m. or so, I’ve got about 90% to 95% in, so I can get started on the big spreadsheet consolidation. After that, it gets sent to the Beecon people to import into their mapping format and I import to the WordPress table format that you see. If an owner goes silent on me for 3-4 weeks, I presume that they are either out of business, that they see little value in being part of SideDish, or they don’t want to be found.
My motive: If you use our weekly schedule, tell the food truck owners. It is, after all, work for them to send to me their schedules each week. And if you don’t see a food truck on our schedule, tell them you want them there. If you are a food truck owner and want to be included, I’m not hard to find. Email [email protected].
For this coming week, events include Sprouts/Marsh on Tuesday, Sigel’s/Greenville on Wednesday, and “Summer Lovin'” with Easy Slider and Enticed Shaved Ice Thursday evening at Walgreens (Mockingbird/Matilda).
