More like a bistro on wheels than one of Los Angeles’s thousands of food trucks, the Gastrobus drives into the Court of Sciences at 10 a.m. after a two-hour drive from Sun Valley to open for the day’s lunch service.
Lana Medina, manager of the Gastrobus, described the bus as an “upscale taco truck,” serving gourmet sandwiches and sweet potato fries.
Everyday this quarter, different food trucks arrive on campus to fill the niche that the newly closed Bombshelter long provided for 1,400 to 1,800 customers daily.
“Usually I’m here and waiting,” said Lawrence Dimacali, a third-year biology student. “Instead of going all the way to Ackerman, I can just go here and get food from the trucks.”
Instead of creating a temporary food structure for the Court of Sciences, ASUCLA decided to contract various food trucks to provide lunch service between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., said Cindy Bolton, director of food service for ASUCLA Restaurants. This way, the expense of running an interim structure was circumvented, she said.
Originally, Bolton said she and Assistant Director John Mrwik were going to buy their own UCLA food truck.
“Honestly, we were sitting at a computer looking for a trailer to buy,” she said. “Then we found (the food trucks) and we said, “˜Wow, we can start this program.'”
Currently, ASUCLA has 17 trucks under contract, although that number is constantly changing, Bolton said. Some trucks have dropped out, but others are still requesting a spot on campus.
For this reason, no set schedule has been formulated for which truck will be on campus for what day.
“I expect that it will settle down and we’ll get into a pattern,” Bolton said. “It’s exciting this way, it’s like a surprise.”
Bolton said she expects the food trucks will help absorb some of the costs of closing the Bombshelter. To operate on campus, truck owners pay a percentage of the day’s earnings to ASUCLA, while adding no additional expenses to the association.
And business isn’t bad for the trucks either.
After the Gastrobus’s second visit to UCLA on Tuesday, Medina said she has heard only positive feedback from customers and sees the new location as a new opportunity.
Normally, the bus serves the Hollywood and Los Feliz area.
“It hits a whole other crowd for us because we don’t normally make it to the West Side,” Medina said.
“(The customers) really appreciate the food. I think it’s a really good audience. The teachers love it.”
Medina leases the truck with her husband, Antonio, who serves as the chef aboard the Gastrobus through a commissary of other food trucks. At the commissary, the trucks receive the water and power needed to operate the mobile restaurants.
Also at the facility, the trucks undergo health inspections every three to six months.
Lana left teaching full-time and Antonio left his job as the executive chef for the Wolfgang Puck restaurant at the Pacific Design Center to lease and jointly run the bus as husband and wife so they could spend more time together.
“It just really fell into place because it happened so fast,” Lana Medina said. “It was just meant to be.”
Antonio Medina incorporates food styles from his home country of Ecuador, as well as French and Carribbean influences into his cooking on the truck.
“(Antonio) is a very talented chef,” Medina said. “I’m always amazed how he can go into the refrigerator and make something of what I think is nothing.”
Amanda Pham, a third-year anthropology and public health student, has seen different food trucks outside her apartment but had never eaten at one until finding one in the Court of Sciences.
“Right now, food trucks are all the rage, so it’s kind of nice to see it on campus,” Pham said. “They’re a lot more obvious (than a normal restaurant) to me when I see them. “˜Oh, it’s a special thing.'”