Food trucks returning to Porch at 30th Street

Originally published at philly.com

Food trucks returning to Porch at 30th Street

by Michael Klein, Staff Writer  @phillyinsider

The Porch at 30th Street Station will resume its rotating list of food vendors this season, and it has put out a call for trucks to serve breakfast and lunch five days a week from April to October.

If new plans materialize, there will be dinner service later this summer, and possibly even year-round operation, said Andrew Stober of the University City District, which manages the Porch, a landscaped setup on the apron on the train station's Market Street side.

A variety of food trucks had been part of the Porch from 2012 through 2014. Last season, the UCD opted for a single food truck and a beverage cart operated by one vendor, Michael Schulson, annoying the regular vendors. When that agreement expired - a mutual decision, said Stober and Schulson - the UCD decided to return to the rotating lineup.

"The Porch is this great laboratory for public space," Stober said. "We experience, we learn, and we refine." 

If there was a boost from last year's setup, it was the installation of lighting and furniture including tables.

A request for proposals was put out among members of the Philadelphia Mobile Food Association, according to the website Billy Penn, which first wrote about the change.

The vendors - two at lunch where Schulson's truck was, and a single breakfast truck on the 30th Street side - will start the first or second week of April, Stober said.