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Food trucks continue to roll in L.A.

LOS ANGELES Brick-and-mortar restaurants, including the well-established Canter's Delicatessen and Restaurant and Border Grill, are jumping on the food truck bandwagon as a way to expand their brand and generate incremental sales.

Canter’s Deli, which first opened in Los Angeles in 1931, launched a food truck on Friday.

Border Grill in Santa Monica, Calif., was one of the first brick-and-mortar operators here to join the recent wave of more upscale gourmet food trucks, launching a leased truck about eight months ago to both work the streets and for private events.

At Canter’s, manager Marc Canter, whose family owns the restaurant, said the truck was the idea of his cousin, Bonnie Bloomgarden, who had worked in New York on a food truck for a while until she moved back to Los Angeles.

The truck, which is leased and wrapped with the Canter’s logo, will offer a limited deli menu featuring corned beef, pastrami, turkey and egg salad sandwiches, as well as matzoh ball soup and some bakery items, including black-and-white cookies and rugalach. Beverages include Dr. Brown’s sodas.

The restaurant has also set up a Twitter account for the first time, to market the truck’s whereabouts on the street. It will also be available for catered events.

“Bonnie wanted to create something new and find more ways of being competitive in the market,” said Canter. “It will be like a Canter’s mobile express.”

At Border Grill, Susan Feniger, a co-owner, said the leased truck has proved to be such a success that the company has purchased a new truck that runs on biodiesel fuel.

Feniger said the truck has helped drive traffic to the 25-year-old restaurant, as well as bringing in incremental sales.

“The truck has been an incredible marketing opportunity,” said Feniger. “It’s a way to grow without making a huge investment.”

Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].

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