A movable feast:Louis food trucks

Five years after the food-truck boom in St. Louis began in earnest, new trucks keep arriving. There’s always, it seems, another niche to fill.
Smoothies?
JuiceMasters serves them from a truck.
Not just coffee, but fancy pour-over coffee?
The Grove coffee shop Rise serves it from a truck.
Nutrition-focused food from the Cardinals team chef?
Revel Kitchen serves it from a truck.
Kevin Baker and Eddie Bohn spotted a market for hot Italian beef sandwiches and other fare from Bohn’s native Chicago, so the duo launched 22 August, one of the newest additions to the St. Louis food-truck fleet.
(The truck’s name references Bohn’s mother’s birthday. “She passed away a couple years ago and left him a little money,” Baker said. “Just enough to get a food truck up and running.”)
The crowded food-truck field didn’t dissuade them. At 22 August’s three main stops — the established city food-truck haunts at Citygarden downtown, the Wells Fargo campus in midtown and the Barnes-Jewish campus in the Central West End — Baker reports that the truck has already gained a set of regular customers.
St. Louis’ proximity to Chicago “has gotten us a lot of attention,” Baker said. “We’ll show up, and there will be five or six other trucks, and we’ll get a little concerned, but we’re doing all right.”
When Go! Magazine cataloged St. Louis’ food trucks in December 2013, we counted 45 mobile vendors. This summer, we counted 60, give or take. (A couple of trucks have announced, but not begun, their operations.)
What’s more, of 2013’s roster, only five trucks have ceased operations or taken an extended hiatus. A sixth, Burger Ink, shut down in favor of a brick-and-mortar restaurant, the Tattooed Dog, in Wentzville.
Several other trucks have added, or are about to add, brick-and-mortar restaurants, includingGuerrilla Street Food, Lulu’s Local Eatery and Taco Truck STL.
My Big Fat Greek Truck opened its restaurant, the Little Greek Corner, just last week in Fenton. Owner Danny Botonis said the restaurant will help address one major issue that will always concern St. Louis food trucks.

“I always wanted to have a restaurant,” co-owner Danny Botonis said. “We happened to start with the food truck four years ago. (The truck) is great, but it’s seasonal.”