Willy Dely, a hospitality consultant who organizes the annual Maryland Food Truck Week, was worried as he watched mobile vendors struggle during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when all their revenue sources disappeared—from the lucrative lunch trade in a city on lockdown to area festivals and catering gigs. Then, he had a light-bulb moment. Why not bring the food trucks to the Baltimore County neighborhood where he lives?

Starting last May, trucks like Chesapeake Food Works, Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, and Gypsy Queen began parking their kitchens on wheels in the 9000 block of Seven Courts Drive in Perry Hall. Now, trucks are scheduled there an average of four times a week.

“It’s a good thing for everyone,” says Dely, owner of Au Jus Solutions. “The customers benefit. It gets people out of their houses. And it’s a good opportunity for the food trucks. It grows their followings.”

The response was so enthusiastic in Perry Hall that, in December, Dely set up another location for food trucks in Dundalk. He works with Dough Boy Fresh Pretzel Co., which hosts the trucks on its 7458 German Hill Road property, and also sells its stuffed pretzel bites and other nibbles alongside the vendors. But Perry Hall and Dundalk aren’t the only communities hosting food trucks. They can be found in several counties and many locations on a rotating basis.

Ericka Weber was excited when one of her neighbors brought a Baltimore Crab Cake Company food truck to her Loch Raven Village neighborhood in Towson.

“I really liked that truck,” Weber says. “I thought, ‘Can we do other trucks?’”

She soon became the de-facto organizer for inviting food trucks like B’More Greek Grill, Wanna Pizza This, and Stony Man Coffee & Donuts to the Village. She arranged to use the parking lot at Babcock Presbyterian Church on Loch Raven Boulevard.

“I reach out to the trucks, and they contact me as well,” says Weber, a social worker and mother of two who lines up food trucks several times a week. “They’re really nice people. Everyone has been so gracious.”

She plans her family’s meals around the food trucks’ visits. “I went to all of them originally,” she says. “Now, I decide which ones togo to and how many we can afford.”

Dely is relieved that the food trucks are finding a way to keep busy. “We could have used more food trucks this year. What if this is the new normal?” he asks. “The trend is strong for some neighborhoods.”

If you want a food truck to come to your neighborhood, you can reach out to them. Most have a Facebook or website presence with contact information. Here, five local food trucks share their experiences.

→ Kooper’s Chowhound Burger Wagon

Kooper’s Chowhound Burger Wagon is the granddaddy of Baltimore’s food-truck brigade. Founded in 2009 by Patrick Russell and his wife, Katie, it’s an offshoot of the Russells’ Kooper’s Tavern in Fells Point.

The first mustard-and-cocoa-colored truck was an immediate hit with its plump, gourmet burgers nestled in soft brioche buns. Soon, there were two trucks roaming the streets, feeding business communities at midday and turning out mounds of beef patties at festivals and corporate events.

The trucks took a detour last March as COVID-19 shuttered restaurants, and people were cloistered in their homes. “The pandemic had an interesting effect,” Patrick Russell says. “We noticed that people wanted food trucks to come to the neighborhoods where they live.”

Early on, one of the trucks was parked at Kooper’s North in Timonium, drawing hungry customers and “did really well,” says Samantha Hofherr, director of operations for the three Kooper’s restaurants (another one is in Jacksonville) and the Russells’ other eateries, Woody’s Cantina and Slainte Irish Pub and Restaurant in Fells Point.

Before long, the two trucks were branching out to other areas, including Hunt Valley, Catonsville, and Howard County. “We’re going places we’ve never gone before,” says Hofherr. “People wanted to support the trucks.”

Harry Sheesley and his wife, Kathleen, are fans. The retired couple discovered Kooper’s Chowhound at Babcock Presbyterian Church in Towson. “It’s the best burger we’ve ever had,” says Harry, who favors Chowhound’s Elvis Got the Blues burger, a pileup of juicy beef, applewood smoked bacon, and blue cheese. “It really helped. We were tired of eating indoors.”

While the Elvis may be Sheesley’s go-to burger, Hofherr says other top patties include the MacGuinness, similar to the Elvis but with cheddar cheese; the Baja, with slaw and Jack and cheddar cheeses wrapped in a flour tortilla; and a lamb burger with feta on a rosemary focaccia. The food trucks “have really kept the business afloat,” Hofherr says.

Owner Patrick Russell also found another way to keep his staff working—feeding the homeless. Through donations, the trucks have been able to serve food to people at Baltimore’s tent communities, including the one under the JFX bridge near East Centre Street. On one visit, the truck dished out chili and cheeseburgers to 50 people.

“You wouldn’t believe the kindness people show,” Russell said of the contributions he’s received. “I’ve been able to keep people employed and feed the poor. I’m just the vehicle. This is how we’re making it work.”

→ Craving Potato Factory

In the beginning of the pandemic, Courtney “C.J.” Jacobs and his wife, Monique “Mo” Jacobs, had six catering gigs canceled, leaving them and their food truck Craving Potato Factory with nowhere to go. But the setback didn’t stall the mobile business, open since 2014, that sells all manner of stuffed potatoes. “We had to create our own events,” Mo says.

Today, the couple—who have three children, ages 17, 13, and 10, who help out on the sleek, black kitchen on wheels—has found a market for their spuds in neighborhoods like Towson and the White Marsh-Middle River area. “It’s been great,” says C.J., who grills aromatic toppings like onions, red peppers, and steak on the truck’s stove.

And while everything is cooked to order, Mo and C.J., who both have full-time jobs with the federal government—she as a management analyst and he as a customer representative—are often up at 4 a.m. to prep foods in Share Kitchen, a communal space in Baltimore. They go through about 250 potatoes a week.

“It took time to perfect the potato,” C.J. says. “We use the best ingredients we can.” Even winter’s cold weather wasn’t a deterrent to their community outreach. “I’m find- ing food trucks can occur in all seasons,” says Mo, who, on a chilly, icy evening, had her children deliver food from the truck to customers snuggled in their warm cars.

The food truck started as a nugget of an idea between C.J. and his brother, Shawn Hill. First, they thought about featuring fried chicken and then empanadas before deciding on gourmet potatoes.

“You have to have a concept, something different that no one else is doing,” C.J. says. Mo was involved in the decision-making, too. When Hill returned to his hometown, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, C.J. and Mo, who are also from the Caribbean territory, forged on together.

They introduced four loaded potatoes: chicken bacon ranch, broccoli and cheese, steak with grilled onions and peppers, and Old Bay lump crab. They now offer a vegan one with tofu and have expanded the menu to include a “dirty bird” potato with two meats.

Picture plate-sized, creamy baked potatoes split open and smothered with melted cheeses and savory additions. You’re guaranteed to have leftovers for the next day’s lunch.

“We want to give people what they want,” says C.J., whose goal is to eventually open brick-and-mortar restaurants. “We want the whole world to get a taste of our potatoes.”

→ Stony Man Coffee & Donuts

After working as a bartender in pubs like The Hideaway in Odenton and The Brass Tap in Annapolis, Brooks Parce was ready to do something different in the culinary field. “I worked in restaurants my whole life,” he says. “It’s all I know.”

So he and his wife, Shanell, started Stony Man Coffee & Donuts food truck, brewing their first cup of coffee in 2019 with beans from Open Seas Coffee Roaster in Stevensville. “We love working together,” he says. “We wanted to do our own thing.”

The couple, who have been married for eight years and have two children, ages 6 and 2, are hopping on a national trend showing a demand for breakfast food trucks. The morning hours suit the life-work balance they are trying to achieve, Parce says.

When the pandemic hit, “we didn’t know what direction to go in,” he says. Then, they discovered an interest for their coffee shop on wheels in suburban communities. You’ll now find the roving Stony Man in Perry Hall, Towson, Pasadena, Severna Park, and other places.

“We love the neighborhoods,” Parce says. “Meeting people at the [food-truck] window is fun for me.”

Parce was a latecomer to coffee drinking. He didn’t take a sip of the brew until he was in his 30s, urged by his coffee-loving wife. He was hooked. “I have an obsessive personality,” he says with a laugh. “I read everything I could about coffee.”

When the time came, he was ready to share his new passion with customers in a bright-orange truck that also sells boxes of 15 gussied-up doughnut holes to complement the coffee. These are not your plain-Jane doughnuts.

Flavors include Boston cream, bananas Foster, Old Bay caramel, hot honey, and two of the most popular offerings: chocolate madness, topped with Oreo bites, chocolate pudding, chocolate sauce, and chocolate sprinkles; and French toast, glistening with a maple vanilla glaze. They are served hot and fresh. “Who doesn’t love the combo?” Parce says. “You can’t beat it.”

If you’re not a coffee drinker, the Parces have you covered with beverages such as hot chocolate, cold and hot teas, hot apple cider, and flavored lemonade. The menu also includes cold coffee brews.

As new business owners, Brooks and Shanell Parce are still figuring out what their customers want. “We’re looking to learn,” Brooks says. “We’ll keep expanding.”

→ The Smoking Swine

Like many of his food-truck compatriots, L. Drew Pumphrey hit the brakes on his mobile kitchen, The Smoking Swine, when the pandemic hit last spring. His downtown Baltimore lunch business disappeared as people worked from home and festivals folded. He also wasn’t able to open his restaurant on Hanover Street in the Brooklyn section of the city that was scheduled for April 2020. But it will happen, he promises, maybe as soon as 25 percent dining-room capacity is allowed.

Still, Pumphrey has managed to hang on for now. “We are limping along,” he says, thanks to area communities asking him to bring his traditional American barbecue to them. Now, he’s on the road four to six days a week to serve up his smoked ribs, chicken, and delectable “Slap Yo’ Mama” mac and cheese throughout Baltimore, Howard, and Anne Arundel counties. “We are going to where the money is,” he says. “We’re out a lot more, but we also have less business.”

Ironically, Pumphrey made the decision to add a second food truck last year and is glad he did. He needs it for the increased travel, he says.

Pumphrey still gets a lot of attention from his appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2016, especially when the Food Network episode is rerun. “It changed the way I did business,” he says, noting he had to adjust to more customers and media attention. “It was the first time I’ve been in the national spotlight.”

Not bad for the former appliance repairman who hated his job but loved smoking meats and spent a year and a half planning the food truck he introduced in 2012.

Pumphrey predicts that food-truck operations will change after COVID, though he’s not exactly sure what will happen. “I don’t see how it could be the way it used to be,” he says. “The industry will be fundamentally different.”

→ B’More Greek Grill

Pantelis “Pete” Bakoulas, who oversees the three B’More Greek Grill food trucks, is proud of his roots.

“We’re just a little Greek family from Greektown,” he says. “We wanted to open a carryout restaurant but didn’t have a lot of resources. We started a food truck as a steppingstone.”

That was in 2015. Bakoulas focuses on his family’s treasured recipes. His parents, Andreas and Anthia Bakoulas, emigrated from Greece almost 40 years ago, but continued to make the dishes that nurtured them in their homeland.

The B’More trucks, painted as deep blue as the Aegean Sea, are turning out authentic Greek food with some twists, like their popular cheesesteak pita wrap and French fries with feta cheese, Bakoulas says.

Think traditional gyros with tender lamb, soft pita bread, platters bursting with grilled meats and rice topped with “Mama’s sauce,” a secret creamy blend, according to Bakoulas, and Greek salads with the family’s homemade dressing, a lush olive-oil mix with a hint of sweetness. “It’s a huge hit for us,” Bakoulas says of the condiment. “We’re looking to bottle it.”

Then, the pandemic dealt a blow to their growing business. Seemingly overnight, the corporate accounts with companies like Exelon Corp. and business from universities like Loyola and Johns Hopkins dried up and outdoor festivals were scrapped. “It’s been difficult,” Bakoulas says. “We had to restructure.”

The mobile kitchens pivoted to serving the staffs of hospitals like Johns Hopkins and MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, and then the neighborhoods came calling.

“Most of the residents didn’t have a lot of food options,” says Bakoulas, referring to restaurants’ closures and limited capacities during COVID. “It’s a good thing we’ve been able to visit different areas.”

On various days, you’ll find the trucks in Perry Hall, White Marsh, and Hunt Valley, among other locations. “It feels like they’re family,” says Ericka Weber, who arranges for B’More Greek Grill to come to Babcock Presbyterian Church in Towson on a regular basis. Even on a recent bitter winter evening, a crowd showed up.

Bakoulas looks back to earlier last year when he almost settled on a permanent spot in Federal Hill. “With the coronavirus, it’s a blessing we didn’t open,” he says. “Fortunately, we stuck with the trucks.”

He’s not sure what the future holds for his business. “I wish we had a crystal ball,” he says. “My family didn’t want to give up. We’re going to do what we’re doing as long as we can.”

Baltimore is nothing if not campy. John Waters is our patron saint, annual toilet races are a fall ritual, and a winking Natty Boh is practically the symbol of the city. So, the concept of Gypsy Queen Cafe food truck spinning off into something called

Gypsy’s “Truckstaurant”—a hybrid eatery set inside an old warehouse that feels like something between a food truck and a restaurant—is certainly a fun one, and oh, so, Charm City. The Truckstaurant is situated along a sketchy strip of the Clipper Mill corridor and tucked behind some barbed wire and an automotive junk yard/car repair place. The outside dining area, with a tented Ping-Pong table and several al fresco tables for those balmier Bawlmer days, sets the stage for the playfulness that’s to come.

Inside, there’s a friendly feline who graces the entrance and welcomes tummy tickles. The 90-seat or so dining room features a large and beckoning bar with drinks you won’t see anywhere else (strange, but true, on offer is a swirled combination of frozen red sangria and orange margarita). A whirling disco ball is suspended from the ceiling, and on Wednesday “Disco Night” there’s ’80s music to go along with it. A hand-painted portrait of the titular gypsy queen fixes her gaze on diners from the back wall, and there’s an arrangement of green, pink, blue, and orange bottles that act as a room divider and add a sculptural element to the space. In other words, the joint has atmosphere to spare.

After nine years of running a food truck, owners Tom Looney, Annemarie Langton, and Ed Scherer (formerly of Helen’s Garden in Canton) decided to get back into the brick-and-mortar business. But while they have the ambiance and the décor down, the kitchen (actually inside the permanently parked food truck) has, well, some miles to go before the concept completely works.

The gypsy theme carries through to the menu, as it wanders—at times aimlessly—from Thailand (peanut noodles) to India (curried chicken and rice with naan) to Greece (lamb gyro) to Vietnam (pork banh mi) to Maryland (crab cake BLT) to the Middle East (curry basil falafel sandwich). Some of the global street food offerings come straight off the café menu (the cones, the burritos)—and that’s when the fare is at its best.

The signature crab cone—a colossal concoction including a jumbo lump crab
cake drizzled with a delicious house-made aioli and sitting on top of a mound of crispy fries, all of which gets rolled into an actual sweet waffle cone, defies all culinary logic—but don’t question it. Accept that it’s delicious and it works.

The Thai chicken burrito listed under the “carne” section of the menu is an Asian-Mexican mashup that’s also a classic from the cafe menu. With its lettuce wrap-style ground chicken and accompanying spicy seasoned slaw, it’s a bit messy to eat but quite tasty. Also, in the sandwich section, the lamb gyro is good enough, though the shawarma-style lamb could use more seasoning and spice. The bacon brown butter burger with cheddar is a dependable crowd pleaser.

The downfall of the menu is that, when it veers from the time-tested truck fare and relies on decades-old dishes from Helen’s Garden such as seafood Newburg, it doesn’t work. Overall, the kitchen needs to tighten up as well. A Greek salad had all the right components but was drowning in inches of dressing. The warm spinach-artichoke and gorgonzola dip had an unfortunate paste-like consistency (note to chef: blend less) and was served with water crackers that didn’t enhance it in any way. (Something heartier like toasted baguette slices would have worked better.) The fish taco with slaw was tasty, but unremarkable. Ditto the curry basil falafel sandwich, which had no hint of the aforementioned curry or basil.

While friendly, service could be stronger. On one of two visits, I ordered the falafel salad with harissa and tahini dressing. Instead, when it arrived, the falafel had been replaced by a mound of caramelized cauliflower, but our server said nothing to us as he placed it on the table. “We were out of falafel, I didn’t know,” is all that he offered when we inquired a few minutes later.

The Truckstaurant is certainly unique and fills a niche for something a little daring and different in a neighborhood of other originals like Woodberry Kitchen and Birroteca, each the first of its kind when it opened. I admire its pioneer spirit and think that with some tweaks, and by focusing on what it does well—and getting rid of what it doesn’t—it should keep on trucking.

GYPSY’S TRUCKSTAURANT 3515 Clipper Mill Rd., 443-869-5602. HOURS: Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. noon-10 p.m., Sun. 3-9 p.m. PRICES: Starters, sandwiches, and cones: $8-18; entrees: $13-28; desserts: $10. AMBIANCE: Truck-stop casual.

Now, more recently than ever, burgeoning restaurant concepts have been trading out brick and mortar for headlights and windshield wipers, adding even more diversity to Baltimore’s dining DNA.

So, it’s only natural that these mobile meals get their very own event. From April 6-15, the second ever Food Truck Week will feature more than 50 different food trucks serving specials all around the city.

“What’s amazing with food trucks is that they’re small businesses that are opening their windows right there on the street, talking and connecting with other people,” said Willy Dely, founder of Baltimore Food Truck Week. “That’s the atmosphere Baltimore is about, and that’s what makes it so great for food trucks.”

The event will launch on Friday at 5 p.m. during Light City’s Neighborhood Lights Festival, where various “chefs on wheels” will be serving fitting food truck specials in Pigtown, Brooklyn, Hollins Market, Remington, and Darley Park throughout the weekend.

Throughout the following week, several food trucks—including Wild Thyme Baltimore, Greek on the Street, GoGanics, and Pasta La Vista, Baby!—will rotate at various locations throughout the region, from Timonium in Baltimore County down to Severn in Anne Arundel County.

“You see restaurant week across the country as a promotion to help restaurants sustain revenue during slow periods of time,” Dely said. “So the idea was to do something similar to really give the opportunity for food trucks to be in the spotlight and for people to be more aware about the industry.”

He is most excited about the weather this time around considering last year’s Food Truck Week took place in November at below freezing temperatures, but despite the early winter chill, he remembers seeing over 900 people show up to just a single event the first time around.

“The weather is definitely something that we are looking forward to for people to enjoy,” Dely said. “With the spring coming up, people are going out, and I’m sure all the trucks will be busy.”

As an employee in the restaurant industry for two decades, Dely says running a food truck demands additional effort that’s not found in a standard brick and mortar shop, and that owners are operating out of a place of true passion. His ultimate goal is to see these small businesses thrive and grow in the years to come.

“It’s been amazing because if you look back in 2010, we probably had around 10 to 12 food trucks in Baltimore,” Dely said. “Now, there are over 100 food trucks licensed in the city. They are very passionate and talented in everything they do.”

Five things to eat, drink, see, hear, and do with your Charm City weekend.

 EAT

Sept. 29: Trucktoberfest

The Rotunda, 711 W. 40th St. 5-10 p.m. Free-$43.19. 410-235-8771

There’s no better way to celebrate the start of October than a food truck edition of Oktoberfest. Don your best lederhosen or dirndl and head on over to Hampden’s one-night Deutschland to enjoy food, beverages, street vendors, and authentic German music. Hosted by The Gathering, Baltimore’s outdoor food truck festival, the event headlines local food trucks competing for the title of the best Oktoberfest-style menu. With fiery competition, food trucks are keeping their German-inspired specials a secret, so you’ll have to go to check out their own renditions of bratwursts, schnitzels, and pretzels. And of course, there will be beer, so grab a glass (or several) of your favorite German brews, too. We know you’ll be yelling prost by the end of the night.

 DRINK

Oct. 1: Southside Stakes

R. House, 301 W. 29th St. 7-10 p.m. $50-60. 443-347-3570

Last summer, Baltimore magazine co-hosted a competition in which the city’s top bartenders duked it out to see who could concoct the best Southside, the signature cocktail of Baltimore County. But this Sunday, Baltimore Bartenders’ Guild is rekindling the competition with up-and-coming barkeeps. Join the judges in sampling drinks shaken and stirred by the promising bunch, made with regional spirits like Baltimore Whiskey Company, Lyon Distilling, New Liberty Distillery, and One Eight Distilling—plus help choose the best maker in town. While you’re there, eat your way around R. House’s food stands, take a break with Union Craft beers, and participate in a bar tools and spirits raffle. The best part? Proceeds will go to support House of Ruth, so you’ll be Sunday Fundaying for a good cause. 

 SEE

Sept. 29: Gilded Lily presents Pour Some Glitter on Me

The Windup Space, 12 W. North Ave. 8-11:30 p.m. $10. 410-244-8855. 

Tease out your hair and travel back in time to the decade of excess with Baltimore’s premier burlesque troupe, Gilded Lily. Starring their very own Maria Bella, Ruby Spruce, Gigi Holliday, and Mourna Handful, plus special guests Ona Monsoon and MC Kittie Glitter, the bodacious troupe will be paying tribute to the sounds of ’80s hair metal with a titillating performance complete with crimped hair, fishnets, and copious amounts of glitter. After all the razzle and dazzle, be sure to in on rock-and-roll karaoke with Black Lodge Karaoke and DJ Penfold.

 HEAR

Sept. 30-Oct. 1: BSO Movie with Orchestra: Jurassic Park

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. $17.50-69. 410-783-8000.

When Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park came out in the ’90s, many were in awe of the CGI dinosaurs and considered the film a cinematic masterpiece. Even today, the movie’s legacy endures with its reputation as an award-winning sci-fi adventure that redefined the entertainment business with its sequels and souvenirs. This weekend, you can relive its majesty with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s live performance of John Williams’s iconic score, as conducted by Nicholas Hersh. Watch the film as you listen to one of the most memorable soundtracks in movie history, and don’t miss out on local food truck Jurassic Pork, which will be serving up its old-school barbecue before the Saturday screening. 

 DO

Sept. 29-Oct. 7: Baltimore Innovation Week

Locations & times vary. Free-$75.

Move over, Silicon Valley—it’s Baltimore’s time to shine. With the growth of its technology and innovation sector, Charm City was recently named as one of the fastest-growing cities for tech. Starting this weekend, you can discover the nascent novelties of the city’s technological world. A plethora of programs will be scattered across the city—from groundbreaking gameplay to collaborative workshops—and give you the chance to meet local visionaries and entrepreneurs or learn about startups and inventions. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be inspired to jump on the tech wagon, make a revolutionary device, and become the next Steve Jobs.

Joey Vanoni has always had a knack for making pizza. As a kid growing up in New Jersey, he would frequent his neighborhood pizzerias, and later crafted his own brick-oven pies aboard submarines while on active duty in the Navy.

Now a Baltimore resident, Vanoni wants to continue that passion aboard his food truck Pizza di Joey. But he says that current Baltimore City legislation is prohibiting him from freely serving the community that he has called home for the past decade.

“I’m not asking for anybody to hand anything out to me,” he says. “I’m just asking for the city government to get out of my way while I pull myself up by my own boot straps and earn an honest living.”

A law enacted in 2014 bans mobile vendors from operating within 300 feet of brick-and- mortar businesses that sell a similar product or service. As a result of this—and given the abundance of other city businesses peddling pizza—Vanoni, along with Nikki McGowan of the MindGrub Cafe food truck, have teamed up with Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice (IJ) to file a lawsuit against the city.

“Baltimore City is really picking and choosing the losers and winners in town here,” Vanoni says. “They’re saying that the brick-and mortar-businesses should be the winners and anybody who’s on four to six wheels are going to be the losers.”

The suit was filed in the Baltimore City Circuit Court over a year ago, and, earlier this week, Judge Yolanda Tanner denied both parties’ motion for summary judgment—sending the case to trial on September 28. A pre-trial settlement hearing is scheduled for Friday, August 18, however IJ attorney Greg Reed says that the plaintiffs see no room for settlement.

“The only way that this case would be resolved prior to trial is if the mayor and city council repealed this patently unconstitutional law,” Reed says. “These entrepreneurs have a constitutional right to vend in Baltimore City free from protectionist competitive laws like the 300-foot proximity ban, and they aren’t going to give up for their rights to be free from such laws.”

Reed explains the ban’s “same or similar” provision by saying that there are certain locations that Pizza di Joey can operate, but MindGrub Cafe cannot solely because they sell different products. 

“The city creates this entirely unrealistic hypothetical in its argument that a pizza parlor is going to go out of business if Pizza di Joey parks within 300 feet of it,” he says. “But not if a burger, taco, or pho truck parks in front of that very same pizza parlor. That’s simply ridiculous. The success of any brick and mortar isn’t about how close a mobile vendor is, it’s about whether they’re serving a good product and offering a good customer experience.”

City solicitor Mark Dimenna declined to comment on the suit, explaining that his department has a policy of refraining from publicly discussing active litigation. For the city’s part, Mayor Catherine Pugh attempted to alleviate the conflict back in April by establishing 10 designated food truck zones that all uphold the 300-foot rule.

The list of new zones targets many of the city’s hospital and college campuses, but excludes other high foot traffic areas like Federal Hill, Fells Point, and Harbor East—neighborhoods which Vanoni says would significantly benefit his business to operate in.

“The new vending zones created by the mayor are entirely insufficient,” Reed says. “They are not nearly enough to accommodate Baltimore’s growing mobile vending industry. And they are rarely, if ever, located in places that would allow mobile vendors to actually reach their customers where their customers want to be reached.”

Reed says that he is confident that IJ will be able to vindicate the rights of Vanoni and McGowan, along with other entrepreneurs facing these restrictions across the state.

“There’s nothing less than the American dream at stake,” he says. “At the end of the day, it’s the people of Baltimore that should be choosing from whom they shop, not the city.”

Five things to eat, drink, see, hear, and do with your Charm City weekend.

 EAT

July 29: Fort McHenry Crab Feast

Fort McHenry, 2400 E. Fort Ave. 4-8 p.m. $45-75.

With summer almost halfway over, be sure to get BBQ fix this weekend with cookout fare, local brews, and Chesapeake Bay crabs at the fourth annual, all-you-can-eat feast. Located on the historic grounds and breathtaking waterfront of Fort McHenry, experience Maryland at its finest with live bluegrass tunes by the Eastport Oyster Boys, kids’ activities, and neighborhood vendors from Locust Point. Proceeds benefit education and youth employment at this hallowed national monument.

 DRINK

July 29: BARCS & Brews

Blue Pit BBQ & Whiskey Bar, 1601 Union Ave. 4-8 p.m. Free. 

We don’t know about you, but our favorite drinking buddy just happens to have four legs. This Saturday, beat the heat (though luckily it’s going to be a cool low-80s compared to last weekends high-90s) with cold brewskis, grilled meats, and happy-hour specials for you and your pooch on the back patio, all while helping homeless cats and dogs. With raffles and giveaways, the evening will support the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) in its mission of rescuing thousands of animals each year.  

 SEE

July 29-30 & Aug. 4-6: Fluid Movement

July 29-30: Druid Hill Park, 800 Wyman Park Dr. 5 & 7 p.m. Aug. 4-6: Patterson Park, 148 S. Linwood Ave. Fri. 9 p.m., Sat. 7 & 9 p.m., Sun. 5 & 7 p.m. $10. 

One of the city’s most weirdly wonderful summer events is the Fluid Movement water ballet. This summer, the avant-garde group delves into the 16th-century Renaissance with “Sharkspeare,” where the aquatic ballerinas re-imagine Shakespearean classics such as Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Expect loads of glitter and good times as the local troupe fuses Old English prose with Baltimore swimming pools.

 HEAR

July 29: Fleet Foxes with Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy., Columbia. 6-11 p.m. $41-56.

When we heard about Fleet Foxes’ new album—their first in some six solid years—we knew what would be on our Spotify all summer long. The indie Seattle group delivered with a wide, lush, folk-driven feat, and a few songs that are almost too pretty to listen to (“Third of May/Odaigahara”). And then when we found out about their mid-summer concert at Merriweather, we didn’t think things could get better until we heard they were performing with Baltimore’s very own Animal Collective. The experimental indie-pop stars will be performing their latest as well, The Painters, full of Day-Glo trips and the rattling rhythms we’ve come to know and love. 

 DO

July 29: Trifecta Food Truck Festival

Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road, Timonium. 11 a.m. Free-$60. 

The area’s best food trucks will all converge on the Maryland State Fairgrounds this Saturday for the second annual Trifecta Food Truck Festival. There’s a stellar lineup of mobile kitchens where guests can enjoy gyros from Greek on the Street, pulled pork sandwiches from The Smoking Swine, slices from Dizzy Cow Pizzeria, tacos from Mexican on the Run, cupcakes from Icedgems Baking, and burgers from Kooper’s Chowhound, and shucks from The Local Oyster. To wash in all down, there will be craft beer from Dogfish Head and Evolution Brewing. But that’s not the only thing on the menu, as the event will feature a pie-eating contest, dunk tanks, moon bounces, a mechanical bull, and music from local acts like the All Mighty Senators and Cris Jacobs.