Off the Grid Celebrates First Anniversary

It was just a year ago today that Matt Cohen's SF Carts Project, in collaboration with La Cocina, launched a brave experiment -- Off the Grid at Fort Mason Center, a weekly gathering of curated food trucks and food stalls. To use the old cliche, the rest is history. Off the Grid at Fort Mason Center has tripled in size (both in its footprint and number of vendors) and has branched out across the city to five new locations, offering one or more events six days a week. It recently launched a highly successful weekly Berkeley event, and Marin and San Mateo openings are just around the corner. Cohen got into the business of being a street food "facilitator" after futilely battling the bureaucratic machine on behalf of his own food truck dream, and now finds public agencies and civic groups beseeching him for a little OTG street food love on their turf. How sweet that must taste.

Last night's event also marked the one-year anniversary of one of Off the Grid's stalwarts, the IZ IT Fresh Grill truck. Through their connections to the San Francisco Chinese community a spectacular performance by a championship team of lion dancers was secured for the event. It was also in front if the IZ IT Fresh truck that the flying wedge of Chandon in the picture above appeared. I didn't stick around long enough to see what happened to all that bubbly, but I'm guessing it wasn't poured on anyone's head.

Mazel tov and 恭喜恭喜 to Off the Grid and the IZ IT Fresh truck!

Mentioned: @sfcarts, @lacocinasf, @IZITfreshgrill