Food Trucks to Offer Summer Treats at Buckhead Theatre Thursday

The street food movement comes to the heart of Buckhead Thursday evening.

Food trucks will offer innovative cuisine at the , 3110 Roswell Road, from 6 to10 p.m. Thursday to kick off a weekly event.

The Buckhead Theatre said that the food will be sold outdoors in the adjoining parking lot, but the theater will be open to allow guests to cool off, get drinks at the bar, and enjoy music and video on the lobby's large-screen TVs.

Restaurants participating include King of Pops, Sweet Auburn Barbecue, Souper Jenny, The Pup Truck, Honeysuckle, Slider U, Tex’s Tacos, Yumbii and Yum Yum Cupcake.

The Buckhead Theatre event joins the Tuesday night and Friday lunchtime food truck gathering at Around Lenox. See previous Buckhead Patch article at this .

Meanwhile, as food-truck events also flourish in a in Midtown, Inman Park and Virginia-Highland, an Atlanta councilman is working to encourage street food in the city. 

Monday night, District. 2 Councilman Kwanza Hall, who represents neighborhoods including Atlantic Station and West Midtown, introduced an ordinance that lifts some restrictions on food truck vending on private property. 

"Basically, this ordinance would allow trucks to vend at multiple private property locations throughout the city," Greg Smith, president of the Atlanta Street Food Coalition, said Tuesday in an e-mail to Midtown Patch. Smith helped the councilman draft the ordinance. 

"Currently, the trucks are limited to just one location within city limits," he said, except during special events. 

The proposed legislation (which still must be approved by City Council) says food trucks can operate from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. It also reduces the required distance between food trucks and other restaurants with similar menus. Currently, the required distance is 1,500 feet. Hall's legislation would reduce that to 200 feet. 

The "only area of possible contention, as we see it, is the distance requirements from brick-and-mortar establishments serving similar fare," Jay Tribby, Hall's chief of staff, said Monday in an email. "Brick-and-mortar places will want to retain current 1,500 feet distance."

The legislation, however, does not allow street food vendors to operate on public property.

"We think this will have better chance of Council support," Tribby said. Sorting out the rules for vending on public property is far "too complicated" for a quick resolution, he said. 

Smith doesn't know when food trucks will be allowed to operate from public property. 

"I don't necessarily have a time frame on the public property piece of the puzzle," said Smith, an attorney who also owns the ice cream truck Westside Creamery. "I really want to see how this works out before we move forward on that. 

"Vending on public property is significantly more complicated than vending on private property."

So, while street food isn't yet serving from sidewalks, efforts are headed in the right direction. 

"I am really happy with Kwanza's proposal," Smith said. 

Street Food Happy Hour!

A new street food event begins this week in Midtown.

Street Food Happy Hour will held once a month in the parking lot of The Hub Atlanta, 1369 Spring Street. Coordinated with Ticket Alternative, the street food event will be held from 7 to 10 p.m on the fourth Wednesday of every month, beginning June 22. 

Enjoy street food, music and craft beers from Wild Heaven.

For more information, click here.