Food on the Move

Food trucks. They're all over NYC. It's about time the movement hit Chicago. But the city makes it pretty tricky to get the licensing needed in order to roam around the city distributing food to the masses via vehicle. That said, some new companies have popped up to take their food to the streets of Chicago.

Keep an eye out for Flirty Cupcakes, which was started by two ladies who had the dream of distributing cupcakes from a sky blue van. Sound creepy? It's not. It's really cute actually. And the purveyors couldn't be nicer.

To my delight, I happened upon the Flirty Cupcakes van on Southport, right in front of Mystic Celt, on my way home from work one day. The cupcakes are pricey (in part because their operating costs are a little higher due to some regulations by the city -- like that any/all cupcakes they distribute must be packaged), but it's definitely an experience.

I personally don't think that the cupcakes are as good as the ones from my favorite bakeries (Sweet Mandy B's, Sweet Honeybee and Alliance), but they are tasty and super cute. My favorite flavor was the Curious George -- banana and chocolate cupcake with salted caramel buttercream frosting. I also enjoyed the PB&C -- a peanut butter and chocolate concoction. The Red Velvet was solid, but the No Plain Jane (vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting) was kind of boring. Probably not enough vanilla. And no, I'm not kidding. The main issue I had with these cupcakes is that they're dry. I'm not sure why that is, since a pastry chef bakes fresh batches every morning... But that was my experience with the four that I tried.

Love the idea and think they've done a great job creating buzz around the project. Who doesn't love happening upon some cupcakes unexpectedly?! However, if you'd like to stalk them down and know where they're going to be ahead of time, you can do that, too. Follow them on Twitter with the handle FlirtyCupcakes here: http://twitter.com/FlirtyCupcakes.

And now two more lady entrepreneurs are taking their homemade popsicles on the road -- via bike and trike. They are called the Popsicle Princesses and liken themselves to the tamale guys who come into bars and sell tamales to all of the drunk peeps. This weekend, they were at Pitchfork and also visited Boystown and Andersonville. According to their Twitter feed, the ladies are making more popsicles and will be in Wicker Park in a few days. You can follow the Popsicle Princesses on Twitter using the handle ChicagoPops here: http://twitter.com/ChicagoPops.

To learn more about their philosophy and some of the flavors they offer, check out the recent TimeOut article dedicated to the pop-distributing duo here:
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/restaurants-bars/87175/street-food-now-popsicle-princesses

Note: Also be on the lookout for the Sprinklesmobile, another cupcake truck that is going to be roaming around giving away FREE cupcakes for a month to promote the launch of the opening of the Chicago outpost of the acclaimed L.A. cupcake shop. Sprinkles Chicago is slated to open in mid-July, so it should be happening any day now. You'll be able to get your fix at 50 E. Walton Street once the store officially opens its doors.