Drive Thru: Boston Food Trucks Assemble In South End

On Sundays, Harrison Ave. is more than just a main street in the South End. Lines twist endlessly around what is an empty parking lot during the week, corralling residents from across the city and the Greater Boston area.

Smiles and laughs echo from the brick walls of nearby warehouses and parking garages as people hold paper plates and napkins.

“It’s my first time here, and I came for the food,” said Evan Slate, a student at Emerson College, as he takes a bite into his Roxy’s grilled cheese sandwich.

Roxy’s is just one of the 15 to 20 food trucks that parks along Harrison Ave. on Sundays in conjunction with the South End Open Market at SoWa. Boston’s favorite mobile restaurants—including Bon Me, Batch, Cookie Monstah, and Rami’s—all line up on Sundays in the South End to feed the shoppers and vendors alike as they enjoy the market.

Although food trucks are a relatively new attribute of the city, the collection of options and variety of food trucks that frequent the SoWa market draws its own crowd.

“This is my second time at SoWa,” said Mario Pazzano, a Boston resident who came for the food and stayed for the market.

“I told my mother about it and she wanted to come,” he laughed, while balancing a Bon Me rice bowl and a print from the Arts Market. “I would definitely come again.”

Although many of the food trucks that are featured at the market are already successful enough to maintain their own brick-and-mortar locations—including Roxy’s and Bon Me—participating in the market not only offers variety to hungry shoppers, but attracts huge amounts of stable business for the trucks—a feat uncommon in their uncertain business.