Sick of the same old pizza, carrot sticks and cake at kids’ birthday parties? Get in on the food truck craze and let one cater your kiddo’s next bash. Grilled cheese-only diet? There’s a truck for that. Doughnuts delivered to your door? There’s a truck for that, too. Cookies baked fresh onsite without the mess in your kitchen and served with local milk? ’Nuff said. Costs for renting trucks vary based on many factors, including the food you choose to serve, location, number of guests to be served, day of the week and length of time. It’s best to contact each place directly to get the most accurate numbers. Here are nine trucks that will help you shake things up.
Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken
So, yes, the truck has chicken fingers and a chicken BLT, but more importantly, it has doughnuts. A lot of them. Flavors include vanilla glazed, maple bacon, PB&J, mint cookies n cream and yuzu toasted coconut. Fun fact: The owners were the first native Washingtonians to play for the Washington Capitals – a bonus for little hockey fans.
Online: astrodoughnuts.com
Matty Ice
This water ice and ice cream company makes small-batch ice and cream frozen desserts such as the Metropolitan, which has layers DC Dirt, chocolate ice with Oreo, Vicious Vanilla and cherry ice, and the DMV, which is DC Dirt topped with Chunk Brownie and mango ice.
Online: mattyiceandcream.com
Captain Cookie and the Milk Man
The name pretty much says it all, no? The cookies are baked fresh right on the truck. Cookie options include chocolate chip, double chocolate, vegan chocolate chip, funfetti and oatmeal raisin. Pair those with local milk of the skim, 2 percent, whole or chocolate variety. And did we mention there’s ice cream? That can be made into a custom ice cream sandwich? BRB, stalking this food truck right now.
Online: captaincookiedc.com
FroZenYo
If your tot likes to create his or her own cup of fro yo, opt for this. FroZenYo offers fat-, dairy-, gluten- and nut-free options in addition to no sugar added and low-fat flavors. Speaking of flavors, they include cake batter, cookies and cream, chocolate, and vanilla. Toppings are too many to list, but this sampling should give you an idea: fresh strawberries, mango and blueberries; Reese’s peanut butter cups, hot fudge, brownies, and the all-important rainbow sprinkles.
Online: frozenyocatering.com
Carmen’s Italian Ice and Café
Flavors change daily but the extensive list of potential tastes include cotton candy, horchata, coconut spicy mango Thai dye, sour melon, chocolate and vanilla chip mousse. There’s also frozen custard in marshmallow, blood orange, Nutella and maple bacon. Note: popcorn, cotton candy and hot dog carts are available, too.
Online: carmensrockville.com
Scoops2U
Choose between a novelty truck – a Classic Good Humor truck – which can provide 25 to 2,500 servings of prepackaged novelty ice cream bars and the modern Scoops2U truck, which can serve novelty bars, scoops in cups and cones, sundaes, and chipwiches. Note: For birthday parties, they operate only in Virginia.
Online: scoops2u.com
Sweetbites
Now a brick-and-mortar café in McLean, Sweetbites started as a food truck and still takes it out for rides. It’s also available for rental and serves treats such as cakes, cupcakes, cookies and brownies. Classic cupcake flavors include chocolate peanut butter, cookies and cream and cinnamon bun.
Online: sweetbitescafe.com
The Big Cheese
Grilled cheese is pretty much on the (often literally) short list of foods kids love. Give them some gourmet options on this traditional comfort food, such as grilled Gruyere with roasted asparagus on sourdough. OK, maybe that’s a stretch. Perhaps Chèvre with Nutella on multigrain is a better starting point.
Online: bigcheesetruck.com
Say Cheese!
As we were saying, grilled cheese is popular with kids – and adults, too, if we’re being honest. Menu options include the Merica, with two cheeses on square white bread and the Philly with steak, American and provolone cheeses plus mushrooms and mayo on ciabatta. You can also create your own, or opt for something from the kids’ menu, which includes hot dogs, burgers and, wait for it, grilled cheese. And there’s the dessert option from the catering menu, offering s’mores grilled cheese. Note: They have a two-hour, 50-person minimum.
Online: saycheesefoodtruck.com
Do you have a favorite delivery truck in the DMV? Tell us about it in the comments below.
–Stephanie Kanowitz
