Food Trucks on Miracle Mile

Fierce competition between food trucks along the Miracle Mile has led to fighting, yelling, fists flying, and even trucks ramming into each other. This was the situation for the past five years on the 5900 Wilshire block. This month, a local businessman launched a plan he hopes will create peace.

Seated between the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and several large corporate office buildings, 5900 Wilshire has drawn a consistent volume of traffic. Over the years, trucks have battled for a spot on the block.

Yara Casas and her partner, Yvonne Magana, are chefs and owners of No Toro, a Mexican grill food truck. They recently opened this truck in hopes of breaking into the food industry.

“What we hope to get out of being on 5900 Wilshire is a little more exposure, a little more experience,” Casas said.

This is actually their second food truck. They initially had a diner food truck that made breakfast burritos and sandwiches. “We had a little diner outtake. We had our own little gourmet breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches. Just turns out people didn’t really like breakfast for lunch,” Casas said. “So we did that for a year. We learned a lot of experience. We’re Mexican, so we thought, why not go with our roots? A Mexican food truck.”

When they had their first truck, they tried to come to 5900 Wilshire, which was infamous at the time for great business but being very hectic. “It was so much chaos to come here in the morning. Food trucks would line up at like five in the morning. They’d honk. They’d have their personal cars. It was madness,” Casas said. Trucks would stake claims to spots with U-Hauls or pay squatters to save their spots.

After one time, they never came back.

Someone wanted to make a difference. “Just being a small business owner, you shouldn’t be scared to go to work,” said Patrick Lennon, founder and owner of Book My Lot. “It was a very big mess, so a lot of people were very happy when then found out that I wanted to step up to the plate and try to put some regulation to the block.”

Two years ago, Lennon started a business called Book My Lot, a middleman company that connects food trucks to customers by booking spots for the trucks. Lennon started the business when he saw the rise of the food truck industry. He wanted to be a part of the change.

About nine months ago Lennon caught on to the chaos on 5900 Wilshire. “I thought something needed to be done. Something needed to be regulated there. I knew a lot of food truck owners were scared to go there,” Lennon said. “What I did was did my research on what could be done there to help regulate or try to permit the block to make it a structured parking area.”

Lennon approached the owners of the building on the block and collaborated with City Councilman Tom LaBonge to find a way to regulate the area. Lennon contacted 353 food truck owners and made an application process for them. He got a response of 105 solid applications.

Lennon books 65 to 70 spots per week through an online scheduling website called LotMom. Trucks self-sign up for when they want to come based on a first come first serve basis each time the schedule resets.

“People that were coming here prior were getting ticketed daily,” Lennon said. Trucks would pay hundreds of dollars for parking violations. But because the street was such a hot spot, it was viewed as an operational cost. Lennon is charging a thirty-five to seventy-five dollar fee, which he says may change depending on how everything pans out.

“This is going to be a whole learning process for everybody. So we’ve only been doing this for over two weeks now,” Lennon said. “What I’ve been doing on a daily basis is I’ve been collecting sales data, I’m collecting weather data. I’m collecting business and holiday data. So I’m collaborating all those facts in to see how sales are going to be in the next couple months.” Lennon hopes to find a fair booking fee for the trucks.

So a year later, Casas and Magana are back on the block.

“Fast forward now, a couple months ago, Patrick took over. We were able to book a spot. So much smoother. You just roll in. You pay for your lot. You’re situated,” Casas said.

Lennon hopes Book My Lot will expand beyond 5900 Wilshire. “We’re really looking to branch this out, find infected areas that really need help and help to regulate, help work with cities, help work with building owners, and help work with neighborhoods to really bring harmony to this industry,” he said.

Casas and Magana are glad they can forge their food truck businesses in peace. “It’s been really good. It’s been a nice experience,” Casas said. “We plan on growing from here. Overall our main goal is our brick and mortar. So we want to have an actual set location.”

Contact Staff Reporter Cameron Quon at .