Grab Some Lunch at The Gypsy Picnic

As we prepare for the first annual Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival, we are featuring the unique tastes you will have the pleasure of enjoying on Saturday, November 6th. Here is a look at the mid-day offerings from Gypsy Picnic trailers.
Continuing the exploration of one of the most popular questions I get asked, here is a question I personally ponder daily: What’s for lunch? Whether you have a friend in town that you want to share the trailer food scene with, or are just up for trying something new, I have you covered.

If you’re on South Congress, check out The Flying Carpet for some fresh and healthy Moroccan cuisine made with local love from the Souktouri family. While you’re in the area you might try the popular Mighty Cone, one of the landmark trailer businesses in Austin that offers a unique take of fried chicken with ancho sauce in a tortilla wrapped to go. Turf n Surf Po'Boys is another popular downtown trailer vendor who has a killer shrimp po’boy. You can enjoy eating it outside the trailer Ralph Gilmore green-built himself at their 2nd and Congress Av. location. Nick Patrizi, owner of The Jalopy, will slide you a gourmet rotisserie chicken sandwich from the top of his big rig that is as much a mural as it is an eatery over on 15th and San Antonio. For something south of the border, Kronic Krave Arepas is serving traditional Colombian arepas on 5th and Colorado.

Skipping over to South First, if you dine with 4th generation Austinite, John Galindo, at Izzoz, he’ll be sure to remember your name and order the next time you stop by for his tacos. Down the street from John stands the South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery: home to Torchy’s Tacos, Holy Cacao and Man Bites Dog. There you can sample tacos, cake balls, and hot dogs  - all in one spot! Further down South 1st stands Pick Up Stixx, home to chef, Cowden Ward, who is developing multiple sauces for his unique fare. Down on Barton Springs, you can catch some Louisiana fried pies at Kate’s Southern Comfort, where even folks from New Orleans come crawling back for more. Last but not least, if you are up in Pflugerville, be sure to check out the Multi-tasker sandwich from 86 This, which has slow roasted brisket with cheesy mashed potatoes.


Lunch on the fly? Austin is also home to many roving units that will post their locations and hours online or via social media. Try finding Chi’Lantro for a Korean/Mexican fusion experience or Mmmpanadas for, you guessed it, empanadas. Short Bus Subs offers hot, toasted sub sandwiches on freshly baked bread out of a short yellow school bus.

Can’t get out of the office? Most of these vendors will cater upon request, but ALL of them will be at the Gypsy Picnic, showcasing up to three of their favorite menu items. If you’re still wondering "what’s for lunch?" post-picnic, you can keep a Trailer Food Diaries magazine, featuring a guide to all the vendors in Austin, in your car. We are giving away 5,000 sample copies at the picnic and will distribute a full size version in time for SXSW. Happy eating!

La Fantabulous

- Location: Gibson Trailer Park - 1318 S. Congress Av. - @Gibson St. 
- Hours: Varying. Follow Facebook page or take a chance and stop by! 
- Telephone: 512-619-3008
- Facebook: La Fantabulous
- Cuisine: Tacos - breakfast, lunch, & dinner


Josie Paredes had been cooking since she was seven and spent 25 years in commercial kitchens before opening her la fantabulous taqueria trailer in 2007.  Her menu is inspired from hole in the wall places she visited while backpacking the beaches in Mexico.  “I love the way they combine their seasons with their fresh meat and fruits, and a lot of avocado,” Josie says.


Josie’s mother can take credit for giving her the passion to cook.  Josie says, “My mom made her moles from scratch.  She used different dried peppers, peanut butter and chocolate.  What’s not to love, it’s reeses pieces on chicken.”  Her personal favorite item on the la fantabulous menu is fish tacos.   Currently the fish is red snapper, but she is moving to a ‘catch of the day’ so she can buy fresh fish daily.


If you ask Josie the best part of the trailer food business, she’ll answer: “I get to do my own thing.  I love to cook, I like to make people happy with my food.  I love the expression – that’s the best payment for me – that something that I made out of love, someone else is enjoying it.”

Turf Grill

CLOSED - 9/2010 - goodbye, Turf Grill. 

Cuisine: fusion sandwiches - grilled, of course.

Stratton Weekley grew up in the food industry and although he diverted when he went to college and was a software engineer for 13 years, he wasn’t satisfied with his corporate life and decided to follow a more inspiring and fulfilling path.  His uncles and grandparents all had restaurants in Galveston, Houston and here in Austin that covered seafood and Italian fusion genres.  “I remember being 8 or 9 years old helping him (his uncle, Ronnie Maceo) slice corn beef and roast beef and make meatball sandwiches….that restaurant was a lot of the inspiration behind what I’m doing.  The sandwiches I have are all sandwiches he made there; I grew up eating them and couldn’t find anything that could match it,” recounts Stratton.  His family’s Turf Grill in Galveston is his current trailer’s namesake. 

While his favorite is the Muffaletta  and the crowd favorite is the Reuben, Stratton does offer delectable vegetarian options as well.  You can always substitute grilled onions and peppers and artichokes for any of the meats.  All of the Turf Grill’s produce is local; he goes to near by farms for his peppers and onions and cabbages.   

You’ll notice the 6 foot long wooden alligator sitting on one of the picnic tables outside of his trailer, which was given to him by one of his customers who is a chain saw artist.  Another customer thought it would be funny to attach some deer horns to it, and thus the Turf Grill creature was born.  Stratton said he gets emails from customers from Germany, China, Sweden and beyond where they are sending pictures of themselves with his alligator.

The Flying Carpet

- Location: Gibson Trailer Park - 1318 South Congress Av. -@Gibson St.
- Hours: Wednesday - Friday: 6  PM - 10 PM
              Saturday: 12 - 3 PM & 6 PM - 10 PM
              Sunday: 12 - 3 PM & 5 PM - 7 PM
- Telephone: 512-744-5651
- Facebook: The Flying Carpet / Twitter: TFCAustin
- Cuisine: Moroccan Burgers


Maria & Abderrahim Souktouri are the heart and soul of the Flying Carpet with cultures as bold and brilliant as the food they are serving.  Maria grew up here in Austin, while Abderrahim haled from the ghetto in Morocco.  He won his United States citizenship in the lottery when he was 27 and came over to the states.  They met at a party with the Latin American studies department at UT and ended up hooking up at Club Rio.  Eventually they married and had their first-born, Talib, and with his birth came a change in lifestyle.  With a leap of faith, Maria quit her job as a paralegal for a civil rights attorney in order to stay home with Talib while Abderrahim kept his job at the Dell factory.  It was during these moments of chance that the couple decided to do something ‘just for them’ and try their hand in the food industry.   

Maria tells it like this, “We’ve always entertained and been foodies; having parties for 30-40 at our house is not a strange thing.  People rant and rave about our food and we’d always talked about what it would be like to open a restaurant ever since we first got together fifteen years ago.  But we knew enough to be scared…. When we thought about opening trailer we had plan b, c.  “b” was sell the trailer – “c” was move to Morocco.   But there were so many confirmations once we did this, and I realized the house, the biggest thing we’ll ever buy, even if we lose it, it doesn’t change who we are. Life isn’t a dress rehearsal its now.  What are we waiting for?  The trailer was something we could financially and logistically do.” 

Back in Morocco is where Abderrahim tested the waters with his trailer food endeavors.  He had a street food business there, selling roasted nuts.  He has taken his bride to his hometown twice, and his son got to go once so far.  The couple feels strongly about serving people what they would eat out of their own home, so all of the ingredients come from hormone free and cage free animals as well as organic vegetables.  Former Barton Springs Lifeguard Maria says, “The food in Morocco is clean and brilliant because it is not mass produced.  Even though I’m Mexican we never ate at trailers because they were dirty.  But Morocco is different.”   

In fact, the “Moroccan” is the Souktouri’s best seller. They use a very pure bread made of flour, salt and water which they buy daily.  Next, they pour a tomato sauce that includes tomatoes they have peeled slow cooked in spices, onions and then garlic at the end so as not to burn.  (The minimum they lovingly cook the sauce is 2 ½ hours.)  They use vegetarian hormone free beef and plop three little nuggets of the beef on top.  A vegetarian-fed, hormone free, cage free egg is fried and put on top as a final touch.  If that doesn’t have your tastebuds watering with underground soul food, I don’t know what else to write.

The Mighty Cone

- Location: SoCo Trailer Eateries - 1603 South Congress Av. - @Monroe
- Hours: Tuesday - Thursday: 11 AM - 9PM 
              Friday & Saturday: 11 AM - 11 PM  
              Sunday: 11 AM - 9 PM
- Telephone: 512-383-9609
- Website: www.mightycone.com / Facebook: The Mighty Cone / Twitter: The Mighty Cone
- Cuisine: Upscale trailer food - sliders and fried (cone-shaped) items

Jeff Blank owned Hudsons on the Bend for over 25 years here in Austin before making a debut in the street food scene. Having mad success at the Austin City Limits Music Festival for 8 consecutive years with the 'Mighty Cone', he thought he would do a trailer to see how it was accepted. And accepted it was. People like the Hudsons' quality with the low price. In fact, they have reported seeing people in Hudsons' on a Friday night and then at the Mighty Cone on a Saturday lunch (in the same dress). We don't blame her - some folks just can't stay away from a Hudsons' prepped meal.

Jeff's favorite part about the business? "We have Low Brow Fun with a High Brow Attitude". The chicken and avocado cone is his personal favorite and a best-seller. But what exactly is a Mighty Cone? This street food concept was developed for festival goers to have a tasty yet inexpensive food option. Jeff teamed up with Executive Chef Robert Rhoades to create a unique batter for the chicken, which they wrapped in a tortilla and dropped into a paper drink cone. While they have a variety of toppings, the original Hot 'n' Crunchy Chicken Cone comes with a mango-jalapeno slaw and ancho sauce. How could you refuse the fusion of southern fried goodness, mexican flare, and ease on the pocket book for a hefty meal you can walk around with?