Mi Grullense Owner Talks Oakland Taco Truck History

Edgar G./Yelp

At his California Taco Trucks blog, Cyrus Farivar queries the son of the guy who first drove the Mi Grullense taco trucks into the Goodwill parking lot in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood. Edgar Galindo maps the history of the Oakland truck, from San Jose (where they were banned in the early '80s) to the emerging Latino neighborhood along International Boulevard. But the truck boom has created its own challenges, not least of which is taco oversaturation. Galindo:

Customers have changed over the years, I remember when there weren't so many taco trucks populating Oakland. Our lines were crazy, sometimes people waited over an hour to try our tacos! We had families that came from Modesto all the way to Sacramento just to have our tacos on a weekly basis. I remember meeting people in Mexico who had heard of us and were also customers. Nowadays since there are so many taco trucks its hard to compete, but we still have our loyal customers.

Of course, when you park two of your own trucks in the same lot, you're pretty much asking for saturation.