Mobile Food Pioneer Off the Grid Publishes First Annual Industry Report Forecasting the Top Mobile Food Trends and Predictions for 2019

Think Mobile, Act Local: The Future of Mobile Food in America examines the ways in which mobile food is transforming space, building community, catalyzing diversity, and making food exciting again — now and in the future


SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Off the Grid, acclaimed for pioneering the Bay Area mobile food scene through dozens of public and private food experiences that serve more than 75,000 meals weekly, today published Think Mobile, Act Local: The Future of Mobile Food in America. Off the Grid’s first annual trend and insight report reveals the ways in which mobile food — where culinary creativity, modular technology and temporary space converge — is transforming space, building community and connection, and making food exciting again. Through proprietary insights, interviews with industry experts, entrepreneurs and Off the Grid’s own leadership, Think Mobile, Act Local offers a view into the opportunities mobile food provides to brands, municipalities, entrepreneurs and consumers alike.

“The consumers of tomorrow will look for quality, variety and authenticity all wrapped in a single experience,” said Off the Grid founder & CEO Matt Cohen. “Mobile food — spurred by rising costs, limited real estate, fast-growing technology and deindustrialization — is positioned to rise up and meet this demand.”

As reported by Barnes Reports’ 2018 Industry & Market Outlook and cited in Think Mobile, Act Local, the food truck industry alone is poised to reach $985 million dollars in revenue in 2019, up from $800 million in 2017. The quick-growing mobile food movement was built thanks to risk takers like Roy Choi, whose now-legendary Kogi BBQ truck hit the streets of Los Angeles in 2008, exceeding $2 million in sales in its first year. Two years later Off the Grid debuted its flagship public market at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Today, the emerging field of mobile architecture — including Off the Grid’s Cubert, a modular pop-up kitchen and retail venue — is continuing to offer new ways to activate public and private space.

Top Five Mobile Food Insights from Off the Grid’s Think Mobile, Act Local:

  1. The 2008 Recession Inadvertently Spurred the Mobile Food Movement. The 2008 recession and subsequent stall in new construction projects lead to a glut of food trucks on the resale market while many urban chefs were left unemployed and spooked by the prospect of opening a brick and mortar business. Add to that the growth of social media, and you have the perfect environment for the rise of mobile food.
  2. Less Risk, More Risk Taking. While chefs at brick and mortar restaurants may sit uneasy with making risky menu choices, mobile food has proven a hotbed for culinary innovation — from reinvented cup o’ noodles to artisanal s’mores and adobo burritos. In fact, 34% of mobile food business owners say they regularly experiment with new and interesting items while an additional 26% have a “sky’s the limit” attitude. 31% also view mobile food as a way to test their concept before investing in a permanent location, and 24% view it as an opportunity to stay ahead of changing trends.
  3. Mobile Food Reimagines Underutilized Space. In 2017 when the Union Square Business Improvement District sought a way to enliven a stretch of downtown San Francisco’s Stockton Street during the holidays — a construction zone since 2011 during completion of the city’s Central Subway Project — Off the Grid was commissioned to design a five week pop-up holiday pedestrian plaza dubbed “Winter Walk”. The event, which returned this year, saw 1.7 million guests enjoy mobile food, beer gardens and seating nooks that offered a temporary oasis in the city (with 94% saying they’d like to see the space made into a permanent plaza every year).
  4. The Rise of the Dabbler. Buoyed by the new gig economy, a different breed of mobile food entrepreneur has emerged — the dabbler. Dabblers are passionate home cooks and would-be small business owners who view their mobile food venture as a controlled experiment on the open market, an added source of income, or even a creative outlet from their nine-to-five. In March 2018 a Nashville-style hot chicken dabbler debuted at an Off the Grid market. After serving 9,294 meals over 31 events they became the highest Off the Grid seller for the 2018 season.
  5. Diversity in Motion. Mobile food has proven to be a powerful vehicle for catalyzing diverse entrepreneurship. Providing a snapshot of the mobile food community nationwide, a survey of San Francisco’s robust mobile food scene shows 30% of mobile food businesses are immigrant owned, 30% are women owned, 8% are LGBTQ owned, and 2% are military/veteran owned.

Bonus highlight: What’s the highest grossing state for mobile food entrepreneurs? You guessed it, California.

Industry Leaders Weigh in on the Future of the Mobile Food Industry

  1. It’s All About Food Experiences. In 2019, the food industry will continue to move towards flexible, community-driven, experience-based models. Food hall style dining — in which artisanal food vendors and retailers sell products side-by-side — has exploded in urban centers as a lower investment means to activate space while creating holistic hospitality experiences. Attorney and food hall consultant Philip Colicchio says, “The venue operator of a food hall is, in effect, the mayor of ‘tiny town.’ The vendors are the city services and the customer is the citizenry. The mayor needs to keep both constituencies happy if he or she wants to stay in office.”
  2. Side Hustlers Keep Hustlin’. Cohen predicts that 2019 will see even more mobile food entrepreneurs forgo the cost of entrepreneurship and keep their day jobs while building their side hustle. In California, recently passed legislation brought forth by the C.O.O.K. Alliance will soon allow hobbyist chefs to sell food cooked out of home kitchens directly to the public. Flexible mobile vending opportunities, like those afforded by Off the Grid, are likely to play host to a new generation of enterprising, passionate and culturally diverse cooks.
  3. Scale Frictionlessly Without Pain. Owner of the wildly popular and now bi-coastal Mission Chinese Food — which started as a food truck by the name of Mission Street Food — Anthony Myint predicts that in 2019 “the flexible dining models that launched our own restaurant careers will continue to make food more accessible by lowering costs and other barriers to entry for aspiring chefs.” Similarly, Cohen forecasts that “new entrepreneurial pathways and flexible vending opportunities will give cooks direct access to the market and allow them to scale without pain.”
  4. Legislation that Levels the Playing Field. The past ten years have seen a boom for the mobile food industry but it needs another ten to level the playing field with legislation that addresses the realities of starting a mobile food business. Sam Mogannam, owner of San Francisco’s beloved Bi-Rite Family of Businesses, predicts that “mobile food will play a critical role in our success in 2019. In the past year, we were able to influence the creation of new legislation that allows brick and mortar food service establishments — that normally wouldn’t be allowed to have a mobile food facility in front of their businesses — the opportunity to do so when their building undergoes a mandatory seismic retrofit. This allows businesses like ours to keep staff employed and retain a connection to the community.”
  5. Bonus Highlight: The Corporate Cafeteria Goes Mobile. With companies’ workforces growing far faster than the speed of typical cafeteria build outs, many expensive, time- and labor-intensive structures are rendered obsolete before they ever open for service. CFOs, HR leads, and Food Services Managers will seek out mobile solutions that enable them to increase menu choice and flexibility as well as employee productivity through healthful, diverse food choices, all while drastically reducing capital expenditures. Powered by a network of 300 independent food entrepreneurs, Off the Grid will continue to shake up corporate dining in 2019 with Off the Grid at Work, a newly launched solution that innovates the staid workplace cafeteria.

The full report is available to view and download at www.offthegrid.com/mobilefood.

Tweet It: Learn how @otgsf is pioneering #mobilefood #entrepreneurship. Check out its annual #trend report to read how it’s cultivating #diversity, #leadership, and #community in the mobile food movement: offthegrid.com/mobilefood #OTGtrend

About Off the Grid
Founded in San Francisco in 2010, Off the Grid is a leading mobile food innovator changing where and how food is consumed and created by transforming underutilized and temporary spaces into community gathering places. Through public markets, corporate dining services and catering options, Off the Grid brings communities together around food while increasing economic opportunity for mobile food entrepreneurs. Acclaimed for reinvigorating the Bay Area street food scene through dozens of public and private food experiences that serve more than 75,000 meals weekly, Off the Grid also offers a suite of B2B products and services, including Off the Grid Catering, Off the Grid at Work, and Cubert, a modular mobile kitchen. Follow Off the Grid by visiting www.offthegrid.com and following them on Twitter: @OTGSF, Instagram: @OfftheGridSF, @offthegridcatering Facebook: @OfftheGridSF.

Media Contact:

Moira Bartel | 415.722.8229 | moira@dadascope.com

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Innovate or Get Out of the Kitchen The State of the Mobile Food Industry in America Part 1 The State of the Mobile Food Industry in America Part 2 Timeline of Mobile Food in America Makeup of the Mobile Food Movement Off the Grid's Cubert Off the Grid at Fort Mason Center Diversity in Motion