Fans, Water, And Starbucks: How LA Food Truck Vendors Try To Keep Their Cool 

It was noon and already 97 degrees on Atlantic Boulevard as customers lined up under a canopy to order at the El Monchis truck, one of the many food trucks that ply the streets of East Los Angeles.

Leaning out the window, Rosa Solis took orders for tacos and Puebla-style cemitas — big, hot sandwiches on a roll. She was visibly perspiring from the heat. But no matter, she said.

“This is our work,” said Solis, whose family runs the truck, in Spanish. “If we stop, then how do we eat? We have to keep going, whether it’s cold or hot.”

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Hers wasn’t the only food truck selling to the East L.A. lunch crowd in spite of the heat. Those who depend on cooking and selling food out of hot kitchens on wheels can’t exactly stop working during heat waves — they need to earn a living, rain or shine.

No rules for heat

At the same time, there are no specific heat safety work rules that govern food trucks. Those who operate and work in them say they find ways to protect themselves on hot days, like drinking lots of water and taking breaks outside the truck when they can.

Solis said she and the others working in the El Monchis truck, most of them family, take breaks to sit outside in the shade and drink plenty of fluids, “like drinking lots of water, drinking aguas frescas,” she said. That, and the occasional Starbucks — crew members will occasionally be dispatched to pick up iced caffeinated treats for everyone else.

A canopy set up outside the truck also helped keep the sun away, and kept customers from melting.

“I’m in the shade right now, so it’s not much of a hassle I guess,” said Gustavo Roque, who’d just collected his cemita made with milanesa — breaded steak — after a five-minute wait, and was washing it down with a cold soda.

No air conditioning

Solis is lucky in that her truck at least has a small air conditioning unit; around the corner on Whittier Boulevard, Marisol Covarrubias at the Mariscos El Bigoton seafood truck knew she was in for a searing afternoon.

Marisol Covarrubias has just a fan in the seafood truck where she works.

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Leslie Berestein Rojas

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LAist

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“We have a fan, but the truth is that it’s not enough,” said Covarrubias, who tries to stay hydrated.

But the truck was parked next to a large shopping center, where she looked forward to taking air-conditioned breaks.

“At the Target,” Covarrubias said, laughing, “and there, I’ll get something at the Starbucks. I’ll get something really cold.”

No problems

Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the food vendors doing the most brisk business on Whittier Boulevard was also the coolest, literally — a truck selling raspados, Mexican shave ice, a precious commodity today.

Inside the El Machin raspados truck, owner Cristina Diaz worked surrounded by fruit and bags of ice.

“We don’t feel any heat in here,” Diaz said. “There are ice coolers everywhere, so we’re refreshed.”

But the guilty pleasure won’t last once winter comes, she said: “When it’s cold outside — that’s when we can’t stand how cold it is in here!”