Boka Tako Truck

bokatruck.com

Second Place: Goatocado

Third Place: Christopher’s RunAway Gourmay

Boka Tako’s Patrick Harris saw a gap in the Richmond dining scene. Across the country, young chefs with lots of talent but not a lot of money were coming up with creative offerings they handed out of the window of food trucks to customers. Voilà — Boca Tako Truck was born, and soon you could grab a shrimp-and-grits taco to go or one with braised beef brisket and chimichurri sauce — or both. Harris moved on to organize the first food-truck food court at the Virginia Historical Society, and even though he now has two Boka brick-and-mortar storefronts, you can sample from more than 40 trucks at the Central Virginia Food Truck Rodeo that he puts on each year. Goatcado is a tiny beacon of vegetarianism amid all the sausage and peppers, corn dogs and fried fish sandwiches at such events as the Richmond Folk Festival. And the granddaddy of them all, Christopher’s RunAway Gourmay, has fed hungry denizens of downtown for more than 30 years.