Is L.A.'s food truck scene getting too big for its own good?

Well, let's put it this way: Sizzler and Jack in the Box are getting into the game. All of which is distressing to some of the early players who feel that their original intent is getting lost in the shuffle. You know the rap, it's more than a business - it's a movement. "The problem came when the other commissaries and truck owners saw money and basically just prostituted the whole culture," Josh Hiller, partner in food truck outfitter RoadStoves, tells the LAT. "So what you ended up with was 15 so-so trucks parked on Mid-Wilshire, the city unhappy, a mediocre food product and all the truck owners cannibalizing each other's business." Sounds like the predictable result of a fledgling business that catches on. At some point, the lesser lights will either go out of business or be bought out by the mainstays.

Those at the forefront of L.A.'s movement are evolving new business tactics to stay afloat in an increasingly saturated marketplace. Soon after Kogi's success, co-owner and chef Roy Choi began selling his tacos at Alibi Room, and a year ago Choi's team opened a small Westside restaurant called Chego. Now trucks including Frysmith, Komodo and Coolhaus are opening brick-and-mortar outlets themselves. Even Hiller is moving his business in a new direction. He says RoadStoves is launching very few trucks until the scene self-corrects, and he's creating an online store that will sell popular food truck items nationwide.