ATHENS, OH – According to some accounts, the idea of mobile food started with cattle drives and the creation of the chuckwagon. From those days of beans and cornmeal, we now have street food that’s sometimes gourmet and certainly trendy.

Practically every Ohio University student (and many locals) have chowed down at the Burrito Buggy near the College Gate or one of its curbside restaurant neighbors

These days the tradition is evolving and the locations are proliferating as the restaurant-on- wheels movement makes eating out easier and more appealing.

The mobile food scene is “definitely growing,” confirmed local restaurant expert Leslie Schaller. And there’s “more focus on healthy and local options.”

One example, said Schaller, is Chelsea’s Real Food, which is one of the latest entries in the market. Chelsea Hindenach, 30, opened for business over the summer.

Hindenach invested $50,000 into what she calls a “mobile kitchen.” The kitchen is a trailer that’s pulled from location to location by a pickup truck.

(Mobile kitchen, food truck, food trailer, food cart, food buggy and less charitably, roach coach are names used in the industry to identify movable venues that sell food.)

Hindenach’s cooking background includes five years at the Village Bakery in Athens. “That’s where I learned the intricacies of the local food scene,” she said.

Her resume also includes more than two years as a personal chef. Alas, the family she worked for moved away from Athens, leaving her unemployed. That’s when she took the plunge into the street-food business with the help of family and friends.

Find the entire article by Fred Kight at The Athens News <here>