HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Food trucks could soon join open containers as the latest additions to downtown Huntsville.

At its meeting tonight, the City Council is expected to vote on letting food trucks set up along Clinton and Cleveland avenues from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Jason Lafferty, owner of Food Fighters Bustaurant, said he intends to be "the first one out there" if the ordinance passes.

Lafferty said having food trucks downtown would give people more choices for late-night meals. The Rocket City's dining options after 11 p.m. are limited to Waffle House, IHOP and a handful of other places.

"I've heard people joke that Decatur has got more going on than Huntsville," Lafferty said Thursday. "But it seems like the city is trying to liven things up downtown by doing this."

If the council gives the OK, mobile vendors could sell food on both sides of Clinton Avenue from Jefferson Street to just east of Washington Street in the new Quigley Entertainment District. They would also be allowed in a city parking lot on Cleveland Avenue across from A.M. Booth's Lumberyard in the Meridian Entertainment District.

Food truck owners would have to apply for a city permit and follow a few simple rules, including having customers line up on the sidewalk rather than in the street.

The city has not decided how many on-street parking spaces to set aside for food trucks.

Lafferty, who sets up his mobile restaurant at locations across Huntsville including a Chevron station at the corner of University Drive and Old Monrovia Road, said food trucks have big followings in almost every major U.S. city.

"Atlanta has hundreds of food trucks, and they just started allowing them in 2010," he said.

The City Council meets at 6 p.m. in Huntsville City Hall, 308 Fountain Circle.