The two newest dining options on the Indiana University Bloomington campus are on wheels: Gloriana and Stripes, two aptly named IU food trucks.
Gloriana, filled with American breakfast options including avocado toast, breakfast burritos and churro French toast, made its debut at the First Thursdays Festival this month.
Stripes, which offers international dishes including a butter chicken burrito and a banh mi sandwich, first went out for the homecoming parade.
The trucks allow IU Dining to add food options to new and different areas of campus. Sometimes the trucks will be between the Fine Arts Plaza and the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, but they will also be in other places on campus.
Location and hours are all subject to demand, said Rahul Shrivastav, executive director of IU Dining. The trucks both accept I-BUCKS, CrimsonCash and credit cards, but no cash.
The food on the trucks, like at the dining halls, is locally sourced, and Gloriana will likely add a few new options soon, he said.
“We were in the thought process that students love breakfast all day, but turns out they want some lunch choices, too,” Shrivastav said.
The goal is to get to a point where Gloriana will be out for breakfast and lunch and Stripes will be out for lunch and dinner, executive chef Ancil Drake Jr. said.
And they’d eventually like to add late-night options as well, he said.
Follow the trucks on social media
The food trucks are also available for events like festivals, Welcome Week and other programming. Plus, the trucks offer an option for organizers want food at their events but don’t want to cover the costs. With the food trucks, attendees can buy what they want.
And the trucks will remain on campus through the winter, too.
While the kitchen space on the truck is smaller than in other dining options on campus, the trucks allow dining staff to be nimble and flexible.
The menus are small, so if an item isn’t doing well, it’s possible to swap it out for something else. Plus, the ability to move the truck means it can respond when there is demand for dining in one area of campus, Drake said.
Soon, the food truck staff will also be responsible for posting the trucks’ location on social media, which will be based on foot traffic, he added.
“It all adds to the portability of the meal program,” Drake said. “If we can be where the students are, that benefits everybody.”
Interested in having a food truck at your event, or want to suggest future locations for the trucks? Contact IU Dining at dining@indiana.edu.
