Knoxville takes its food trucks seriously, and it seems like everyone has a different favorite. Some diners are loyal to Dia De Foods at Southside Garage, while others swear by the Abridged Food Truck often parked behind Xul Beer Company.
But what about the city's original food trucks?
Longtime Knoxvillians or former University of Tennessee at Knoxville students might remember a few that frequented campus long before mobile dining reached its current popularity.
Establishments like the Mother Hen, Tasty Freeze and Rolling Tennessean (which later became the Hoagie Wagon) popped up between 1956 and 1967 to serve casual fare around the university, making them some of Knoxville's earliest walk-up eateries.
An iconic family of restauranteurs took the first step
One of Knoxville's oldest restaurants - at least in name - dominated Cumberland Avenue for years after it opened in 1946. Sam & Andy's, originally called The Tennessean, was operated by Sam and Andy Captain.
But it was their nephew, Bill Captain, who revolutionized the restaurant's offerings.
Bill Captain would go on to start equally-famed Vic and Bill's, also on Cumberland and also run by the family, but not for at least another 20 years after his innovations at Sam & Andy's.
Bill Captain, who came to Knoxville from Greece like his uncles before him, began selling the restaurant's sandwiches in a more creative fashion in 1956, according to Knoxville News Sentinel archives. He left the confines of the diner to sell to customers on the street, vending sandwiches from a basket he carried along with him.
Before long, success had Bill Captain regularly lugging a weighty basket across campus. That's when his friend Ron Patterson's father suggested wheels.
With Patterson's help, the Rolling Tennessean was born, which the News Sentinel called "the first of several food service wagons that cruise around the university area, catering to the hamburger/hot dog/ice cream likes of the collegiate crowd."
Around 1964, Patterson decided to start his own food truck with Arthur "Big Joe" Elkins, which they called the Mother Hen. The Rolling Tennessean became known as the Hoagie Wagon, which operated alongside its sister truck, Tasty Freeze.
They weren't the only ones. Bob Waggoner's truck, the Big Dipper, sold hot dogs and milkshakes in North Knoxville before moving to campus like his competitors.
All of the trucks regularly parked outside Hess Hall, a men's dorm at the time, near the middle of campus.
What were the trucks like?
The walk-in trucks contained equipment such as ice cream machines, steam tables and grills, the News Sentinel reported in 1967.
Collectively, menu items included soft-serve ice cream, sundaes, banana splits, hot dogs, soft drinks, hamburgers, hoagies, chips, candy bars and milk.
Waggoner, who operated the Big Dipper, said many of his customers were regulars and that some would come by the truck as often as three times a night, the News Sentinel reported in 1967.
"It's grand having the wagons bring food outside the dorms," student Pete Smith told the News Sentinel that year.
Was Knoxville ahead of the food truck curve?
Nationally, there were several iterations of the food truck that preceded the one we know today.
First came the chuck wagon, a vehicle first used prior to the Civil War for cooking and serving food to cowpokes on the trail, according to History.com. The pushcart or food trolley became popular in big cities, selling fare to the urban workforce during lunch hours.
During the 1950s, ice cream trucks began hitting the streets. Ten years later, trucks like the Mother Hen and the Hoagie Wagon - not too far off from the food trucks of the 2020s - sold items like burgers and tacos, according to History.com.
While the first modern food truck in Knoxville might be a mystery, the Scruffy City can certainly celebrate six decades of food truck fun.
Hayden Dunbar is the storyteller reporter. Email hayden.dunbar@knoxnews.com.
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