Grease Trucks
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The Grease Trucks are a group of food truck vendors located on the College Avenue campus of Rutgers University at New Brunswick, New Jersey. They are known for serving "Fat Sandwiches", a sub roll containing an ensemble of ingredients such as steak, cheese, chicken fingers, French fries, mozzarella sticks, gyro meat, bacon, jalapeño peppers, and more.
In August 2004, Maxim Magazine named the "Fat Darrell," a sandwich invented by a student named Darrell Butler and commonly served by the grease trucks at Rutgers University, the top sandwich in the nation.[1] The Grease Trucks have become an integral part of student culture at Rutgers, serving as a meeting and hangout spot. The Grease Trucks were named the number one post game activity in the country by Sports Illustrated On Campus in 2005 (in spite of being on the other side of the river from the stadium, and perhaps partly because of being near the Greek houses).
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[edit] History
The grease trucks were once parked along College Avenue, most clustered near Voorhees Mall, where most classroom buildings on the College Avenue Campus are located, but some were as far north as Brower Commons about a quarter mile away (thus competing with the eateries in the Rutgers Student Center and the Brower dining hall). Students and visitors alike could obtain a quick, hot, inexpensive meal during events and between classes. Since the trucks also sold cold beverages and ice cream pops requiring refrigeration, almost all of the trucks either idled or ran gasoline generators for power. In the early 1990s, in an effort to reduce pollution, noise & congestion along College Avenue, as well as changing the obstructed view of Voorhees Mall, grease trucks were prohibited from parking along the thoroughfare. Subsequently, Rutgers provided a corner of the faculty parking lot (Lot 8) at College Avenue and Hamilton Street for about eight grease trucks to park with electrical hookups. At the same time, the vendors were put under contract with the University through the Parking and Transportation Dept. The contract provided the trucks with space and electricity, and at the same time ensured that health provisions set by the city were followed. Some trucks were open during the day, and others at night, with a couple hours overlap around dinner time. The trucks would rotate within the lot monthly, so that no one vendor would receive a competitive advantage based on location. The Grease Trucks used to be opened 24 hours a day into the early 1990s but scaled back to 3 a.m. in 1996. Two years later the closing time was amended to coincide with the city's earlier 2 a.m. bar closings and because of complaints of noise, public urination. The lot is coincidentally located next to Union Street, the home of the majority of the University's recognized fraternity houses.
The future of the grease trucks is uncertain as Rutgers' master plan includes a building on lot 8.
There are also many of these similar grease trucks located at the Rutgers University Newark Campus (which coincides with the NJIT campus). There are four grease trucks located on Warren street alone. For instance: Taj Mahal, Jerry's Grease truck, and Bill's grease truck. Some of these grease trucks take phone and internet orders in advance and accept many major credit cards. Currently the state of grease trucks on/near this campus is picking up, the variety of food offered is expanding, and the quality of food and service is improving.
[edit] Grease Trucks cuisine
The history of the Grease Trucks Cuisine began long before the trucks themselves. It started in 1979, when a high school drop out invented it but it was credited by a student at Rutgers. The Rutger's Student served a sandwich known as the "Fat Cat" which consisted of two cheeseburgers, French fries, lettuce, tomato and onions. There were three other 'original' sandwiches: The "Fat Moon," the "Fat Koko," and the "Fat Sam." The "Fat Cat" would remain the #1 selling sandwich at Rutgers University until 1997 when a student named Darrell W. Butler created the "Fat Darrell," which consisted of chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, French fries, and marinara sauce.[2]
The creation of the "Fat Darrell" was seemingly accidental. Butler says in his own words: "Like the typical college student, I was pretty much broke. I had been craving chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks and French fries all week long but I knew that I didn't have enough money to buy all three. I talked the guy behind the counter into putting them all onto a piece of bread for me. I guess it sounded like a good idea because the next 10 or so people all asked for the same thing."[3]
This boosted knowledge of the Fat Sandwich to a national level, as USA TODAY (which reported what Butler said) is a paper with nationwide circulation. Since the creation of the "Fat Darrell," more than twenty other Fat Sandwiches have been formed.
While the "fat" sandwiches are composed of permutations of fried foods, beef, cheese, pork roll, chicken, and various condiments, the grease trucks are also notable for offering many types of Mediterranean food, such as gyros, falafel, hummus, baba ghanouj, grape leaves, and mjudara on pita, as well as spinach pies. This came about because many of the vendors had come from Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon and Egypt. These home-made healthy options were a much welcome option for vegetarians and others not desiring the huge calories which accompanied the fat sandwiches.
Other commonly available items include eggs, soup, gum, chips, cookies, muffins, and even home-made rice krispies treats.
Fat sandwiches, as popularized at the Grease Trucks, have become nearly ubiquitous throughout the many short-order eateries in New Brunswick, especially in pizza places. Individual "house special" variations are common, and sometimes recognized by other nearby competing restaurants. The popularity of Grease Trucks cuisine is very local, and it is common to find fat sandwiches even in neighboring towns.
[edit] Naming controversy
The sandwiches: "Fat Dyke," "Fat Philipino," [sic] and "Fat Bitch" were deemed offensive by Rutgers and in 2005 Abdul Eid and the other vendors agreed to change the names of the sandwiches to maintain their licenses to sell food at Rutgers.[4] At the time, some students expressed outrage at the university's perceived censorship, but others defended the logic behind the request for name changes. [5]
Nonetheless, many customers still ask for sandwiches by their original, controversial names, and many restaurants in New Brunswick sell fat sandwiches with whatever names they like, as the restaurants are not under the auspices of Rutgers University.[citation needed] With the media attention now gone, most of the trucks have put the old names back onto the menu.[citation needed]
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Coordinates: 40°29′58″N 74°26′54″W / 40.499454°N 74.448284°W
