Restaurant owners allegedly give food trucks the boot

Well there's a lunch option I didn't figure would be going away: Say goodbye to the Occidental Park food trucks. I heard about this change in an office rumor yesterday, and heard it again today from a totally different person. So this afternoon, I went to a reliable source and got confirmation. As of June 1, there will be no more food trucks in Occidental Park.

Local restaurants and the Pioneer Square Alliance felt that the trucks were taking away their business. As a compromise several months ago, the Occidental "pod" shrunk from the four trucks down to two. The restaurants still complained. The trucks' five year run is over, simple as that.

You might still find the Mangia Me food truck a block north, and the People's Burger truck way down south by Century Link Field, but that's about it.

Another source close to the trucks wrote to me: "We've always loved serving the folks of Pioneer Square, and the addition of the food trucks not only gave some extra character to the area, but also helped revitalize the park years before Weyerhaeuser broke ground. It's sad we were ultimately killed by our own success."

But we'll have Domino's.

Hello, MOD Pizza. Goodbye, Rain Shadow et al.

A few quick bites:

• MOD Pizza will be opening in the vacant northwest corner of the Weyerhaeuser HQ, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal (paywalled). Owner Scott Svenson is targeting an April 2019 opening. I reviewed their Union Square location in January 2017. It's good and will give (struggling?) RPM a run for its money, some extreme competition to Pizza Professionals, and a higher quality alternative to Domino's upcoming 1st Avenue location.
• Rain Shadow Meats ^2 is closing on Friday, May 18. Eater.com quotes the owner as blaming a construction-based sales drop and an increase in rent as the reason. I'll miss it a little bit, although Delicatus has a tastier, sloppier french dip.
• Also closed? closing? undecided? is Pittsburgh Lunch and Superette, formerly Faerie Queen. Eater.com says they closed in December, with a Facebook post promising a February reopening. Their web page says March. It's mid-May.
• Next door, a yet-unnamed Italian restaurant (Bisato?) will be opening later this year. Sounds like it could be pricey, but it's got decent credentials.
• Two food trucks in the park not enough? One visionary is considering a street food market in front of King Street Station.
• General Porpoise Donuts is open. Bring some to our next meeting, will you? Thanks.