Who's Your Crush?

Gourmet food trucks will return to the Larkspur Ferry Terminal starting in May with a new provider and a new schedule.

The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District's Board of Directors have approved expanding last year's pilot food truck program at the terminal. In doing so, they chose to replace Ready Set Entertainment, which put on on Friday evenings at the terminal, with the Mobile Gourmet, which has operated similar events in the East Bay and the Peninsula.

The allowed six to eight trucks at the terminal only on Fridays, from 4-8 p.m., May through September.

This year, there will be up to three gourmet food trucks at the terminal Monday through Friday, year-round. On days with greater ferry ridership for major events at AT&T Park, a larger scale offering could be made available, district spokeswoman Mary Currie said.

"The whole premise of bringing in the food trucks originally was to offer added value to our customers," Currie said. "We also wanted to slow them down. It's been an issue for many years where people are running from the ferry and dodging traffic in the parking lot. We hope they'll slow down, enjoy some food and listen to the music. That seemed to work last year."

Another aim of the expanded food truck offering is to promote ferry ridership to potential customers who may not be familiar with the ferry service to Giants baseball and Cal football games at AT&T Park, district officials said.

Currie said the pilot program had succeeded in those goals, as the trucks were instantly popular and customer feedback was positive.

In a staff report, district officials said the decision to switch to the Mobile Gourmet came down to the company's higher revenue-sharing proposal. The per-event payment to the district will be the greater of $100 ($300 for special events) or 3.5 percent of gross food truck revenue.

The district's revenue from the program over the 20 Fridays last year was $3,655.98, Currie said. The new program could generate $30,000 to $35,000 to the bridge district, she said.

The board authorized a one-year agreement with four additional one-year option terms with LJH Enterprises, doing business as The Mobile Gourmet.

For a list of the Mobile Gourmet's trucks, go to its website.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.