Wheels Up feeds need of west Houston workers

A new monthly venue located between Clay and Tanner roads off of Beltway 8 is proving to be a popular lunchtime destination and contributing to Houston's obsession with food trucks.

Wheels Up Wednesday has been held 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every third Wednesday of the month since September in the parking lot of Beltway 8 Corporate Centre, 10900 Corporate Centre Drive. Last month, 22 food trucks set up among the office buildings that line the West Belt location. With a price range between $6 and $15, patrons purchased from a variety of menus offering Asian-Mexican fusion dishes, seafood, hamburgers, waffles, deserts and smoothies.

Collectively, the vendors have served at least 1,200 people during each event. That is big business for food truck vendors such as Joel St. John, owner of St. John's Fire. He has participated in Wheels Up Wednesday since it started. For four years, St. John's Fire has specialized in preparing Gulf Coast seafood dishes such as shrimp-and-crawfish Cajun egg rolls and crawfish mac-and -cheese balls. His newest creation, tortilla-crusted fish tacos, has proven to be a popular dish among his customers, too.

St. John prepared more than 100 food orders during Wheels Up Wednesday's inaugural event on Sept. 24, and he has been averaging nearly that at each event since.

"In the food truck business, anything that is over 40 tickets is generally an ok day," he said. "When you are bumping up to 100, well, that is a great day."

St. John's Fire is a popular Houston food truck.

St. John parks his food truck at a number of venues throughout the area, such as Tasty Tuesdays at Post Oak Central in Uptown. The food truck is set up in the parking lot outside of an H-E-B in the Montrose area once or twice a month.

The food truck has roughly 4,500 followers on Twitter and Facebook, which is the main way foodies track it down.

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