Now that the Korean taco thing's been done to death -- except maybe in Dallas -- my friend and I were batting around new can't-miss concepts for food trailers. He's currently refurbishing a few of them, and plans to roll out at least one soon. (And if I knew anything more about it, I'd tell you. Stay tuned.)
I suggested a food cart serving caveman food, a cuisine that seems grossly neglected by mainstream restaurants, even after the much-hyped 2002 publication of The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat. I imagined a stripped-down menu featuring hunks of venison, shelled nuts and berries, all with gruntable names. And servers dressed in pelts. Since food carts aren't meant to ape -- pardon the evolutionary pun -- high-end restaurants, the theme seemed like a perfect fit.
But it turns out I'm not the only one thinking about cavemen and cookery. Recently, the Food Network aired a theme-themed episode of 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, in which two teams of amateurs competed to produce the best theme restaurant overnight. Sadly, the cavemen guys butchered the idea, ordering their customers to sit on stumps and eat piles of coleslaw with their hands. They ended up losing to the "trailer park chic" team, which fried chicken.
Yet I still think the caveman concept has merit. If rain forests, rock music and large-breasted women can incite restaurant empires, surely there's a place for Neanderthals.
But what do you think? If you had to come up with a brand new, never-been-done-before restaurant theme, what would you propose?
