The Taco Bike

The brilliantly-conceived Frankenbaby of a taqueria and a tricycle, Todd Barricklow's Taco Bike is taking street food to it's next logical step: A complete mini-kitchen on wheels.


The brilliantly-conceived Frankenbaby of a taqueria and a tricycle, Todd Barricklow’s Taco Bike is taking street food to it’s next logical step: A complete mini-kitchen on wheels.

It’s both simple and incredibly ambitious, kind of like all of Barricklow’s mobile creations. The Santa Rosa artist has already created a number of freak bikes, soldering bits and pieces of metal and machine together to craft hybrid multi-use vehicles, including the Two Penny, a mega-trike (made for the 2009 Handcar Regatta) with 8-foot high wheels and his family’s own one-of-a-kind cargo-hauling bikes.
But the Taco Bike is a beast of a different sort.
After a friend complained about stringent health-code restrictions on street vendors, Barricklow struck on the idea of building a human-powered mobile kitchen that would include a hot-water hand-washing station, grey-water tank, commercial-grade cutting surfaces, hot griddle and specialized tray to keep cold items, well, cold. He even built in a pay-station for customers to push their bills into an enclosed safe so the food handler doesn’t have to touch the money (a health issue). What happens if you don’t have correct change? Barricklow says that’s where the community aspect comes to play — you’ll have to hit up someone else in line to help you out.
The Taco Bike will soon prowl the streets of San Francisco, commissioned by forward-thinking seafood spot, Weird Fish restaurant.
Want one of your own? Builds start at about $5,000.
More details: Contact Todd at ToddBarricklow.com

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