[OT] Hot Truck or Louie's?

OK...we started the discussion in the Andy Noel posting and I decided to make this a new one...

I'm a Hot Truck fan...but seemingly some people seem to think that Louie's is 'Far superior'...say it ain't so!!!

While Hot Truck wins hands down for post hockey food, Louie's definately has its place. For a midweek late night study break, getting a big greasy paper bag of fries for a $1 in coins you found in the lounge sofa, Louie's is hard to top.

Except now it's a small, greasy bag of fries for lik $1.75

I for one don't like all these North Campus-ers trying to play down the Hot Truck's place at Cornell. It's one thing to put a standard grill in a truck (i.e. Louie's), it's a whole different level to INVENT YOUR OWN KIND OF FOOD, sell it in an original style. And it's not food that you can get anywhere else. I mean burgers and fries and everything is nice, but it's not a unique experience. You can get that at 6 places on campus and dozens in Ithaca.

Hot Truck food is Hot Truck food (and, well, Shortstop Deli now ), but it's really a unique experience. The difference between HT and Louie's in like the difference between waiting in line for Cornell season tickets and buying a Ranger's ticket on TicketMaster.

-Fred

Advantages Louie's has over Hot Truck:
- Menu variety
- Open during the day
Advantages Hot Truck has over Louie's:
- Never closed down for selling weed
- Everything else

I gotta go with Louie's here. Hot Truck is good, but it's not the the kind of thing you can eat every night. It is quite possible (trust me, I know), on the other hand, to visit Louie's every night for four straight years and never really get bored. The food is greasy, delicious, and highly addictive.

I think what this debate ultimately comes down to is where you lived your freshman year. Those who lived on North become fierce Louie's partisans, while those who lived on West side with the Hot Truck. I don't think anyone's mind can really be changed on this topic.

Well, I lived on North for my first 2 years. I hate Louie's. Used to like the aforementioned big, cheap bag of fries, but since that's not the same any more, I have no reason to go back. Hot Truck rocks...

I think anybody who'd pick Louie's over the Hot Truck is nuts. But then, I think anybody who'd pick North Campus over West Campus is nuts.

I didn't PICK it. That's where they put me.

Chalk up another one in the North Campus Hot Truck fans column. I lived North of Fall Creek Gorge all four years, and got introduced to Hot Truck by some friends who moved to 660 Stewart Avenue Sophomore year.

We did Louie's occasionally, by my local late-night sandwich cravings were more often satisfied at the Hungry Bear in RPU.

Graham Meli '02 wrote:

Hot Truck is good, but it's not the the kind of thing you can eat every night.

I had a roommate that Hot Truck almost killed, literally. He would eat a triple sui every single night, sometimes as a chaser to dining hall double bacon cheeseburgers.

Anyway, he had some unrelated blood work done at Gannett and his lipid count was something like 866 *after*a 12 hour fast. Gannett asked him if he'd had ham & eggs for breakfast immediately prior to the blood draw. After taking a more through diet history, they put him on a 24 hour fast and ran the test again. His lipid count was still almost 500. They forbade him from eating Hot Truck at which point he henceforth subsisted on Ivy Room Tofu stirfry....

Well, I did pick North. I read the scuttlebut and decided I'd rather have the option of walking to West to party and then going home to study in peace. Different strokes for different folks (a concept the masterminds behing this new shared campus experience don't seem to get).

Ah, Hungry Bear. When they closed that place, I and many of my Dickson hallmates were heartbroken.

Back when I had no regard for what I put into my digestive system, I used to love to get a Donlon Dry and a milkshake at the Hungry Bear, but things had already begun to go downhill by the time I moved off campus Senior Year, when they got some dodgy meat and took the Bangles' cover of "A Hazy Shade of Winter" off the jukebox.

I'm not denying that Hot Truck is the more innovative of the two trucks. It's food is probably also better quality (on a USDA grading scale if nothing else). But the variety of Louie's, it's much lower prices (who wants to pay $8 for a sub), and incredibly friendly owner will always make me a Louie's partisan.

A possible factor which might be fueling this debate is that Louie's changed ownership about 5 years ago (just before I got to CU). Perhaps the quality of the food has changed since some of the less recent alums last ate there. I've always found the food to be very tasty. (How can you go wrong with a place that asks you if you want them to wring the grease out of your cheesesteak before they wrap it?)

Since when does a (normal) sub from HT cost $8?

Louie's wins hands down. The hot truck is often so damn busy that you get little or no interaction at all with the staff. At Louie's the owners always greet you with good conversation; they actually care about the classes you're taking, what the Yankees score is, and what the scuttlebutt is around campus. Let me highlight why Louie's trumps the Hot Truck in a few points:

1) Pickles, olives, tomatoes, mustard, ketchup, vinegar. Try asking for those at the Hot Truck.

2) The damn flaky bread at the Hot Truck gets all over the place. Louie's bread is easily smooshed (a scientific term!) down to confine to one's mouth.

3) When you get to know Ron, he is very generous in offering free milkshakes and other treats. Once for my birthday, I got a milkshake with a candle in it (don't ask).

4) Less drunk frat boys at Louie's. Just more drunk...well...other people, which somehow makes it more tolerable.

5) As mentioned ad naseum now...variety, variety, variety. Where else can you get a decent mixed grill for under 5 bones?

6) The convienent Collegetown Video drop box right outside!

[q]The damn flaky bread at the Hot Truck gets all over the place. Louie's bread is easily smooshed (a scientific term!) down to confine to one's mouth.[/q]

That is one of the best parts about eating HT; it gets everywhere.

Having lived with Adam '01 for two years, I can personally vouch for the fact that he was incapable of keeping Hot Truck crumbs (or sauce for that matter) out of the carpet

There's a collegetown video drop box in front of Louie's now? Damn! That would have been cool to have...

Hot Truck is a Cornell institution. Louie's is not. It's one thing to be crazy enough to actually like Louie's better; it's far more incriminating to be crazy enough to admit it.

It's like saying you'd much rather watch intramural water polo at Cornell than men's hockey.

How can you say Louie's is not a Cornell institution? It has been on campus since 1918.

That can't be true. The wheel wasn't invented until 1926. And let's not even mention Yosemite Sam....

For the uninformed:

[www.louieslunch.com]

And on this note, can we stop bickering about greasy food and go back to bickering about hockey?

Hot Truck. Hands down. Order a Big Willie (my own creation) if you want to try something good and new, if a bit pricy.

Louie's has been in Ithaca sooooo much longer than the Hot Truck. I bet if we got some alums from the 30's and 40's to chime in here, some of you Hot Truck facetimers might change your views!

This is the second time today (on this forum, no less) that I've been collectively labeled as a "facetimer". With respect to the Hot Truck example, I am no facetimer. I go there because I love the food. I go there because I love the people (the ones working inside the truck, not the drunks waiting outside the truck--they vex me far too often). This isn't to say that Louie's Lunch is a bad place to go, but in my mind, it just doesn't compare to the Hot Truck experience. Louie's has been around longer than Hot Truck...so what? Harvard's been around longer than Cornell, and I'd never dare to say they're better than us.

Age, for your poll, you should probably add "Too long since I've eaten at either" so us old-timers can vote.

I believe they've actually gotten rid of the CT video drop box in front of louie's

I always saw Louie's Lunch, but I never heard anyone say that they ate there. I went to Hot Truck all the time.

Hot Truck is remembered so fondly because while Louie's is a place to get something to eat, Hot Truck is a place to go when you are druuuuuuuuuunk. Those stories are always more memorable.

bigred apple wrote:

Hot Truck is remembered so fondly because while Louie's is a place to get something to eat, Hot Truck is a place to go when you are druuuuuuuuuunk. Those stories are always more memorable.

I remember going there when I was "druuuuuuunk" celebrating my 21st birthday.

Wait, no. I don't remember that at all. I'm told I was there, though, and the brown paper bag I found next to me when I woke up in my apartment the next morning would seem to confirm that.