News Briefs
Where’s the Beef Curry?
According to one of its owners, the popular Goosebeary’s food truck will return to its familiar location next to MIT Medical next week, ending an approximately 4-week hiatus. Members of the MIT community were baffled by the disappearance.
According to owner Loc Vo, the truck was taken out of commission in early January to upgrade the equipment in the kitchen that produces the food and the truck itself. The period was chosen because it is one of the slowest of the year in terms of sales. Vo claimed that this is the first time that the truck had taken a planned pause in its business since its founding in 1991. Goosebeary’s was closed for a few days in 2001 after its parent restaurant at the time, Poppa & Goose, was shut down for health code violations.
Members of the MIT community were surprised by the truck’s absence. According to Director of Campus Dining Richard D. Berlin, the Dining Office received around a dozen calls from those concerned about the truck. The calls came from students, faculty, and staff.
Employees from food trucks nearby said that they had seen slightly increased sales after Goosebeary’s closed for renovations. However, they were still seeing sales decreases of around 30 to 40 percent from the same period last year, before they were displaced from their locations outside Building 68 by construction on the Koch Institute.
John M. Chapin, visiting scientist at MIT who also works at a startup near the area, said that Goosebeary’s was a “perennial favorite” at the office. He thought that the absence was planned only for IAP and became concerned after the truck did not reappear in the beginning of the term. When informed that the truck would be returning, Chapin remarked, “Great!”
—Nick Bushak