Where to Find the Food Trucks: A 2026 Season Guide
The trucks, the lots, the lunch windows. Everything you need to eat well on four wheels this spring and summer.
I wrote an opinion piece in March arguing that Ann Arbor's food trucks deserve real coverage. This is the follow-through. A practical guide to where the trucks park, when they're running, and what I've been eating from them.
The season runs roughly April through October, weather depending. By mid-May the full fleet is out. By June you can eat lunch from a truck every weekday without repeating a location. Here's how.
Mark's Carts: The Hub
Mark's Carts on East Washington Street, between South Fourth and South Fifth, is the closest thing Ann Arbor has to a permanent food truck court. The lot operates weekday lunches from late April through October, with three to five trucks parked and serving on a given day. The lineup rotates, but the format is consistent: you walk the lot, pick a truck, order, and eat on one of the benches or standing up. No reservations. No host stand. Cash and cards both work at most trucks.
Lunch runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays. Get there by 11:30 if you want the full selection. By 1:15 some trucks are already breaking down. Mondays tend to be lighter, three trucks at most. Wednesday and Thursday are the peak days.
I've been eating here regularly since the lot opened for the season. The Mediterranean truck that runs most weeks serves a chicken shawarma plate with enough rice and salad to fill you up for under $11. Seasoned properly, actual grill char on the chicken, tahini that tastes like someone made it that morning. A barbecue truck with a vinegar-based pulled pork has real smoke flavor in the meat. Not liquid smoke. Smoke. These are not revelations. They are well-made meals served quickly at prices that downtown restaurants cannot match.
The Campus Circuit
I've spent less time at the campus trucks than at Mark's Carts this season, so I'll be honest about the limits of what I know. But the trucks cluster near campus for a reason: fifty thousand students and a midday rush that the dining halls don't absorb. The spots worth checking:
- South State Street near the Michigan Union. I caught a taco truck here on a Thursday that had a line twenty deep at noon. The al pastor was good. Not Dos Hermanos good, but solid for a sidewalk lunch under $10.
- North University near the Diag. Fewer regular spots. Event-driven trucks show up during football season, orientation weeks, and spring festivals.
- Fuller Park on Fuller Road. Weekend trucks appear here during warm months, especially near the pool and the river trail.
Campus trucks skew toward tacos, burritos, and bowls. The check averages $9 to $12. The format is built for speed: your customer has a 12:45 class and needs to eat in eight minutes.
Brewery Lots
Several breweries host food trucks in their parking lots as a standing arrangement. No kitchen on-site, rotating trucks outside. The brewery gets food service without the overhead. The truck gets a captive audience that's already drinking.
734 Brewing Company (423 S Washington St, Ypsilanti) runs this model explicitly. No in-house kitchen by design. Food trucks rotate outside several nights a week, and you're welcome to bring food from nearby Depot Town restaurants too. Check their social media for the truck schedule — it changes weekly.
HOMES Brewery (2321 Jackson Ave, Ann Arbor) brings in trucks for special releases and weekend events. I haven't caught one of these yet, but the brewery's Instagram announces the lineup when they have one.
Saturday at the Market
Last Saturday I ate a lamb merguez sandwich at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market that was better than anything I've had from a sit-down restaurant this month. A prepared food vendor, truck-style operation, selling alongside the produce stalls at 315 Detroit Street. The sausage had real spice and the bread was warm. Nine dollars.
That's the market on a good Saturday: prepared food vendors mixed in with the farms, and some of the best quick eating in the city happening before 10 a.m. Get there by 9. Bring cash for the smaller vendors.
The Wednesday market (same location, May through December) is smaller and less crowded. Fewer prepared food vendors, but the lines are shorter and the parking is actually possible.
Tracking the Trucks
Food trucks move. That's the feature, not the bug. But it makes planning harder than checking a restaurant's hours. Here's how to keep track:
- Instagram and Facebook are the primary channels. The operators post their location and hours for the day, usually by 10 a.m. Follow the trucks you like.
- Mark's Carts posts a weekly lineup on their Instagram. Bookmark it.
- Brewery social media will announce which truck is parked outside.
- Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation occasionally lists food truck permits for public events.
There is no single centralized tracker for Ann Arbor food trucks. If someone builds one, I'll link to it here.
My Recommendation
Start at Mark's Carts on a Wednesday around 11:30. Get the chicken shawarma plate from the Mediterranean truck if it's there. If it's not, get whatever has the longest line. The crowd knows. The whole meal will cost you less than a sandwich at half the new places on Main Street, and you'll eat it on a bench in the sun, which on a spring day in Ann Arbor is about as good as lunch gets.
This is a companion to our opinion piece, "Ann Arbor Has a Food Truck Scene. Why Does Nobody Write About It?" Updated as we cover individual trucks throughout the 2026 season.