J. Tyler Holmes

In the thriving center of downtown, many of the people hurrying by Millennium Park during a weekday morning are fighting to get to work instead of see the sights. Downtown Chicago employs nearly 542,000 people everyday.

With a repetitive selection of chain restaurants and mundane sandwiches, food trucks have become a shining beacon in the daily food scene for office-goers. The AON Center has welcomed the arrival of food truck lines down their skyscraper-clad street as a breath of fresh air for their stomachs. So much, that the area even has its own Twitter dedicated to which trucks will arrive daily.

“I remember when my friend first told me there were food trucks outside the office,” says analyst Ella Krikorian. “I was so giddy, it was pretty dumb. I just literally couldn’t think of eating Panera one more day and I love tacos.”

The AON Center provides a weekly variety of a selection of food trucks so it’s easy not to have to repeat the same meal twice in one week. Unless you want to. With options like La Cocinita, Cheesie’s, Da Lobsta, and La Boulangerie, it’s easy to have a different culturally inspired dish every day of the week.

“A lot of the same trucks are here all the time, so I guess we must be good for business,” said Jordan Bayly, an insurance consultant. “It’s become pretty routine. I don’t want to go anywhere else besides right outside my office. It just won’t be as good.”

Bayly claims Cheesie’s food truck has been a “blessing” because he never wants to go that far north for a grilled cheese, but now it “basically comes right to me.”

With two parks accompanying the area and a stunning view of Lake Michigan in the distance, the gathering of food trucks has turned the courtyard of the AON the ultimate lunch spot.

“Businesses have become the main way we make our money during the week when it’s not peak season like summertime,” said La Boulangerie employee Laurie Kane. “We pretty much rotate between college students and businesses downtown depending on the day.”

Looks like food trucks have finally made going to an office job feel worth it. A commercial match made in heaven.