A weekly gathering of food trucks will kick off Thursday at Tognotti’s Auto World as Mini Burger Truck, Mama Kim on the Go and Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen hold the first event organized by the fledgling Sacramento Food Truck Alliance.

The alliance formed about a month ago and is looking to be a self-policing organization for food trucks that will hold operators to a high level of service standards and host events in which alliance members can participate, said Davin Vculek, operating partner of Mini Burger Truck.

“I encourage people to come check out (Thursday’s gathering),” Vculek said. “For the most part, I think citizens want this. For the people who have never given it a shot, come down and see how clean they are – they’re not the old roach coaches.”

Thursday’s food truck gathering – which does not have a specific name as organizers mull options for something catchy and descriptive – will be held in the parking lot for Tognotti’s Auto World, 2509 Fulton Ave.

The trucks will be in the lot from 5 - 8 p.m., and Tognotti’s is staying open an hour later, until 7:30 p.m., to coincide with the gathering.

Tognotti’s General Manager Vince Colangelo said he has had a food truck park in the parking lot before, and it was very popular.

He said a truck owner came to him and asked to park in the parking lot, and he agreed. It parks there regularly, and he said it draws employees from the area as well as his own employees. He added that many of the food truck visitors walk into the store, and it’s good for his business.

“We’re a little surprised to see how busy it is,” he added. “Whenever we come in or out, there’s always somebody in line buying something.”

The event must be held outside Sacramento city limits due to an ordinance limiting food truck operators from staying in one place for longer than 30 minutes.

A special event permit may be sought, he added. A much larger mobile food festival, SactoMoFo, was held April 30 and drew an estimated 10,000 people as mobile food vendors and local foodies looked to overturn the ordinance.

Andrew “Drewski” Blaskovich, owner of Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen, which specializes in gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, melts and tacos, said he sees the Sacramento Food Truck Alliance as a way to help city officials keep an eye on food trucks if the ordinance is overturned as well as host events like the gathering Thursday that will bring more exposure.

One of the alliance’s rules is that food trucks not park in front of restaurants.

“We don’t want to put anybody out of business,” Blaskovich said. “We want this whole city to thrive.”

He said he thinks food trucks operating in Sacramento as they do in other cities such as Portland and San Francisco will bring people downtown and help create a bustling streetscape that might draw more businesses to take advantage of the crowds outside.

“We could get those commuting customers who aren’t used to being downtown, and they could come and say, ‘Wow, J Street is a cool street,’ ” he said.

“I think the business we bring is going to get people out of their seats and walking around and help spike the economy in downtown Sacramento.”

Though the gathering will be held regularly, the location will change, said Kim Scott, owner of Mama Kim on the Go, which sells gourmet American fare – one of the most-popular items being barbecue tri-tip with sweet potato chips – and focuses on using local products.

“We’ve had really good response to the food in general,” she said. “This is our first weekly gathering, and the support is going to govern how big this gets.”

She said it is a good opportunity to try different foods and not have to deal with the long lines that foodies waited in during the SactoMoFo festival.

Chris Jarosz of WIcked ‘Wich, said he is looking forward to participating in the gathering of food trucks, but wants to take some time to get experience with the newly launched truck before going out to a bigger event.

“We didn’t want to go out there and not be able to accommodate that many people and be disorganized,” he said.

He added that he wants to see the ordinance overturned, and he wants to reach out to the owners of traditional restaurants to make sure that the trucks and buildings can coexist and even profit from each other’s presence.

Jarosz said Wicked ’Wich probably won’t participate every week in the gathering, but maybe twice per month or monthly.

“What’s great about the food trucks is we can go to our customers and not have them have to come to us,” he said.

Vculek said he thinks it is only a matter of time before the ordinance is overturned.

City leaders recently met with restaurateurs, food truck operators and food lovers to gather information in advance of drafting a new ordinance.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.