The Southern Mac & Cheese store opened on Friday to a very excited crowd. Hoards of people waited both inside and around the block to get their hands on one of the thirteen varieties of macaroni and cheese available on the menu.

Out of the 10 people we asked, only one person had eaten from the Southern Mac & Cheese truck, while two others said that they had seen the truck before. Marie Campbell (see picture), a data entry professional, said she had seen the truck before, but the line was too long for her to wait. Many passers-by seemed to stop simply because they loved the concept of a macaroni and cheese restaurant.

Diner Marie Campbell enjoys her macaroni & cheese.

Families, college students and business people funneled in the doors, keeping the restaurant busy throughout the lunch hour. The teensy weensy storefront falsely leads people to believe that the restaurant itself is tiny. We were surprised at just how much space and seating there was inside. There are standard tables and chairs as well as a counter lining the east wall where you can grab a stool and dig into your food. The path from the door to the register is a wide one, so you aren’t like to get elbowed even during the busiest hours.

Vegetarians, get excited: their veggie menu is equally as robust as their menu with meat. The restaurant is located at 60 E. Lake St. and is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays (6 p.m. on weekends).

The Southern Mac & Cheese truck will be serving up all of their truck dishes for us all at a traditional storefront at Lake and Wabash…starting this week! Below is a picture of the menu they posted on Facebook:

This truck recently moved out of the kitchen of The Southern since the truck’s ever-increasing fan base comes with a higher demand for food, and they were starting to really bump elbows with the chefs. We think this is an interesting turn in events as we can’t think of a truck that was spawned from a restaurant that spawned its own restaurant that essentially just serves one dish. Don’t get us wrong though, we’re friggen stoked for this store to open.

Though the store is not yet open, they expect to open for business by the end of the week. Which of you guys are we going to see on opening day?

Around lunchtime today we saw loads of tweets from trucks and food truck freaks saying police were shutting down food trucks on Dearborn around lunch time. No arrests have been reported. All trucks have reported similar stories of being well within the law yet being met with aggression by Chicago policemen and 3 male Westin employees. Instead of matching aggression with aggression, trucks receded (much to the disappointment of many onlookers like Anne Klingeberger, or @region_rant, below), forfeiting their profits during peak lunchtime hours in a high-visibility location.

Note: All reports seem to be coming from female truck owners/drivers. Were the male-driven trucks harassed too, just not reported, or did police only hassle the women? Chime in, men!

Today’s culprit appears to be the Westin. Friendly reminder: you as a consumer can choose to spend your money where you want, and withold it from companies whose actions you do not like. If the Westins’ actions rubbed you the wrong way, there are plenty of other hotel chains out there.

Below is a taste from those who live tweeted/Facebooked (tell us in the comments below if you saw this happen or got pushed away by police, too).

UPDATE (4:58 p.m. 9/1/11): @SweetRide said “To be fair, Westin was only me. Monroe & Dearborn compliments of Chicago’s Finest.” Sounds like Westin’s complaint had a snowball effect. See more info from Sweet Ride below on how it went down.

We love to hear these kind of stories: truck owners helping truck owners. This morning, the Brown Bag Lunch Truck was rear-ended and thus will have to be off the road for about a week. Huge bummer for their fans, but that would obviously drop their sales to zero until they can get the truck back on the road, right? Wrong.

Trucks work harmoniously together, strengthening Chicago's food truck community

The Brown Bag Lunch Truck and Adelita Truck have teamed up to help keep Brown Bag’s business going even when the truck isn’t. Brown Bag owner Joaquin will be aboard The Adelita Truck with the Vejar brothers until the Brown Bag mobile is up and running. This is a major win for all involved, and underscores the beauty of the Chicago food truck community. Plus, if you have talked to these guys in person, you know putting them in a truck together will mean laughter will be billowing from the truck all week long!

You can catch the dynamic duo tomorrow at Monroe & Wacker for lunch! Definitely stop by if you’re in the area.

If you could combine any Brown Bag menu item with any Adelita food, which would you choose?

Should the city of Chicago be allowed to turn business districts into No-Vending Zones to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants from competition?

That is the question that surrounds a major grassroots campaign being launched today—My Streets! My Eats!— by the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Law School. The Clinic, which brings together law students to assist low-income entrepreneurs, will advocate for freedom for mobile chefs to prepare food on-the-go and serve their customers wherever they can do so safely.

The Clinic will hold a strategy session that is open to all vendors, law students, advocates and members of the media on Tuesday, August 30, 7:00-8:30 pm at the University of Chicago Law School, 6020 S. University Ave., Room V. The meeting will bring together the creative entrepreneurs who are being crippled by Chicago’s restrictive rules so they can share their concerns and develop a plan of action.

Chicago officials have been ticketing and even arresting vendors simply for serving their customers. The current laws about serving food on the move are needlessly restrictive: mobile food businesses can only serve food that was finished and wrapped up in a kitchen, they cannot sell earlier than 10 a.m., and they cannot stop within 200 feet of restaurants.

“In Chicago it is illegal to put toppings on a hot dog from a cart, it is illegal to have a doughnut truck serving breakfast, and it is illegal for a truck or a cart to be just about anywhere in the Loop,” said Beth Milnikel, the director of the IJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship. “Chicago entrepreneurs should not be living in fear, terrified that they’ll be arrested for selling tamales to their neighbors.”

An ordinance allowing food preparation has been introduced, but the city council has delayed discussing it for a year, and the ordinance still contains confusing, anti-competitive requirements. The IJ Clinic has an infographic map showing that the unfair favoritism of the proposed law would block mobile food businesses from business districts.

The campaign continues the Institute for Justice’s National Street Vending Initiative, a nationwide effort to vindicate the right of street vendors to earn an honest living. Earlier this year, El Paso, Texas, repealed its protectionist vending regulations in response to an IJ lawsuit. In July, the Institute filed a similar lawsuit in Atlanta and released a national report, “Streets of Dreams,” which reviews vending laws in America’s 50 largest cities.

Street vending has been an important part of American culture for centuries and is now more popular than ever. The Economist magazine predicted that this year “some of the best food Americans eat may come from a food truck.” For generations, street vending has been a classic way for entrepreneurs to provide for themselves and their families while creating jobs and satisfying customer demands.

Chicago is not the only city stifling vendors with burdensome laws. “Streets of Dreams” shows that 45 of America’s 50 largest cities put real barriers in the way of street vendors. For instance:

• 33 cities have established No-Vending Zones, which often include potentially lucrative areas such as downtown or areas near sporting venues.
• 20 cities ban vendors from setting up near brick-and-mortar businesses that sell the same or similar goods.
• 19 cities permit mobile vendors to stay in one spot for only small amounts of time, forcing vendors to spend much of their day moving instead of selling.
• 5 cities prevent mobile vendors from stopping and parking unless flagged by a customer.

“Our ‘My Streets! My Eats!’ Campaign is working to dismantle these needless regulations and help make Chicago a great place to live, eat, work and dream,” said Milnikel. “We are encouraging all Chicagoans to call their aldermen and say they want Chicago to be a place where mobile chefs are free to prepare food on the go, and serve it all over the city.”

For more on today’s campaign and the National Street Vending Initiative, visit https://www.ij.org/mystreets. The Institute for Justice is the nation’s leading legal advocate for the rights of entrepreneurs. IJ is available on Facebook, YouTube and twitter.