Why Boston is letting some food trucks stay open until 3 a.m. this summer

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“There’s nothing to eat at this hour.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve uttered this phrase, but I can recall the words slipping out as early as 10:30 p.m. on a night out in Boston. Sometimes, a gas station snack or fast food just doesn’t cut it. And it doesn’t have to — at least, for this summer and fall.

This week, Boston launched a new late-night food truck program, giving locals more options to grab a bite after dark. The initiative lets 10 food trucks operate as late as 3 a.m. at different nightlife hotspots, from Back Bay to Brighton.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu — whose focus on expanding food trucks dates back to 2010 when she was working in the late Mayor Tom Menino’s office — told WBUR’s Sharon Brody that the idea is to close a “gap” in late-night food options. According to Wu, the food trucks aren’t just for locals out late for a game, concert, play or bar crawl; they’re also meant to cater to night-shift workers, “who often can be invisible to the larger community, who are performing essential functions. “It’s about making sure that we’re building the ecosystem for our economy to grow even more,” Wu said.

Corean Reynolds, Boston’s director of nightlife economy, said she’d first heard of the issue of late-night hunger from a group of firefighters. They weren’t the only workers in Boston being affected.

“Our nightlife stakeholders include restaurant owners and DJs, promoters, servers, but also doctors and nurses and police officers and construction workers,” Reynolds said during a press conference this week. “ So we have this issue: how do we attack late-night hunger, but also support our third shift workers? And what’s more mobile than a food truck?”

So, where are they?

The city chose seven high-traffic areas where people might benefit from a food truck late into the night: Northeastern University, Fenway Park, the Theater District, the Roadrunner concert venue, Boston Medical Center, Faneuil Hall and Copley Square (at the corner of Boylston and Clarendon streets).

There’s a lot of variety when it comes to cuisine. Offerings from the participating trucks include Mexican and Caribbean cuisine, lobster rolls, Asian fusion and chicken tenders. The food trucks’ hours and locations vary by day. Check this schedule from the city to find out where the trucks will be each night — and when:

The program is also just getting rolling. While city officials are waiting to see how the first season goes, there’s at least a lot of appetite among operators; over 40 food trucks entered the lottery this spring to participate in the program. Reynolds said they hope to use this first year to learn what works — and expand the program going forward.

“It’s been really exciting to know that we’re taking one more step on the food truck journey here in Boston,” Wu said.