Set in New York City, Kabob! takes place in the thriving, yet challenged world of food trucks and tells the colorful stories of the vendors who operate them.
         The show centers on two brothers, Ernesto and Tomas, who run a Venezuelan-style food truck, and have conflicting ideas on how to achieve the American dream. Ernesto loves running the business, but sees it as a stepping stone to his ultimate goal of opening a real brick and mortar restaurant. Tomas, on the other hand, is happy running the truck and worries about taking on more than they can handle. Tomas is also falling in love with Javier, a fellow truck owner, and is afraid that not only will Ernesto not accept his homosexuality, but that leaving the truck world to pursue a restaurant would cause him to lose what he and Javier have together.
          Playing out amidst all this is an increasing effort by federal immigration agents to crack down on illegal immigrants, fueled in part by national politics. The mayor and his police department have already been struggling to maintain control over the growth of the food trucks, and now this added pressure is putting him and the city’s police in a tight spot. After all, to penalize food truck violations would make the city’s beloved food truck vendors more susceptible to deportation.
         Serving as an onstage narrator is Mahmoud, who has been running his same halal food cart for over 30 years. He’s unimpressed with the explosion of food trucks, wondering how they’re any better than the hand-crafted shawarma and kabobs he’s been serving on the streets for years. He’s frustrated with this, but also sees himself in this young generation of entrepreneurs.
        Vendors include a Greek truck run by a father and son; the Pierogi Guy who’s looking forward to the edge he’ll have selling at the city’s upcoming Polish pride day parade; and of course a number of pun-heavy truck names, like What the Pho?, a Vietnamese soup and sandwich truck run by Tran and Sara, and an Indian food truck in the theater district called Ghees and Daals.
        Things come to a head on a number of fronts, as a possible restaurant space opens up for Ernesto and Tomas, and the two have to reconcile their differing plans for the future; and when Tran from the Vietnamese truck gets beaten mercilessly in what is clearly a hate crime.
        Just when it looks like the restaurant might happen, the restaurateur Ernesto had been working with turns out to be a fraud. The community of food truck vendors comes together to support Tran; and a breaking scandal involving the mayor provides an unexpected piece of property — allowing the vendors we’ve come to know to set up a food truck “pod” where several trucks gather. As a result, Tomas and Javier can see each other every day, Ernesto can run this pod like a quasi-restaurant, and where they can’t be touched by the authorities.