Tailgate Picnics

Tailgate picnics are meals served out of doors close to an automobile. A car’s tailgate—or rear door—need not be used to assemble a tailgate picnic. The term refers to a form of dining that has followed the evolution of the automotive industry.

Tailgate picnics became popular in the United Kingdom around 1919 as a result of the rise of “woodies,” wood-paneled cars and small trucks designed and manufactured to conserve steel, a valuable commodity for the production of war materials. Many of the earliest woodies came equipped with a small trailer, commonly referred to as a “teardrop” because of its elliptical shape. These lightweight wooden trailers contained all of the equipment necessary to create thrifty and savory meals along the roadside: a gas or charcoal stove, cold-storage containers, a folding table, and sometimes chairs.