The food trucks from Central Carolina Food Truck Alliance converged on the parking lot behind Company Shops Market early Saturday morning, hours before anyone at the Burlington Downtown Farmers Market was hungry for lunch.
At about 9:30 a.m., Micah Martello, owner of the King Creole food truck, said he and Captain Pancho’s Tacos, Marty’s BBQ , Urban Street Grill, The Ice Queen, and Kona Ice food trucks would start serving food at 10 a.m. and, “We’ll keep it open as long as people are here.”
By 10:30 a.m., a few people were lining up for a food truck brunch.
Nate Perry, of Graham, started on a chorizo quesadilla by Captain Poncho’s Tacos and stated his goal to try something from every single food truck by the end of the afternoon. A Company Shops Market board member, Perry said he’d been to Durham food truck rodeos and hoped the culture would spill over into Burlington.
By mid-afternoon, the event was in full-swing. “Extended Hill” jammed out on an Oriental rug in the middle of the lot, adults squatted on curbs to eat Korean barbecue and jambalaya, and kids swarmed the ice cream and shaved ice trucks.
“I had no idea we’d get this kind of turnout today,” said Eric Henry, Company Shops Market board member. “Hopefully … this can start to become a weekend thing.”
Christine Catania, owner of The Ice Queen food truck (lovingly named “Snowflake”), had never served her hand-scooped milkshakes or massive ice cream “sammiches” in Burlington before. Unlike other standard ice cream trucks, “I don’t do routes,” said Catania.
Instead, she and dessert food truck cohort Mike Paccadolmi, co-owner of Kona Ice, park and serve at scheduled events, such as the farmers market. Both said they’re interested in returning to Burlington, if enough people showed interest.
That wasn’t a problem Saturday afternoon, when parents stood in line to create their own ice cream-and-cookie “sammich” concoctions, and children added syrup flavoring to their shaved ice from Kona Ice.
“That’s what the kids love,” Paccadolmi said, referring to the self-serve syrup station built into the Kona Ice truck. The top 10 flavors were available at the self-serve, and a myriad of other flavors Paccadolmi had in the truck were listed on a sign out front.
For the more adventurous foodie, the Urban Street Grill truck sold barbecue eel tacos with mango, avocado and salsa verde, or a Kimchi fried rice bowl, in addition to Korean barbecue-style short ribs, ginger chicken and pork belly tacos and burritos.
Martello said the variety of foods available at a food truck rodeo actually helps the individual food truck operators. “People may not know what they want to eat, but they know where the food is,” he said, adding he wants to bring a couple food trucks to the farmers market on a regular basis.
“It creates an environment people associate with food,” said Martello. “We’re looking forward to having trucks out (here) next Saturday.”
Meighan Skrzypczak, of Elon, liked the concept. “This is fun. It makes it an event,” she said. In between bites of King Creole’s red beans and rice, Skrzypczak said, “It’s great for these guys, and great for the community.”
At the end of the day, Martello said Burlington’s first food truck rodeo was a success.
“I ran out of food at 1:30 p.m.,” he said. “Every truck pretty much sold out,” said Martello. “It was a really good day.”