Today I attended my first ever Food Truck War and thought it to be very interesting. The Oviedo Mall hosted this event and there were 40 food trucks in attendance along with live Jazz music, local radio stations and good Florida weather. For my first event of this nature It was a little crazy. There were so many people and it was a touch on the hot side but the breeze made it nice.
My Father-in-law and I waited in line to get lunch for us and our wives for probably 45 minutes and I'd love to tell you it was worth the wait, but for the cost it was a little much. I bet if I hadn't waited that long I would have enjoyed my Philly Cheese Steak more. Thankfully we brought lawn chairs and had a nice shady place to site that our wives had commandeered for us amidst all the people walking around the bazaar.I really enjoyed seeing all of the trucks use of social media. They had everything from QR Codes to using iPads for orders and accepting credit cards using Square (I will soon be sharing the benefits of this device, stay tuned). I was super excited to see how many of these businesses are adapting to this generation by allowing us to pay with our phone or us credit cards on the go. What cool ways have you experienced technology affecting your every day adventures?
All in all, it was an ok first visit, next time I will be wearing sun-screen and possibly a hat. If they had only hired a walk around/close up magician (aka, Kevin The Magician) the event would have been an even bigger hit!
To sum it up:
Pros: Great selection of food and a very popular event, I would go to something like this again. The use of technology and social media is growing
Cons: Prices were a little steep at all the vendors and efficiency of line management was not good, crowd entertainment would have helped the lines go by faster.
What similar events have you been to and what was your experience?
Since DC actually uses food trucks on a for-real daily basis (Food Truck Friday is a thing, and http://foodtruckfiesta.com/ is a real website where you can track if your favorite trucks are going to be anywhere near your block that day), I'd say DC is probably more efficient at our Truck Jams. They're also making a Chik Fil A food truck soon, which is a godsend, since DC doesn't have a Chik Fil A and it's a travesty.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I guess the prices seem amazing to us since prices for every other food are jacked up considerably in the city.
That's really cool about the Food Truck Friday. The might have something like that in Down Town Orlando, but this was the first ever competition of food trucks in Florida, at least that's what they told me.
ReplyDeleteThe Chick-Fil-A Food Truck idea is a great one to help CFA continue to grow into the North. I still think it so odd that when I was in Colorado last summer they had a CFA... with Sweet Tea!