Experience Arlington and US Food Trucks are hosting the largest food truck event to date in North Texas on Friday and Saturday, April 26/27. The Texas Food Truckin’ Fest starts Friday at 4PM, and again Saturday morning at 11AM. There should be over 30 food trucks or trailers at the event, including:
Aunt Sweet Tooth’s Kitchen, Bombay Chopstix, Café Con Leche, Cravetopia Bakery, Doughboy’s Pizza Truck, Eat Jo Dawgs, Empanada Armada, First Bite Gourmet, Four Seasons, Gorgonzilla, Jolly Trolley Express, Lee Malone’s Sliders, Little Greek, Maui Wowi, My Cupcake Garden, Nammi, Oink and Moo, Rockn’ Rick’s, Salsa Limon, Short-N-Sweet, Simply Dosa, SweetieV’s, Taste of Home, The Bacon Lover’s Truck, The Big Purple Truck, The Butcher’s Son, The Guava Tree, The Lab of the Streets, Tin Star Taco Taxi, Tutta’s Pizza, What’s Da Scoop, What’s Cook-N Chef, and Yellow Belly.
The organizers will have live music throughout the day and seating in the ballpark to watch the Saturday televised away game.
Entry fees to the event are $10 for adults ($12 for a 2-day pass), $5 for kids, under 32″ tall are free. Parking is included, but does not include any portion of food costs.
Jump for details and a bit of commentary on why you should go and why I think you might be out of your mind if you do go…
Why You Should Go:
- With well over 30 food trucks, you have a wide variety of choices. Burgers, bacon, cuban, pizza, grilled cheese, Indian, cupcakes, shaved ice, BBQ, and more.
- There are only 2 “anchor trucks” (those that have been around for a while and have a strong following), including Nammi and The Butcher’s Son.
- A number of the food trucks are brand new: Lee Malone’s Sliders (a Denton-based trailer), Gorgonzilla, Jolly Trolley Express, Maui Wowi, and What’s Da Scoop.
- Several others, including Aunt Sweet Tooth’s Kitchen, Empanada Armada, First Bite, Little Greek, Oink and Moo, and Yellow Belly haven’t been out all that long. There is a good chance you haven’t been able to try them just yet.
- Lots of music, food options, free parking, hanging out in the Ballpark. It should be great family fun.
Why You’re Out of Your Mind if You Go:
- Each food truck is paying about $500 to be there, including City of Arlington temporary permit fees and the event fees. That means each of those 30 trucks has to make about $3,000 just to break even. Do the math. At $10/meal receipt, that means there needs to be over 9,000 people.
- The list of food trucks/trailers will likely change and it is difficult to figure out just who will be there. The event’s web site has a list, the event’s Facebook page has a list, and some of those shown are definitely not going to be there. Check Facebook or Twitter if there is a specific operation that you’ve been wanting to try.
- Most of the food trucks/trailers are available with no lines at any number of popup events. Try Sigels/Greenville on Friday evening for a great option with (usually) Tutta’s Pizza, Taco Party, and Lucky Ducky Dogs. You can support a local elementary school this Saturday with no entry fee and try Nammi, Easy Slider, Enticed, Gandolfo’s, Eat Jo Dawgs, and Pompeii.
- At $10 per adult and $5 per kid, that’s a $35 cover charge for entry for a 5-person family.
- Weekend weather forecast at Weather.com
If you go, please report back in the comments. We want to know what you think.
