As far as weather goes, it wasn’t the best weekend for an outdoor food truck festival.
With a stiff wind, cloudy skies, and periodic rain that turned the ground into mud, you might expect only the most hardcore foodies to turn out to Harvest Ridge Winery’s annual food truck competition.
But hundreds did over the three-day event, despite the dreary weather. John Courtney has been cooking up hot, fresh mini-donuts with the Donut NV food truck.
"So Friday was really a tough one with the rain. I was surprised to see anybody out here, but there were a lot of dedicated foodies out here on Friday," he said. "But the weather is a little nicer today and we're hoping for a better turnout for sure."
But, rain and chilly temperatures notwithstanding, Courtney says the food truck business is doing pretty well in recent years.
"I think there was a very negative perspective on food trucks being kind of dirty, and I think a lot of the regulations and stuff have helped the public see us in a more positive light," he said.
Donut NV started operations during the pandemic. Another food truck, Masala Kitchen, also launched during COVID. Taking a break from serving up samosas and Indian-inspired wood-fired pizzas, Jalpa Bhavsar says the pandemic might have actually helped food trucks rise into foodie prominence.
"A lot of people support the food trucks nowadays and I think the pandemic is what helped the food trucks because everybody wanted to stay at a distance." she said. "So food trucks kind of worked out and it picked up because of that."
Still, Bhavsar says she’s worried about rising economic uncertainty.
"Because the business has been very slow, even besides the food truck, our restaurant also has been slow this year," she said.
Adding to her worries is the constantly shifting landscape caused by sweeping tariffs from the Trump administration.
"It's going to affect us a lot because most of our spices come from India," Bhavsar said. "So I guess the prices are going to go up. So it's going to be harder for us to bring in more materials and stuff like that that we need - and spices."
Over at the Shore Fire Foods truck, I meet Lauren Powers.
"So this is actually pretty brand new," she said. "We've only been around for about less than a year now, so we’re still getting our name out."
Being a new player in the food truck scene, you might expect Powers to share some of Jalpa Bhavsar’s concerns, but Powers says grit and hustle makes a big difference.
"That's always a question," she said. "And I feel like that's that's been a problem in restaurants for quite some time. But really you just put better food out than everyone else and there's not really much competition there."
Meanwhile, Charles Kelchner, owner and executive chef of Taco Jardin, is also optimistic. Like John Courtney and Jalpa Bhavsar, he started food trucking during the pandemic.
"I'm not too nervous. I think we do pretty well rolling with the punches. So, you know, being in the middle of that, I think you've kind of experienced all the highs and lows and you kind of just got to roll with them as you go," he said.
Economic uncertainty or not, in the end, says Donut NV’s John Courtney, he’s going to keep serving food.
"Part of being like a business owner, or especially in the food truck industry, is the ability to adapt and overcome. And that's just kind of the mentality we have to have. We just have to kind of keep trucking along."
