ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – People were flooding Ashwaubomay Park Thursday night, as local food trucks lined up to serve some of the best cuisine the Green Bay area.
The Green Bay Food Truck Coalition took over the park with nine trucks dishing out generous serving sizes. Pat Joyce operates the Taste of Ethiopia truck, and he says Green Bay’s scene isn’t quite up to par with others around the country. At least, not yet.
“We’re trying to raise the bar here in Green Bay. We’re about ten years behind the rest of the country, I think, but it’s really catching on,” Joyce said. “Where else can you go and walk from truck to truck and taste different cuisines of different parts of the world? Most of this gourmet, made-to-order food, so I think it’s a big plus for the community to have this many trucks.”
WTAQ’s Casey Nelson indulged in an order of cheese curds from The Dog House during a food truck rally at Ashwaubomay Park. (IMAGE: WTAQ News)
Caribbean food, Ethiopian American fusion, burgers, tacos, and of course – cheese curds. The Dog House is the spot for the fried legend on this row, and Nick Slupski says they’ve been doing it for a while. It’s the longest-running food truck in Green Bay.
But with that long history, Slupski says they’ve never experienced anything like the past year.
“Going into the season in March, there’s a lot of question marks of how many events were happening and what weren’t – and it was a speculation as how people were going to come out…Were they going to come out, like anxious and want to do stuff? Or was there going to be that preventative maintenance kinda sorta thing where they were reluctant to come out?” Slupski told WTAQ News. “Everybody’s coming out. Everybody wants to come out. All of the events, besides obviously rain outs, that we’ve had so far for this year have been about 20%, and believe it or not, one event was 100% busier than it ever was in years passed.”
Those customers stood in lines well over 20 people deep, waiting for their plates of mouthwatering cuisine. None of them seemed to mind waiting at all, and all of them seemed to be enjoying every minute of eating good food in the sun.
“Oh, it feels wonderful. I’m glad summer is here, and hopefully it doesn’t go away too soon,” Nick said. “It’s the new normal I guess, but it feels awesome to be out here!”
Justin and Allie drove from Kewaunee, just for the food truck rally.
“It’s nice to get out of the house,” Justin said. “The food itself is way better, but I mean the variety here too – you go to McDonald’s, you’re going to get a burger. You come here, you can have a little of everything.”
“Supporting local businesses, that’s a huge deal right now at least for us. It’s something that we try to strive for,” Allie added.
Darlene of Ashwaubenon had a similar mindset.
“It’s very important. We always try and support the smaller stores or whatever, whenever we can,” she told WTAQ News.
“Come out and really support your local businesses, your local food trucks. Even beyond the food trucks, support your local restaurants so we can get back on the horse,” Slupski said.
An order of ribs is prepared by 4 Schmidts and Giggles BBQ during a food truck rally at Ashwaubomay Park. (IMAGE: WTAQ News)
So what exactly is the difference between a food truck and a regular restaurant? Pat Joyce says it generally comes down to one thing.
“It’s a similar process as far as health department sanitation and rules and licensing, maybe a little less overhead with the food trucks than a brick and mortar,” Joyce said.
The Dog House and Taste of Ethiopia were joined by Bay Area Burger Co., 4 Schmidts and Giggles BBQ, Gourmet Corn, Ice Clouds, Maldonado’s, Caribbean Cruiser, and Pure Vida Street Kitchen at the event.
More about the Green Bay Food Truck Coalition is available here.
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