Rendering of Smokin Thighs’ soon-to-be stationary address.
-- SubmittedAs if teaming with teenagers for out-of-the-food truck-box events weren’t enough, street food hawkers of Nashville have been busy keeping it fresh in other ways this season.
A few highlights:
The Nashville Food Truck Association introduced Spring Into Street Food on the first day of spring this year. The downtown event brought more than 20 trucks together to make Deaderick Street pedestrian-only during lunch hours. While it was slated to happen once a month, the frequency has been upped to meet demand. Remaining dates for Spring Into Street Food include April 17, May 1 and May 15, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
“In food truck life, you either need to be at a destination or be a destination,” says B.J. Lofback of Riffs Fine Street Food and president of the Nashville Food Truck Association. “We started off at the destinations. Now we’re starting to see that we can create a destination when we group up together.”
A Market Takeover by street food vendors and trucks along with a Marathon Viewing Party will take place at the Nashville Farmers’ Market on Saturday, April 26. The all-day event will feature food, of course, along with contests with featured ingredients and a media/blogger cook-off with food truck owners as judges.
May marks the official Nashville Street Food Month, so watch for a big event to celebrate. The Nashville Food Truck Association also encourages each truck to celebrate the month in a way that suits individual business models, so expect creativity, special discounts and social media promotion throughout the month.
The association continues to grow, adding creative trucks like Bacon Nation to the mix of about 37 members. Two of the most popular trucks – Grilled Cheeserie and Riffs Fine Street Food – celebrate three-year anniversaries this year. Biscuit Love Truck also represented Nashville at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami.
Just as some trucks have opened brick and mortar locations recently, including Riffs Cafe (555 Marriott Drive, Suite 105) six months ago and the forthcoming Smokin Thighs space (611 Wedgewood Avenue), the trend also is working in reverse.
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream looked to the Nashville Food Truck Association for advice, Lofback says, in creating its mobile truck, and Smoothie King, a national chain of brick and mortar stores, also added a mobile unit to its repertoire recently.