After a few years of experimenting with the ingredients, the Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Association (BIA) believes it’s found the right recipe for its flavourful Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Fest.
For the fifth time on Saturday, the BIA will put on its popular event, which organizers believe is the largest one-day food truck festival in Canada, along Columbia Street between Fourth and Eighth streets.
There will be more than 80 trucks, about the same as last year and more than quadruple the inaugural total of less than 20. The first fest, in 2013, was such a huge hit the trucks ran out of food in no time, sending the long lines of customers scrambling to the River Market and other Royal City restaurants to quell their hunger pangs.
“I think last year we found the perfect balance, where you could go to any truck and there wasn’t a very long line, but still have a huge amount of variety,” said Angie Whitfield, BIA programs and event manager. “The trucks liked the pace. They were all busy, but there was never a long wait. So to us, those numbers really worked well with the crowds that we saw last year.”
Like any good chef, the BIA tweaks the recipe every time it prepares the mix.
“We’re just kind of growing on that foodie scene, incorporating more of our members each year,” said Whitfield. “It took a few years to figure out. We’ve caught up to the crowds. We’re also hand picking our trucks. We look at the trucks that come back year to year, and we make a point of sourcing the new trucks that are out there, and making sure the list of trucks that we have are the pro trucks. They know how to handle the crowds. They’re the ones with the great menus and are new on the scene. So we’ve got a really good mix of trucks.”
This year’s new twist is the addition of the Vancouver Fashion Truck and Ardillas United Truck. They’ve been added to the mix to tie in with the area’s retail clothing shops such as Mila and Page, Inner Fire Apparel, Grand Central Consignment and Hive City.
“We’re looking for new elements to add and different partners to work with,” said Whitfield.
The New West Farmers Market will be there, too, along with another market in the Anvil Centre. There will be six beer gardens, all extensions of establishments along Columbia – Anvil Centre, El Santo, Judge Begbie’s Tavern, The Columbia, The Met and the Heritage Grill.
“Every year, they grow a little more,” said Whitfield of the beer gardens. “Each year (the establishment owners) say, ‘I should have gone bigger!’
“We find most of the restaurants, surprisingly, are busy as well. Despite the fact we’ve got the 80 food trucks, the restaurants tend to get quite populated.”
Whitfield said some of the new trucks to salivate over include Memphis Mike’s BBQ, Smoke Shack 99 from Whistler, the Flying Fish N’ Chipper and Taco Kwon Do. The latter is Asian fused with Mexican prepared by Chef Denis Ulicevic, who Whitfield said has worked with Gordon Ramsey and cooked for Kid Rock.
“They’ve got a gorgeous truck, and their menu looks interesting,” said Whitfield, who estimated there will be more than 150 vendors in total at the festival.
The Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Fest runs from 4 to 10 p.m. There will be plenty of places to sit and eat and four entertainment stages.
