Food trucks have seen a rise in recent years, with many restaurants adding a truck as a mobile way to share high quality food to a bigger audience. The people looking for good eats have responded in a big way. “It’s unique, it’s fun, it’s easy. It’s really really big down in Minneapolis where people work all day long and they’re in buildings and rather than going out to eat at a restaurant and spending all sorts of money you can get the same gourmet food at a food truck for half the cost. It’s also quick, it’s easy. Their turn around time from purchase to food in hand is under 60 seconds sometimes so it’s just easy for people and it’s fun and a lot of the food trucks here this is how they make their living,” said Jenkins. The event featured donut burgers, barbeque, hibachi, beer, and plenty more along with games and live music. The success isn’t limited to the trucks or patrons. A portion of proceeds at the door go to charity. The charity represented here is the Minnesota Internship Center. “We serve mostly inner city students. Most of them are low income and this year we had over 50 percent of our kids in jobs or paid internships. They brought in over $800,00 to their low income families,” said Minnesota Internship Center office manager Mary Higgins. Bistro La Roux on the border of Lexington and Circle Pines actually began as a food truck and head chef Tim Glover took his passion of cooking and knowledge from his time in the military to begin a new career. “I said I like to cook. Being from Louisiana it’s quite natural and we have all those great recipes that we can go to so this R.V. was in front of our house that a family member had given us and with my aircraft mechanic skills we converted this thing into a food truck,” said Glover. Cajun 2 Geux offers authentic Cajun food and featured such items as crawfish and shrimp etouffee and alligator sausage at the food truck fair taking place right in their own backyard. “We live in the area so it was only natural that we would try to let our community share the New Orleans cuisine,” said Glover. The Minnesota Food Truck Fair is open to all ages and pets and continues through the summer in Uptown, St. Paul, and Burnsville.
National Sports Center Hosts 40 Food Trucks
BLAINE, Minn. – (June 25, 2015) – The Minnesota Food Truck Fair made its way to Blaine at the National Sports Center last weekend after its inception four years ago in Uptown. The fair is the largest gathering of food trucks in the state with 40 or more trucks at each site. “This is the first year its in Blaine. We thought we’d bring it to the National Sports Center. We work with some people there and it’s just a really well known location for people of Blaine and they have the room for us which is awesome. We’re anticipating about 7,500 to 10,000 people today,” said event coordinator Jess Jenkins.
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