Home Subscriber Only Dining Out Food trucks and ice cream make for delicious duo at Sacred Cow

Food trucks and ice cream make for delicious duo at Sacred Cow

By

Bruce Newbury

-

09/16/2022

Bruce Newbury

We can’t help but be in a good mood when we are with family, friends or someone special surrounded by good food and attentive service. From the other side of the table, there is a similar longing. It has certainly not become any easier to run a restaurant over the last two years. The many

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We can’t help but be in a good mood when we are with family, friends or someone special surrounded by good food and attentive service. From the other side of the table, there is a similar longing. It has certainly not become any easier to run a restaurant over the last two years. The many obstacles and roadblocks need not be listed here. There are, however, a group of guests and foodservice operators who seem to have a different outlook these days. They are the operators of food trucks and the fans who follow them. Food Trucks and Sundaes was a successful series of events this season that invited food trucks to A. B. Munroe Dairy Inc.’s Sacred Cow Scoop Shop & Market in East Providence. One prerequisite of food truck gatherings appears to be somewhat quirky locations such as farm fields, hotel parking areas and outfields of baseball stadiums. This may be attributed to the strained relationship most cities and towns seem to have with food trucks. It has not been easy for the trucks to find their footing amidst the regulatory thicket. Eric Weiner operates the clearinghouse PVD Food Truck Events. His events routinely bring out thousands of hungry patrons every weekend for almost three seasons out of the year. Some of the most attended venues include Chase Farm in Lincoln, Roger Williams Park in Providence and on the grounds of the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick hotel in Warwick. Weiner was pleased with the turnout on Sunday evening of Labor Day weekend at Munroe Dairy. Estimates by Sacred Cow and the dairy were just shy of 1,000 visitors. “We’re seeing a good cross section of food trucks and food truck operators [at the Munroe Dairy event],” Weiner said. There were nine trucks serving a variety of specialties from falafel by Pit Stop Street Food to Twisted Churros LLC, which makes Mexican mini doughboys topped with caramel sauce and pumpkin pie crust crumble in a cup, and everything in between. The Trap Box LLC, a 2-year-old truck out of Providence, served up a fried chicken sandwich with shredded cabbage, pickled veggies and hot honey aioli on a brioche bun from Wayland Bakery Inc. The creation is named after the owner’s father, “Papa Chiche.” The Reds Kitchen truck won an award at a food truck festival in central Massachusetts with a creative take on the Big Mac – special sauce, sesame seeds, lettuce on a cheesesteak sub. Reds also operates a brick-and-mortar location in Seekonk called Red’s Kitchen Pub, with plans to open a second restaurant location in Swansea in a space being converted from an ice cream stand. Weiner says this is part of the vision of some food truck operators. [caption id="attachment_417333" align="alignright" width="1024"]

FAST FOOD: Attendees gather at A. B. Munroe Dairy Inc.’s Sacred Cow Scoop Shop & Market in East Providence on Sept. 4 for the Food Trucks and Sundaes event organized by Eric Weiner and his PVD Food Trucks Events clearinghouse.  COURTESY BEN NEWBURY

FAST FOOD: Attendees gather at A. B. Munroe Dairy Inc.’s Sacred Cow Scoop Shop & Market in East Providence on Sept. 4 for the Food Trucks and Sundaes event organized by Eric Weiner and his PVD Food Trucks Events clearinghouse.  COURTESY BEN NEWBURY[/caption] “These businesspeople are operating because this is just what they want to do,” he said. “Many of them are operating a second truck.” In addition to Reds, Weiner said, there were at least two other food truck operators at the Sacred Cow event who were considering, if not already planning, to open standalone restaurants. If the perception is that food truck dining is cheap eats, that is not the case. The evening’s tab after visiting a couple of trucks and an ice cream treat to top off the night can easily rival a white-tablecloth restaurant check. The food truck operators are not exempt from the current runaway inflation. At least a few of the trucks are based an hour or more away. And their kitchens are powered by a generator, so the overhead costs mount up in proportion. These days, the fact that food trucks do not have dishwashers nor bussing of tables may not be the great differentiator it once was with fuel costs at $4 to $6 a gallon just to bring the eatery to the guest and keep the stove going. “Dining Out With Bruce Newbury” is broadcast locally on WADK 101.1 FM and 1540 AM and on radio throughout New England. Contact Bruce at bruce@brucenewbury.com.