It rained on and off for most of the day Saturday, and an impending heat wave loomed over the Twin Cities as more than 50 food trucks and a few dozen other vendors filled the parking lot of the Union Depot in St. Paul for the Minnesota Food Truck Festival.
The event has been held in St. Paul for nearly a decade, rain or shine, but the rain caught them off guard this year, organizer Jess Fast said.
“Today we were not prepared for this huge drop,” she said. “I feel like we were very lucky, like from 2015 to 2019, right? It was always sunny and now it seems to rain every weekend. I don’t know what it is.”
Scattered tents, the breeze from the Mississippi River and the Lafayette Bridge above helped people escape some of the heat and raindrops.
“It’s rained here the last few years, and people are looking for a little refuge, and they come right back. It’s pretty cool,” Fast continued.
Josh Matthews, owner of food truck Station No. 6, and his crew were sweating well before the heat hit its peak of the day, cooking up burgers on a flavorful, sizzling grill.
“It’s hot, it’s really hot,” Matthews said, wiping his face with a cloth.
“Mid-July, August heat. There are a few days where we have to close for staff safety, but overall it’s manageable.”
Judging by the size of the crowd, there was still enough food to keep us going through the bad weather.
“I think it’s a great feeling. The sun’s not out, which helps,” said Jonelle Tempesta, a participant who was touring the grounds with her friend Colleen Johnson.
The couple uses a few cold beers to cool down.
“If the sun was shining, I’d be dying,” Johnson said.
Unlike other Minnesota Food Truck Festival events across the metro area, organizers said there is no running water for the parking lot, so it’s a matter of bringing your own water or purchasing it on site, with proceeds from the drinks going to the nonprofit Feed My Starving Children.
“The money goes directly to children who are suffering from hunger. It’s a really exciting partnership,” Fast said.
Back at Station No. 6, Matthews said they were prepared for back-to-back muggy summer days.
“We’ll be beaten, for sure,” he said with a laugh. “We’ll go home, rest and hydrate more, and we’ll be back tomorrow.”
That event runs until 7 p.m. on Saturday and returns on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with an almost entirely different group of food trucks, Fast said.
News Source : kstp.com
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