Photo by Gabi Campbell | Art Director | @gabicampbell photos
Lee Thomas | Lifestyle Editor | @leenis85
Provo’s weekly Thursday night Food Truck Roundup is back in the summer swing for the third year with more trucks and a bigger location.
The new location is across the street from the Startup Building in the parking lot of the Eclipse dance hall (560 S. 100 West).
Every week, the event is flooded with hungry food enthusiasts who come to sample the evening’s offerings.
The tough choices include gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches from The Mouse Trap, Korean BBQ at CupBop, several different pizza concoctions, including a beautiful truck called Fiore that has an exposed glass front and a wood fired oven, burgers and fries from army-themed Special Courses, tacos from Casa de Soul, Pho from Phofilled, corn dogs from Corndog Commander, many mac and cheese creations at Mad Mac, boba smoothies from Boba Shack and slushy drinks from Kona Ice, with new trucks being added all the time.
Wandering around the football-field-sized parking lot is a delight for the senses. Interestingly decorated trucks surround food truck patrons in a whirl of delicious smells.? Tables at which to stand and eat are placed in the center, placing attendees in the middle of the action (also making it a prime location for people watching).
The prices are reasonable, ranging from $5-$10 for a full meal. You can spend a little more and dine with variety.
After being around for the last several years, this new supersized version demonstrates the growth in popularity of the food truck concept. Never before has the trend been more popular, and it shows.
Christian Faulconer, a Co-Director of the roundup, emphasized the community-building aspect.
“The community reaction has been really positive. We’ve never spent a dollar on advertising. It’s all word of mouth,” said Faulconer.“We’ve worked together with local restaurants to carve out a great ordinance in Provo specifically. In some cities, there is a strong tension [between food trucks and local restaurants]; we don’t have that in Provo. It’s very collaborative.”
Roundup management is also very open to new food trucks for those aspiring truck chefs out there.
“If you get a business license and come down and talk to us, we’ll take most anybody,” said Faulconer. “I think that sets us apart from roundups in other cities.”
There are two other smaller food truck roundups in Orem and food truck tailgate parties during UVU soccer games. They are all very supportive of each other and the community.
The Provo food truck roundups are every Thursday night from 6-9:30 p.m. and run year-long, depending on holidays and weather. The amount of trucks spikes during the summer, so now is the perfect time to try it out. Check out their Facebook page each week for up to date information at Facebook.com/ProvoFoodTruckRoundUp/info.
