Food Truck Festivals Of America will be wheeling in gastronomic delights every Tuesday evening throughout the month of August at Powder House Square. — Photos courtesy of Food Truck Festivals Of America

By Patrick McDonagh

Popularity grew in L.A., where cavalcades of 27-foot metal trucks serving gourmet meals might be known as rodeos. The Food Network converted this culinary phenomenon into a TV show hosted by Tyler Florence, The Great American Food Truck Race, which will soon be airing its sixth season.

Early east coast adopter of mobile meals, Somerville city’s Tuesday truck gathering is a titled food pun embraced by residents. The StrEats event in Somerville now boasts a selection of food trucks with cult Twitter followings, beer gardens, electric bike demos, and residents ready for evening outdoor dining, regardless of same day tornado warnings.

Food Truck Festivals Of America has been in the business of organizing food truck festivals since its 2011 inception, growing the popularity of a festival client’s request for something new. Janet Prensky of Aigner Prensky Marketing shares, “When we started it was for a client in the Pine Hills in Plymouth. They wanted something different. Not music or the same old same old. Anne-Marie Aigner, my business partner came up with the concept.”

Aigner said she had noticed mobile meal popularity trickling from the west coast to New York, but it was a sparse scene outside of major cities. They went searching for food trucks in 2011. “We found eight trucks for our first event,” said Prensky. “That first little festival with eight trucks in Plymouth gave us the concept. Today our list in 2015 is 500. That is how the industry has grown in just four years.”

The first event’s success eased uncertainty and surpassed conservative preparation.

Prensky describes the scene of Food Truck Festivals Of America’s first event: “Interestingly enough, the trucks said to us that day ‘how much food should I bring? What should we expect?’ We had no clue if anyone would even come to this thing. We told them to bring enough for 1,000 people, we don’t know who is coming. It could be 500 and we apologize if you bring too much food. 4,000 people showed up. That is when we knew that we were on to something. This concept was huge, even with very little advertising. Advertising was all social media. Social media drives this industry. If it wasn’t for Twitter, I don’t even know if there would be food trucks.” Prensky works social media during events, sending tweets to trucks with ten to twenty thousand followers, a marketing campaign that is effective yet deliberately reserved.

“We want it to be successful but still intimate so we are very careful with the way we market it,” says Prensky. “It has been working well in Somerville. We are very pleased with the reception the trucks have received. Somerville has been very good to StrEats. It is not just about us coming into a neighborhood and bombarding it with food trucks. We have been embraced and we are very grateful. The trucks are excited to keep coming. We are thankful to the neighborhood and would like to express that gratitude. We want this to be successful for the trucks and the neighborhood itself.”

Part of that success means finding a lineup of trucks from their pool of clients that will draw the Somerville crowd; four savory trucks and one desert serving a variety of dietary needs including vegetarian, vegan, and Kosher.

Spicy pickle flavors wrapped in a sandwich, choice of fresh fillings on a toasted baguette stuffed with pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber, cilantro, red onion, house (or truck) made spicy mayo, and pork pate. One of StrEats event coordinators, Angela Case’s, preferred entrees is from Bon Me. Case’s desert choice: a Frozen Hoagie’s homemade vanilla ice cream filling with coconut cookie. Part of the allure, she says, is the variety provided in an outdoor park environment. “The restaurant world is fantastic but this is a more casual fun and funky way to have a good meal. You don’t have to go out to a really nice restaurant to have nice food, you can go to Powder House Square and sit in the park with your family and have really nice food. You don’t all have to have the same thing. I like spicy food and a lot of people don’t. You can have Asian and I can have Kosher, you can’t get all of that in a single restaurant.” Aigner Prensky’s client, Wheelworks, has joined the Somerville StrEats event, demoing electric bikes at festivals while reaching the ideal Wheelworks demographic.

E-bike demos will be available to the community at the August 4 event and through the summer through Wheelworks. Prensky equates the experience to the strangely unbridled pleasure of moving walkways often seen in airports. “Remember, when you try it this is a bike, not a motorcycle, you don’t need a special license for it. You ride in the bike lanes. It is a little faster, smoother, and easier,” says Prensky. “I compare it to when you go to the airport and you have the ‘people mover,’ the moving sidewalk thing. That to me is like walking, but better. This electric bike is like biking, but better.”

The trucks will be at Powder House Square every Tuesday at 5 p.m. through the end of August. Here is what to expect on August 4:

• Bon Me – Vietnamese noodle and rice bowls and banh mi sandwiches
• Rami’s Food Truck – Modern Mediterranean falafel, shwarma, Kosher
• Papi’s Stuffed Sopapillas – Flaky, fried puff pastry sandwitches
• Terri Yummy – Teriyaki chicken and beef sandwiches and entrees
• Frozen Hoagies – Homemade ice cream pressed between homemade cookies

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