What the Truck?!

Want to join our organizing team?

We’re looking for individuals who might be interested in joining our organizing team!

As you may know, What the Truck?! is organized by myself and Sharon. That’s not to say that we do everything ourselves – we’re very grateful to have amazing partners and volunteers that work hard to help make our events successful. This is now our third season, and I think it’s safe to say we’ve come a long way since our first event in Beaver Hills House Park! We’ve added new trucks, visited new locations, worked on policy, grown our online presence, and much more.

Now we’re ready to add to the organizing team. If you’re passionate about food trucks and want to get involved in helping What the Truck?! grow and evolve, we want to hear from you. Some of the responsibilities include:

Event planning including venue selection and logistics
Coordinating with food trucks
Managing social media and other promotional efforts
Working with partners and sponsors

Interested? Please get in touch with us. Be sure to let us know what you love about food trucks and why you want to get involved!

July 25, 2013 Truck Stop Line-Up

We are counting down the weeks until our next Truck Stop event, taking place on July 25, 2013 in The Quarters.

What: Truck Stop: Boyle Renaissance
Where: Boyle Renaissance Plaza, 103A Avenue & 95 Street
When: Thursday, July 25, 2013
Time: 5-8p.m.

We’re excited to be a part of this showcase, which is shaping up to be quite the party! There will be children’s activities, music, a movie projection and tours of the new facility.

And of course, there will be food! We are thrilled that four of the food trucks that debuted this year will be joining us that night. This will be one of the best opportunities to try food from several of the newest trucks in town, all in one place!

We will be posting the menus on July 18, so stay tuned!

Save the Date: Truck Stop on July 25, 2013

There are so many exciting events that take place throughout the city in July that deciding what you’re going to attend can be difficult! We hope that our next event will make the cut:

What: Truck Stop: Boyle Renaissance
Where: Boyle Renaissance Plaza, 103A Avenue & 95 Street
When: Thursday, July 25, 2013
Time: 5-8p.m.

We’re really looking forward to bringing food trucks to The Quarters! Truck Stops are smaller events, and this one will feature four trucks. We’ll announce the lineup and menus in the coming weeks.

What is Boyle Renaissance?

Boyle Renaissance is a special planning area within The Quarters Downtown Community Revitalization Levy Area Plan. This City-led redevelopment is located between 95 Street and 96 Street, extending from 103A Avenue north to the LRT tracks. The Boyle Renaissance redevelopment is underway and will create a community that brings together a range of affordable and market housing opportunities.

Here’s a photo I took in March of the new Boyle Renaissance Plaza:

You can learn more about the project here. Here’s a quick video about the project:

There will be lots of ways to explore the building and find out what’s in store for The Quarters at the event, all while enjoying tasty food truck eats.

We hope to see you there!

Find the trucks on Canada Day!

There are lots of events taking place all around the city tomorrow for Canada Day, and you’ll find food trucks at many of them. Here’s a rundown of where they’ll be:

The Lingnan will be at the Heritage Chinatown Night Market from 4pm to 9pm.
Bully will be at the Canada Day celebration in Spruce Grove from 10am to 11pm.
Little Village will also be in Spruce Grove from 12pm to 8pm.
Drift will be at the Alberta Legislature celebration from 1pm to 7pm.
Carnival Cravings will also be at the Legislature.
Molly’s Eats will be at the Sherwood Park celebration from 10am to 11pm.
Yellowbird will also be in Sherwood Park, from 9am to 5pm.
The Patty Wagon will be at the St. Albert celebration all day.
The Local Omnivore will be at the Oliver Community League celebration from 10am to 1pm.
The Food Fighter will be downtown somewhere!

We’re pretty confident in saying it won’t be hard to find Fat Franks no matter where you go. If you’re staying in tomorrow, don’t miss The Act‘s episode on Eat Street at 9:30pm!

Canada Day 2012, photo by Kurt

The other trucks may be out too, but we haven’t seen location details yet. Check out Eva Sweet, The Crooked Fork, Sailin’ On, Smokehouse BBQ on Twitter. You can also check out our Find The Trucks page.

Happy Canada Day!

Recap: What the Truck?! in Old Strathcona

The weather was touch and go for a while there, but when all was said and done, our first What the Truck?! of the season was blessed with sunny skies and not a drop of rain!

Given it rained in the hours leading up to the event, we weren’t sure what that would mean for crowds. But we should have had faith in the city’s food truck fans, who still turned out in droves to sample dishes from twelve different trucks.

From vegan BLTs to mapo tofu and ahi tuna tortilla rolls, the vendors offered an incredible variety. Most of them sold out, thanks to the hungry festivalgoers!

Although we strive to make all of our events family-friendly, this one seemed to attract even more young attendees. It was wonderful seeing children dancing, playing with one another, and having free run of McIntyre Park throughout the evening.

The Edmonton Public Library was on-site distributing free library memberships. They gave out a record 107 cards in four hours!

The atmosphere no doubt wouldn’t have been the same without the great tunes by DJs Thomas Scott (Urban Monks), Rob Clarke and Polyesterday. Thanks for sponsoring our event!

DJs Thomas Scott, Rob Clarke and Polyesterday

A huge thank you to our partner the Old Strathcona Business Association. Without them, the event could not have happened. This neighbourhood is already a destination for dining, shopping, arts and nightlife, so their support means even more.

We would also like to acknowledge the Strathcona Community League, who also stepped up as a sponsor.

Lastly, thank you to Donna, Francina, Jessica and Susan – the volunteers who helped make this a stress-free event for us! Many hands make light work, and this was not more true that night – you helped make the lines congruent, site spotless, and were game for anything we asked of you.

We are in the process of planning several more events for this summer, so we’d like to take this opportunity to ask you for some feedback. We would appreciate it if you could fill out this survey about your experience.

You can see more photos here.