The Downtown Little Rock Partnership is trying like heck to draw more people downtown, and organizers of the partnership-sponsored Main Street Food Truck Festival are ready to accommodate about 50,000 of them for the sixth annual eat-a-thon Saturday.
The festival's two head honchos are an information technology guy and sales manager for the local Budweiser distributorship, which has arranged an appearance by the beer brand's iconic Clydesdale horses.
For the 2016 festival, 58 food trucks serving everything from packed-and-stacked cheeseburgers and barbecue nachos to fried catfish and ice cream have signed on. Beer will be flowing in a number of beer gardens and T-shirts and other apparel, artwork and crafts will keep festivalgoers occupied while they wait in the chow lines.
The crowd expected is double the number who came and noshed last year. In the past, the festival was kept mostly along a stretch of Main Street known as the Creative Corridor. This year, it will also spread west on Capitol Avenue to Spring Street.
Second-year co-chairmen Michael Sullivan of Cloud Media and Bryce Nall of Golden Eagle of Arkansas, both in their 30s, oversee the committees who handle the details -- such as power, permits, security and marketing -- as well recruiting 400 volunteers to work the event from setup to take-down. The festival runs from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Last year, the festival sold about 170 cases of beer -- and could have sold more, Nall says, if they had more stands and more people manning the stations. That situation will be rectified this year, he says.
Sullivan and Nall have been involved with the event since its second year. Nall, a food truck lover to the core, enjoys mixing business with pleasure at the festival.
"To me, the food trucks are as good as five-star restaurants," he says. "Little Rock has some really talented artists, because that's what chefs are.
"Plus you're supporting local [businesses] when you're supporting food trucks."
National Restaurant News reports that the food truck trend is increasing as entrepreneurs use them to get into the restaurant industry, some with the hopes of spinning off brick-and-mortar operations.
It works the other way around, too. Established restaurants, particularly fast-casual operations, also are introducing food trucks to take their culinary delights to the streets. According to the National Restaurant Association's 2016 Restaurant Industry Forecast, 19 percent of fast-casual restaurants say they are very or somewhat likely to inaugurate one in the next year or two.
Nall recalls Hot Dog Mike, who is no longer around, and Southern Gourmasian as the pioneers of the Little Rock food truck movement.
Sullivan says it wasn't until three years ago that "things really started blowing up" in terms of the festival's success. "That's when we realized 'there is a market here.'" The two admit they might have "underplanned" for the 25,000 or so last year but insist they're prepared for next weekend.
The Downtown Little Rock Partnership gets a portion of proceeds from goods and products sold and by charging the food trucks and vendors a fee for participating. The cost is $250 per truck. Trucks come from as far as Fayetteville and Fort Smith. There's no charge to get in.
Sullivan says the intent is to showcase the revitalization that's ongoing along and near Main Street.
"We want people to know it's a cool place again," he says.
More information on the Main Street Food Truck Festival can be found at mainstreetfoodtrucks.com or by calling the partnership office at (501) 375-0121.
High Profile on 09/18/2016