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The South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s closing Trucks on the Beach party was a boisterous success. This was the first time the festival had a food-truckcentric party, though the New York Wine & Food Festival has had success with Trucks in the Park, a similar event.
Travel Channel’s Andrew Zimmern hosted the sold-out event, which featured 22 food trucks, most of them from our own backyard.
Our favorite food-truck chefs, decked out in royal-blue chefs jackets, courtesy of the festival, served thousands of sliders, tacos, sandwiches, and bites as a band covered party music.
Though lines were long for food-truck delights, guests made the best of it, grabbing a beer or a bottle of Freixnet sparkling wine (complete with neon-lit straw) to make the wait a little more fun.
A volleyball court was set up on the beach (we spotted Top Chef’s Spike Mendelsohn playing), as were South Beach Food & Wine Festival-branded Ping-Pong tables for a little postfood play. As the night (and festival) wound down to a close, Zimmern took to the stage to announce the winning food truck for the evening, which was voted on by event attendees.
Ms. Cheezious took the title by a close margin. According to Zimmern, only two votes separated the winner from the second-place truck, which wasn’t named.
BC Taco’s Brett Charivari takes a minute from serving food to stop for a quick pic. BC served the Gatherer, a fried avocado taco with lettuce, mozzarella cheese, and chipotle mayo.
The Rolling Stove’s Troy Thomas samples his own fare — a braised jerk pork sandwich with coleslaw, caramelized onions, cheddar cheese, and jalapeño jelly on a potato roll.
Celebrity chef Michael White flew to South Florida to grill up some home-made Capretto goat sausage with broccoli rabe pesto.
Ron Kerr brought Bite Gastrotruck to the tents. Eschewing the usual food-truck fare, Kerr served a pan-seared scallop with homestead corn and basil butter.
Ping-Pong, anyone?
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