Bigger, better, and downtown: Foodtruck Wars kicking off in Riversdale
Bartari’s Foodtruck Wars Street Festival is cooking up new challenges for vendors and hungry patrons in a new location this weekend.
The event is scheduled to happen along 20th Street between avenues C and F this year. Event co-organizer Rick Mah said it’s a better location for what they’re trying to do.
“We were the first food truck festival, and it just kind of exploded,” he said. “The festival is going to take place on three-and-a-half city blocks.”
This is the fourth year of the food truck competition and festival in Saskatoon, and the fifth overall event organized by this group.
Last year, two smaller weekend events were held.
This year, everything will be consolidated into one big event.
Mah said 17 food trucks and four additional vendors will be set up during the weekend and some food trucks were still left out. Mah said there was a substantial waiting list to get involved in the Foodtruck Wars, but organizers are extremely pleased with the vendors they have coming out.
“I visit them all, if I can,” he said with a chuckle.
“Every truck’s got something unique ... I don’t single out a truck. I like them all.”
From Mad Cheddar Gourmet Grilled Cheese to the Mean Green Ice Cream Machine, the festival boasts a variety of culinary treats for people to try. Every vendor can enter a dish in the Flavour Challenge — the closest thing to a war of food — to be tasted and judged by a panel of guest judges.
Mah said the competition is for a trophy and bragging rights for the winner, and it’s become more intense every year.
“It’s a heated battle. It’s a friendly battle, but they all want to win,” he said.
“The people in Saskatoon might not know it, but the food trucks sure know who won last year.”
It’s a friendly battle ... The people of Saskatoon might not know it, but the food trucks sure know who won last year.