The big story on the streets of Denver is this weekend's The Great Food Truck Race, the Food Network hit of the season, hosted by Tyler Florence, that struts the street-food prowess of numerous gourmet food trucks, all of which are making their way across the American landscape, stopping in several cities, including Santa Monica, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City -- and, now, Denver -- to sell as much food as they can, however they can, all in a battle to be the last truck standing. The winner drives away with a hefty $100,000.
There's been a flurry of speculation over the past few days about which trucks will be hitting the Mile High pavement, where they'll be slinging their grub, and which local food trucks will be involved.
And while we've heard scandalous reports of locations changing on a whim and producers throwing roadblocks at every turn of the wheel, we rendezvoused with our spies and our sources and conducted a lot of investigative digging on our own, and here's what we've been able to glean so far:
On Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m., Seabirds, the vegan food truck from Orange County, California, will pull up to the Horseshoe Craft & Flea Market, at 46th and Tennyson, in the parking lot behind Moore Howard Chapel. It'll be joined by Basic Kneads Pizza and Deluxe Street Food's the Little Orange Rocket, along with The Cozy Bean, CakeDenver and Hula Moon, which will have a tiki lounge. And then, from 5 to 8 p.m., Seabirds is slated to park curbside at Sweet Action Ice Cream, 52 Broadway.
Also on Saturday, from 4:30 to 9 p.m., the Hodge Podge truck, which hails from Cleveland, is skedded to park in front of Atomic Cowboy, 3237 East Colfax Avenue. Its board, allegedly, will include white cheddar and goat cheese macaroni; an all beef, Hodge Podge Dawg with smashed tater tots, pear and cabbage slaw and bacon; a Southwestern burger; and confit of chicken wings. The Cupcake Truck and the Denver Biscuit Bus will be there, too -- but they won't be selling food. Call it moral support.
The Lime Truck, from Irvine, California (and an early favorite to win the whole kit and caboodle), hasn't nailed down hours or a location, but we're 99.9 percent certain that it's teeming up with Quiero Arepas, who, incidentally, is also supplying flour to Cafe con Leche, the Cuban food truck from Van Nuys, California. The Lime Truck will also be getting a little help from Biker Jim and Stick It to Me, and, on Sunday, there's talk of a gathering at Great Divide with the Cafe con Leche truck. Liquid gold!
Stephen Daniels, who runs the Crock Spot, Rich Wong, who owns Street Eats and the Steuben's Food Truck are partnering with the Korilla BBQ truck, here from its home base of New York. The location is still up in the air, but it won't be at Civic Center Park, which, despite the crowds that will likely arrive in droves for the Cinco de Mayo "Celebrate Culture" Festival, is the last place I'd go if I wanted to move on to the next city -- especially considering that Civic Center Park will already have 350 food vendors on site, according to Visit Denver.
Roxy's Gourmet Grilled Cheese, the food truck from Boston, is more than likely hooking up with Michel Wahaltere, who runs the Chicago Louie's paddy wagon. Still no word, however, on where that truck will hitch its post.
And that leads us to the truck that likely didn't make the trek to Denver: Devilicous, the San Diego restaurant on wheels that was most recently spotted in Salt Lake City -- the last metropolis where the trucks stopped. I could be wrong about that -- and I hope I am -- because its menu pimps something called "Drunken Duck on a Truck," the name of which is awesome.
More updates as we get them, street food warriors!
