BY ALEXANDER SOULE
Hearst Connecticut Media
On June 20, Three60 Event Group is holding the first of what it says will be an annual Food Truck Rodeo and Music Festival in Stamford, having roped in 16 trucks to offer up varied fare, as well as Long Island’s Blue Point Brewing Co. to serve craft beers.
It is the third community event organized in Stamford this year by Three60 Event owner Rob Forti, alongside a pair of food “raves” that each drew more than 500 people to Bank Street Events in downtown Stamford. For the rodeo, Forti said he expects between 3,000 and 5,000Â people.
Food trucks have long seen strength in numbers and increasingly are participating in rallies like one last month in Mystic or the upcoming rodeo in Stamford, in addition to the day-to-day efforts to promote their presence by groups like the Stamford Downtown Special Services District.
- Food truck owners Diana Hall, left, and Darlene Andersen work in the kitchen of their Melt Mobile in Stamford. Photo by Jason Rearick
Forti chose Mill River Park at 1010 Washington Blvd. for his Food Truck Rodeo and Music Festival, which will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and feature bands, activities for kids and craft vendors. Advanced tickets are $10 or $15 at the gate, with seniors and children 13 or under free, and trucks charging for their offerings.
Darlene Andersen and Diana Hall are into the second year of running their Melt Mobile gourmet grilled cheese truck, supplementing a larger catering business. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute, Hall said she and Andersen come up with four to five specials daily in addition to supplementing the regular menu.
“We turn everything into a grilled cheese ”“ crab cakes, today I have short ribs,” Hall said. “You’d be surprised. People come from New York, they come from up the line, Danbury.”
Forti said the idea occurred to him last year after seeing a food truck gathering in New Haven.
“We saw a whole street filled with food trucks and food vendors and everyone having a good time,” Forti said. “I started looking online and saw that people were doing these kinds of events. I thought it would be really good for Stamford. At that point in time, I reached out to the Mill River Park Collaborative and they welcomed it with open arms.”
As much as he might have enjoyed recruiting truck proprietors on a window-to-window basis, Forti said he built up his list of participating trucks by culling suggestions from social media and then picked up the phone.
“Let me tell you something: With their locations different day to day, it would be very difficult to go about it that way,” Forti said. “I hit social media. I said, ‘Hey guys, why don’t you give me a list of food trucks that you like? What are your favorites?'”
Other foods on site will include barbecue, pizza, seafood, Tex-Mex, ice cream and other desserts.
Details for the event are on Three60 Events’ website at three60eventgroup.com, which also includes other upcoming events, to include future planned “raves” focused on Italian fare and spicy food, and an autumn festival in Bridgeport that will again feature food trucks among various diversions.
“People are looking for something different to do,” Forti said. “There are other food events, but they’re very high-ticket items.”
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News-Times (Danbury). See stamfordadvocate.com for more from this reporter.
