Our rugby team used a play deemed the “Clusterf*ck”, a chaotic barrage of bodies forced by momentum and brute force thru the opposing teams fringe. This past weekends inaugural Raleigh Food Truck Meetup in City Plaza was eerily similar. Arriving at an appropriate 7 PM, the plaza was alive with hungry Raleighites ready to nom on some noble mobile fare. But the chaos was about to begin…
As we crept closer to the alleyway of tempting smells it quickly became apparent our tastebuds would have to wait for satisfaction. Every truck, from chirba chirba dumplings to big al’s bbq, had lines twisting thru the galley. Like sheep on their way to slaughter, we waited tirelessly for the first taste of the evening. 30 minutes later we had made it, placed our order, and just as we expected to reach out in glory for our long-awaited grindz we were told, “ok, now leave us your phone number and we’ll text you when your order’s ready.”
Sauce of the weakest variety. An hour later, sustaining our hunger thru pints of beer, we were finally paged and fought our way back thru the crowd to receive our reward. The rest of the dining experience followed much the same, ending in a frantic run to any and all trucks with food left – pathetic really.
Chirba Chirba’s dumplings were on point, and realizing the owners were high school mates of ours was a welcome surprise. Klausies pizza was a serious let down – thick, greasy, and topped with uncooked pork products of mediocre quality. I’d like to say big al’s brisket was sublime, only burger’s burger was cooked to perfection, and bukogi serves up a mean korean taco but sadly the lines made that impossible.
It wasn’t a total loss, we got to enjoy a brisk evening downtown sipping winter brews, watching wikkens dance with glow sticks, and jamming out to the musical stylings of Annuals, a great Raleigh band who’s overdue for stardom.
Raleigh’s never had a Food Truck event, ever, this was the first. So I’m not all that shocked that a magnitude 8 cluster*ck ensued, but lets hope the truck owners and city alike learn from the experience and come back both guns blazing with shorter lines and faster service.