“I think it’s great,” Johnson said of the food truck rally. “It kind of fosters a nice, little event for people to get together and provides good food. It’s a win-win.”
Organized by the Union Centre Boulevard Merchant Association, the rally included 20 food trucks, including Hungry, which served nearly 200 hungry customers in its first two hours Friday and made a run to a local grocery store during a post-lunch lull to restock.
“This is the busiest we’ve ever been,” Campbell said. “We did a jazz festival at Eden Park last night and we were the only food truck out there and we’re twice as busy today.”
Food trucks can average about $200 an hour, but Friday’s lunch rush generated $1,000 in just two hours, he said.
“We were slammin’,” Campbell said.
Erin Darr of Liberty Twp., who browsed food trucks with two children and a friend, said the event was her first food truck rally and that she definitely would be back for the next installment.
“It’s great because it brings everybody out from the community to eat really great food,” Darr said, holding a sandwich with barbecued pork, onions, cheese and bacon from Roll With It Cafe.
Kristian and Joe Latchaw of Reading said they were wowed by the variety of food trucks, ordering a slice from Catch-A-Fire Pizza while waiting in line for Empanadas Aqui.
“I follow a lot of them on Facebook and this is the first time there’s been this many together,” Kristian Latchaw said.
That, her husband said, “shows Cincinnati is on the map when it comes to food trucks, that it’s no longer a New York City or West Coast fad, that we’re leaving our stamp on it, too.”
Martin Meersman of Marty’s Waffles said he planned to return for next year’s rally.
“This is probably going to be the biggest food truck rally of the season, so it’s great exposure,” Meersman said. “It’s a new area for us. We’re hardly ever up in West Chester.”
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