The Great Food Truck Race hits the road again

It was right around a year ago that I submitted my first Guest Clack (sharing my thoughts on the Miss Universe Pageant), and was asked to submit another. I was lucky enough to have started watching the first season of The Great Food Truck Race, and after that second post I was asked to come on full-time … and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it! Now we’re coming full circle as season two of The Great Food Truck Race premieres with eight new food trucks and a new grand prize — $100,000.00

Not much else has changed as far as the competition: food trucks travel the country and try to make the most money in sales at each designated stop. Each team starts on equal footing with only some herbs and spices in their trucks and they are given seed money to get started. They buy their own proteins and vegetables and whatever else they need and sell what they can, where they can over the course of a weekend. Unfortunately, any setbacks like a flat tire (as suffered by Sky’s Gourmet Tacos right off the bat) has to be paid for out of the seed money. The team with the lowest sales is eliminated. Now that we’re up to speed, here’s my impressions of each team …

• Café con Leche — Specialty is Cuban food; they need to have a better game plan going forward because they thought they could park on the Strip in Vegas and sell their food; also learned that people don’t know Cuban food so they have to educate as well. Sticking with “Latin” instead of “Cuban” might help, but they won’t be able to find a Latin festival at every stop; they need to sell themselves better. Sixth place finish this week.
• Devilicious — apparently they specialize in decadent comfort foods like mac and cheese balls with bacon. They were almost entirely absent from the first episode and finished in fifth place.
• Hodge Podge — eclectic menu; name is a play on their menu and the chef’s last name (Hodge, not Podge). I see trouble brewing as Chris Hodge wants to make all of the decisions with little to no input from his team mates — his sister and his girlfriend. They finished in third place.
• Korilla BBQ — Korean food, fast and convenient; from New York City with a New York attitude. They finished second this week, but have had issues with other food trucks invading their territory. They’re competitive and confident, but laid back … so far.
• Roxy’s Grilled Cheese — Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches; these Boston guys are super competitive and will run over anyone who gets in their way. They’ve already established a rivalry with The Lime Truck and it seems like they will come to blows given the chance. Their bad choices in parking spots (a deserted street, for one) landed them in seventh place.
• Seabirds — Totally vegan/raw foods; they offer an alternative to what the other trucks are serving and seem to have a good attitude. They were smart enough to team up with Korilla and their Vegas friend, landing in fourth place (probably didn’t help that two other trucks stumbled upon their spot late in the first day). They may have a hard sell on their hands as they venture into the heartland.
• Sky’s Gourmet Tacos — The name says it all; in business for 18 years. Unfortunately, bad luck and a flat tire doomed them from the start and not even leeching off of other trucks’ great locations could save them from elimination.
• The Lime Truck — No set menu; this may be the team to beat after their first place finish (remember Nom Nom Truck from the first season … except they ended up losing the grand prize). They know what they’re doing; they’ll go to whatever lengths they need to get ahead; and if they have good contacts in all of the destination cities, they’ll be golden … as long as the guys from Roxy’s don’t slash their tires while they’re sleeping.

The race was off to a good start for most as they realized that working together in some cases would only increase traffic and business. Having good contacts in Las Vegas, the first stop, helped Korilla and The Lime Truck. Those contacts and that cooperation between trucks will be the key to surviving the race, but we’re already seeing some turf wars erupting. Another monkey wrench thrown into the competition this season is the Speed Bump (hmmm, I wonder if the folks at The Amazing Race know about this) in which host Tyler Florence will give the trucks an obstacle each week to deal with; from no power to two flat tires. Tyler’s Wheel of Misfortune this week took away the trucks’ propane so they all had to serve cold food or find another method of cooking. Seabirds had no problem with their vegan and raw menu, while some resorted to using charcoal grills, George Foreman Grills, and butane burners. Sky’s was even able to use their own grill, which stayed hot for an hour after turning it off.

It will be interesting to see which will have the bigger impact on the teams — the Speed Bump or the animosity that’s building between some of them already. Whatever happens, I will be along for the ride!

Clacked by Chuck Duncan
on Aug 15, 2011 @ 01:28 EST5EDT