Inland Empire Food Truck Fest a success

Wow…folks came out in droves today (June 18) for the inaugural Inland Empire Food Truck Fest at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.

Over 9,600 people 11,800, according to the promoters.

That’s a lot of hungry people!

VIP early-admission tickets sold out earlier this week, and a lot of those people got smart and waited for the Grilled Cheese Truck, which was one of the only trucks that had a line before the festival opened to those with general admission tickets. Of course, their line kept growing and growing as the day went on.

Our luck was good, as we got the very last bit of chicken (a pair of wings) from the LudoTruck, and one of the last dozen waffles from Waffles de Liege.

The event wasn’t without its minor problems. With so many people in attendance, most of the trucks had long lines. Several of the more popular trucks ran out of food about halfway through the event. Also, it would’ve been nice to have more places to sit. And with the sun beating down, more shady spots would’ve also been appreciated…the only cooking going on should be inside the trucks.

Nothing that couldn’t be fixed for next time.

Click here to read reporter (and Dine 909 contributor) Wendy Leung’s report on the festival.

I found out today that San Bernardino and Riverside counties are the only two counties in the state that actively ban food trucks.

Let’s hope that the success of this event will show our county supervisors that food trucks are something that should be allowed here
in the county.

The Let’s Dine Out show was doing a live remote broadcast from the festival and interviewed Supervisor Janice Rutherford, who is in support of allowing food trucks in the county.

She mentioned that a fact-finding report would be brought before the board (hopefully) within the next couple of weeks. She also mentioned that county residents who are in support of lifting the ban should contact their supervisor and their city officials to let them know of their support.

Here’s where you can help. If you know which district you live in, click here to go to the county Board of Supervisors website, click on your supervisor’s name, get their contact info and call or email them, letting them know that you want the ban to be lifted. If you went to the festival and had a good time, you might want to share your experience.

If you’re unsure of which district you live in, you can click here to enter your address and find out.

I took a couple of short videos to help give you a “flavor” of the event, if you didn’t get a chance to make it out there today.

The first is of the two contestants in the White Rabbit Truck’s six-pound burrito challenge. We didn’t stick around to the end of the half-hour to see if either of them completed the challenge, but judging from the way they were both slowing down about a quarter of the way in, I doubt it.

The second is of the insanely long line for the Grilled Cheese Truck, which doubled back on itself. I heard that people waited about 90 minutes to just to order.