The Great Food Truck Race 2011

It was fun seeing food trucks from other cities in Denver, but the cost/​value ratio was relatively low. A café con leche for $ 5. A meal for two adults and a kid = $ 60. The challenges were annoying (I know, I know, that was the point), and only one truck seemed to get it right.
I’ve been hunting down food trucks since Kogi started in L.A., but this event, while fun to hype up, fell flat.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself the weekend of The Great Food Truck Race. I was so excited for days leading up to it. I was all over the interweb looking for sightings and menus. So, when Saturday rolled around, we were out the door, on the hunt, on the prowl. We headed to the Horseshoe Market for The Seabirds, and unfortunately, they didn’t make it at the predicted time. But Deluxe and I Knead Pizza were there to save the day. We had to head back the the other side of town in a rush to drop someone off, and on the way we stalked out Wash Park. We were stoked to see Roxy’s there and got in line, one of the longest lines in my life. They were filming so we had to wait for them to open. They finally did but the food took forever to come out. I loved my goat cheese sammie and the fries/​pickle spears were great. We had to wrap the first day up with that.
On Sunday, I heard there were more trucks at Wash Park so we headed over there for lunch. The Lime Truck, Hodge Podge, Roxy’s, and The Seabirds were all there. Again, long lines, but what else did we have to do? We hung out for a bit and munched on various items. The lychee lime-​aide from The Lime Truck was so perfect and refreshing on such a hot day.
I didn’t make it to any of the bigger parties, I wish I had, but I’m so happy I got to hit up the trucks at Wash Park. It was such a cool experience. Who cares if the food is overpriced, and the lines are long. It was awesome to be able to take part in this. I only wish now food trucks were at Wash Park every weekend!

ALAS! Why did I only learn about this event taking place following a big fat all-​you-​can-​eat brunch?! I didn’t get to try much food, because my belly was protruding more than usual and I didn’t want to explode.
It was a nice little surprise, I met up with Bryan M and Lacey M for the aforementioned late-​morning meal and they shared their plans to attend this little soirée. So many excellent choices. The Lime truck had a tasty taco and excellent sauteed chili peppers, and I sampled a couple of bites of the grilled cheese sandwiches. As I said, I really wish I had been able to eat more of the offerings. Colfax never smelled so good! (Hmm, I feel just a little uncomfortable with that sentence…)
Everyone working this event deserves props, because they gave excellent service and were obviously enjoying themselves. What a fun little part of my day!

Wow, it was fun chasing all of the trucks around town. We got to try most of the trucks, and had a good time with it too.
We hit the trucks down on 17^th first; they had Korilla at Steuben’s, and The Lime and Hodge Podge across the street at Marczyk. After checking out all of the menus, which looked great, we decided to go with The Lime.
The Lime Truck (Saturday): My wife had the Truffled Cheesesteak, and I had the Crab Burger. The cheesesteak was incredibly good, but was missing the mushrooms promised on the menu (good for me, as I’m allergic, but she was slightly disappointed). The crab burger was messy, but absolutely delicious. The grapefruit edamame slaw with the guacamole really made it perfect; a nice, bright citrus flavor without really tasting grapefruity. Plus the wait was not too bad, even though the crab burger was a slow thing to order.
Café Con Leche (Saturday): We went to this truck next; it had sounded the most appealing to us in the leadup to the weekend, and was promising a pig roast and mojito party at our favorite restaurant, Cuba Cuba. However, the buzz on twitter was that it wasn’t very good for the price, and we saw some pictures of some merely average-​looking cuban sandwiches. Sure enough, everything on their menu was $ 15 when we arrived. This seemed incredibly pricey for flank steak or pulled pork, so we just went inside and had a few drinks. On the way out, we did check our their namesake café con leche; I was very disappointed in the coffee which, while nicely sweetened, tasted only slightly above gas station grade. They were serving a «Curepa» (cuban arepa) at this point, which did look good, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to shell out $ 15 for it, so we moved on.
Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese (Saturday): Atomic Cowboy was the place to be Saturday night; there was a whole lineup of Food Truck Race trucks that were rapidly selling out, accompanied by a few local trucks. We hit up Roxy’s, which had an incredible line. But we made friends to pass the time, and were ordering before we knew it. We had the rosemary fries, which came topped with a «garlic and herb cheddar», along with a sandwich consisting of chevre, duck prosciutto, and fig preserves. The fries were very impressive, drowning in a cheese sauce but they disappeared before they could get soggy. And the sandwich, while really rich, was also delicious. However, I don’t think I could have finished it on my own; half was about as much as I could do.
Hodge Podge (Sunday): We decided to hit the Wash Park trucks early Sunday. All of the trucks were forced to work with a one-​man crew, and each was handling it in their own way. Hodge Podge was taking five orders, then heading in to cook. Their menu had a lot of good-​sounding food on it; we eventually settled on the Hodge Podge Dawg and the Truffled Tater Tots. We were served super fast, and tried the Tots first. Damn those were good; not like anything I would have expected. Perfectly crisp, and the truffle oil and sea salt were a terrific taste combo. As for the Dawg; amazing. You should track down pictures if you didn’t see it; we are talking a huge beef hot dog, with a huge slice of high-​quality bacon, laying on a bed of shredded, braised short ribs. Throw on some bright green arugula for color, some smashed up tater tots, and some Sriracha aioli, and you have something that truly transcends the concept of a hot dog. Absolute heaven.
Seabirds (Sunday): They rolled up while we were hanging out at Wash Park, but they were taking a while to set up, and didn’t have their menu written out yet. We debated waiting around, but decided to move on instead; unfortunately, the one truck we didn’t try.
Café Con Leche revisited (Sunday): We decided to check these guys out again, since they were partying at Great Divide. But again, we had seen some unappetizing pictures, and their prices were way too high. We opted to pay for our beers, and got food from locals Quiero Arepas instead (very tasty).
Korilla (Sunday): These guys were supposed to be at Steuben’s all night, but had disappeared by the time we got there (6:30ish). After a few minutes, we heard they had (possibly) moved on to Great Divide. We caught them there, right before they were moving on to Wash Park, and grabbed a spicy pork burrito (they were out of fixins for tacos, and their K-​Pop as well). I thought this was really good; pork, rice, kimchee, and spicy sauce. Simple and solid. This was probably the one thing from the trucks I could eat on a regular basis. The only downside: I had a piece of plastic in my burrito (the corner of a plastic bag, possibly used for the sauce?). I got over it though, and still enjoyed my food.
All in all, an awesome weekend; if I had to bet, I would say Café Con Leche is out. The buzz was bad, and they seemed to make poor choices about their price point, as well as their partners (going with competitors vs. something complementary).

Thanks to the PETA action alert that gave me an ample heads up that a veggie friendly food truck was rolling into town. Digging deeper, I was excited to learn that not only Seabirds, but a whole host of other cool trucks would be making a pit stop in town.
I checked the trucks out yesterday – got to sample the four at Wash Park, and here were my thoughts:
1. Roxy’s – pretty good grilled cheese (I got the one w fresh mozz and tomato). Nothing earth shattering, but decent. The balsamic drizzle was a great touch. 3.5 stars
2. Lime – awesome corn (drizzled with spicy sauce and cheese). Reminded me of my favorite Cuban restaurants in NYC. 4 stars
3. Seabirds – salsa bar rocked; the best pico I’ve had recently – tangy, spicy, and incredibly fresh. The veggie burger was delish – nutty, fresh, awesomeness. 5 stars
4. Hodge Podge – crispy truffle oil fired tater tots sprinkled with sea salt. Nothing like the ones doled out by the lunch lady. 4.5 stars.
A fun way to spend the afternoon!

Even though the prices were a bit higher than I was expecting and even though we had to wait in massive crazy lines for everything… overall I had the BEST time running around town tracking these trucks down and deciding what to order from each one. SUPER FUN!!!
Here’s my low down on my 2-​day adventure chasing food trucks (with star ratings for each food item):
SATURDAY
1. Hodge Podge:
**Truffle Mac-​n-​Cheese = eh… it was okay, needed a lot more cheese/​sauce but hey, I still ate it all
**Lobster Roll = eh… just okay I guess… Terry B made better ones at home a few months ago but you do get tons of lobster
*****Truffle Tator Tots = YUMMY AWESOMENESS!!! ! Totally worth the wait
2. Korilla BBQ:
****Ribeye Tacos = sauce was amazing… very good, but wish I’d had it over rice. The corn tortillas seem store bought
***Port Tacos = very good, but I preferred the Ribeye tacos, which surprised me because I love Pork
3. Roxy’s:
*****Foie Gras Port Salut Grilled Cheese = HOLY CRAP. I dare say the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had? Wow… Yum…
**Duck Prosciutto Grilled Cheese = Not that great. Goat cheese is just not meant to be in a Grilled Cheese. Change the cheese and cut up the Prosciotto a bit more (so entire huge chunks don’t come out from the rest of your entire sandwich as you take a bite) would make this better
4. Late Night at Lime Truck (after they sold out of tons of food and added other things to the menu):
*****Pulled Pork sandwich on Biscuit from Denver’s Biscuit Co. = One of the best things we ate all day. The pork was perfectly seasoned and cooked, the biscuit was as good as I remember, and the sauce. Creamy goodness.
(ENTER FOOD COMA)…bed.
SUNDAY
1. Back to Lime:
****Ahi Poke Nachos = very tasty, fresh fish, guacamole was creamy and refreshing, nacho chips were a bit thick for my taste, but these were still pretty darn good
*****Crab Burger = WHAT?! I can’t believe we almost didn’t get this. HOLY MOLY. DROOL. This pretty much proved that the Lime truck is the truck to beat (for me) this weekend. Between this and the Pulled Pork from the night before. WOW… They are my winners
2. Back to Korilla BBQ (wanted to try it over rice):
*****Ribeye over rice (price jacked up to $ 15…what??) = SOOOOOOO Good. So glad I went back there to try this again. The sauce mixed with the meat and the rice was just too freaking GOOD.
Overall I think that the LIME trick wins the competition hands down as providing the most awesomemest food over the weekend.
I didn’t even try the Cuban truck because I heard how dissapointing it was. My guess is that they will be going home this weekend.
Most dissapointing truck? Hodge Podge :(Hodge Podge truck could learn a lesson or two from Lime and Korilla about sauce. MORE SAUCE = WINNING.

I’m still pumped that The Food Truck Race made Denver one of their competition cities for the 2011 season of the show. I managed to try something from almost every truck that was here — Korilla BBQ, The Lime Truck, Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, Hodge Podge, Seabirds, and Café con Leche. Here is a list of things I sampled:
The Lime Truck — I made it to the Lime Truck twice and I think this was my favorite out of the 6. The first night I had blistered shishito peppers (not spicy, but a true pepper flavor, I enjoyed these), asparagus with Parmesan cheese and truffle (a little heavy on the sauces so they weren’t as firm as I like, but the flavors were great), and the Atomic Cowboy (a biscuit with pulled pork and spicy pickles — unbelievably delicious!) The next day I saw them in Wash Park and had the ahi poke nachos (I want to eat these again and again) and a mango limeade (probably the best drink I had from any of the trucks — so refreshing and tasty.)
Roxy’s Grilled Cheese — I tried two of their sandwiches, one with goat cheese and duck prosciutto and one with Vermont cheddar and applewood bacon. It’s hard to go wrong with a grilled cheese if I’m the one you are serving and the bacon version was oh so right. I also really enjoyed the flavors of the goat cheese version, but goat cheese doesn’t get all ooey-​gooey melty so it was as satisfying as a grilled cheese. I also had a prickly pear lemonade from here that was my second favorite drink.
Korilla BBQ — Oh how I miss Kimchi in my burritos! Especially when they are also full of spicy pork, rice, and cheese. This is exactly what I got from Korilla and it was probably the best bang for your buck. The burritos were similar to the size of a Chipotle burrito, but about 100 times better quality and cost $ 10. The K-​pop drink tasted like a liquid Popsicle. I liked it, but I’m a fiend for sugar.
Hodge Podge — I had the hot dog with bacon that was topped in chopped tater tots. Awesome. I had the truffled tater tots. I was in love. I had the chicken confit with popcorn. I only wished the chicken had been more like little balls instead of wings so that I could have crunched and munched them with the popcorn.
Seabirds — Ho-​ly crap! Who knew vegan tacos could be so dang tasty? Not this girl. I had the jackfruit tacos that were superbly seasoned. I also had the watermelon with mint and lime. It was deliciously refreshing on a hot Sunday afternoon. Bonus — they had t-​shirt for sale using some of their funnier 5 star Unilocal quotes. I loved that!
Unfortunately, by the time I got to Café con Leche there was no room left in my belly so they were the only ones I didn’t get too try.
Overall, I think finding and trying these trucks was an awesome way to spend the weekend and I’m glad Denver had the opportunity. Plus it was great to run into so many Unilocalers out and about this weekend!