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Rosemary Street gears up for food truck rodeo on Sunday

The Baguetteaboutit food truck will be in attendance for food truck rodeo on Sunday on Rosemary Street. Photo Courtesy of Cristal Phillips.

The Baguetteaboutit food truck will be in attendance for food truck rodeo on Sunday on Rosemary Street. Photo Courtesy of Cristal Phillips.

The Rodeo on Rosemary, a partnership between Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department, Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and the Raleigh-Durham Mobile Food Association, will take place Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

Meg McGurk, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, said that with Rosemary’s new colorful crosswalks and the work done on the sidewalks, it seemed like a good opportunity to test out an event on Rosemary since most street events are on Franklin Street.

“Myself and Amanda Fletcher, the town special events coordinator, started talking about the possibility of doing this,” McGurk said. “It’s something that the community has talked about and food trucks have wanted to do — they’re very popular.”

Tony Sustaita, owner of Bandido’s Mexican Cafe and food truck, said all of the trucks coming to the rodeo are members of the RDU Mobile Food Association. He said McGurk asked him to participate, and he then helped to recruit other trucks from the association.

“Food trucks, especially food truck rodeos, make it for a very, very festive atmosphere and obviously everyone likes having a good time,” Sustaita said.

Becky Hacker, co-owner of Pie Pushers, said she is excited to see different parts of the Triangle get involved in the food truck industry. She said it’s nice to connect with familiar faces and meet new ones.

“It’s kind of exciting to be involved, first because it’s the first one, but also just because Pie Pushers is almost six years old, and it’s kind of fun to see different parts of the Triangle not necessarily get on board, but kind of get excited and get more involved and supportive of the food truck industry throughout the Triangle,” Hacker said.

Jolie Rollins, co-owner of CockADoodleMoo, said she is excited to return to Chapel Hill, where she is originally from, for the rodeo. Her truck will be donating a portion of the sale of their sauces to their charity of the month, Triangle Beagle Rescue.

“Anytime I can come home, I love to do it,” Rollins said. “My favorite thing about food truck rodeos is, to me, meeting different people and new people and to pick up new followers.”

Crystal Phillips, event coordinator and owner of Baguettaboutit, enjoys food truck rodeos because they’re busy and fun, but also because she enjoys seeing repeat customers waiting in line in different cities.

“A lot of our followers are in Chapel Hill, and we enjoy the fans when they walk by and get excited to see us at a rodeo or different city,” Phillips said.

Other trucks participating in the rodeo include Cousin’s Maine Lobster, Chirba Chirba, Hibachi Xpress and Morfa Empanadas.

“I hope this will be successful and that the community enjoys it, that the downtown community enjoys it and that it’s successful for businesses and food trucks,” said McGurk.

@laurentalley13

city@dailytarheel.com

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