Every Monday there is a farmers market that sets up in the parking lot of Stardust Video and Coffee in the Audubon Park district of Orlando starting around 6pm. I stopped by right after work at Full Sail. When I got there vendors were still setting up their tents. The Big Wheel Food Truck was parked at the entrance of the parking lot. Several flimsy roadside dividers were set up to keep cars from trying to pull into the lot to park. I decided I should order dinner from the truck. Inside the truck the three chefs were busy cutting and preparing the food. I asked if they were ready to take an order, and they weren’t. They suggested I return in about 15 minutes.
I sat across the way leaning back against a road sign and I began to sketch. Sure enough, 15 minutes into the sketch people started to line up for food. The Big Wheel Food Truck is proud of serving fresh local food that is prepared in small batches, “because, frankly, we think it just tastes better that way.” Their slogan is “Local is Lovely.” Cars kept parking in front of me so vendors could unload their gear. One fellow backed up and knocked over one of the “no parking” dividers. I picked it up for him. The next woman to back out asked if I could take care of the divider. Suddenly I was the gate keeper. I left the dividers out of the way and continued to sketch.
Finally I ordered my dinner. I decided to try a meatloaf burger made from local grass fed beef. The burger was topped with house made bacon with local lettuce, garden herbs and a big wheel onion. The burger was juicy and delicious with a creamy sauce but a bit to salty for my taste. I ordered Captain Eli’s blueberry pop to wash it all down.
Chef Tony Adams who founded the food truck had a tent set up in the market to sell local produce and to promote the truck. The truck uses twitter to let people know where the truck is parked. These up to the minute updates called “Chase our Wheels” can be found at twitter.com/bigwheeltruck. I showed Tony the sketch and asked for a business card. He thought their might be some in the truck so he jogged over and into the truck to search for them. He gave me someone’s card with his info written by hand on the back. I often run out of my business cards so I found it comforting and endearing that this was a true small local business.
