By Neal Rentz (The Record Review)
It has become one of Pound Ridge’s most popular summer traditions.
Food Truck Fridays and More is in its sixth year, noted Dr. Melissa Kamen, the head of the Food Truck Fridays Committee.
“The idea was conceived by the Pound Ridge Partnership to bring life to the business district and to make surrounding towns aware of what a great town Pound Ridge is,” Ms. Kamen said.
Town Supervisor Kevin Hansan was among those involved in conceiving and developing the food truck program, Ms. Kamen said. “The thinking was that real estate agents would bring prospective clients to the event to show the quality of life in our town, thus helping to raise our property values,” she said. “So many people have come up to me to tell me they moved to our town after coming to Food Truck Fridays.”
Ms. Kamen’s principal job is to identify and book the food trucks. She accomplished this by going to other food truck events and by word of mouth.
“Smorgasburg’ in Brooklyn is the gold standard of food truck events, so I go there and follow them on social media,” Ms. Kamen said. However, that’s only the first step.
“One of the challenges with getting trucks to come to the event is the need for each municipality in New York to do a fire inspection,” she explained. “The trucks from the city, Brooklyn or farther, do not want to come up to Pound Ridge on a separate day to be inspected and return in Friday traffic for the event.” In addition, food trucks are required to obtain a Westchester County Health Department permit to participate in the Pound Ridge event, which Ms. Kamen said is costly.
As a result, I mostly stick with local trucks. I have very good long-standing relationships with many trucks and, as a result my nickname, is ‘The Food Truck Queen,’” Ms. Kamen said, adding she helps other local events book trucks when asked.
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