A few hundred people gathered at the vacant parking lot at 1616 W Bertona between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. today, filling up on everything Seattle street food has to offer at the Mobile Chowdown.
Attendees had a choice of seven of the most popular mobile vendors in the city, including Skillet, Parfait Ice Cream, Marination Station, Maximus Minimus, Dante’s Inferno Dogs, Gert’s BBQ and El Camion.
Lines were 10 to 20 minutes long at every vendor.
But that didn’t deter crowds from waiting for barbecued chicken, hot dogs or Hawaiian fried rice (to name just a few).
The infamous pulled-pork steel pig, Maximus Minimus, had a high tech system to tackle the crowds – hand-held electronic order forms to expedite the lines.
Parfait Ice Cream was a favorite spot for dessert among attendees. I waited in line for 30 minutes to get a delicious scoop of butter toffee crunch. When we finally got to the front at around 1:30 p.m., owner and chef Adria Shimada commented on the day’s turnout. “I can’t believe how busy it is,” she said. “We might actually run out soon!”
@mobilechowdown was tweeting updates all throughout the event. Even they didn’t expect the large crowds that showed up. At around 2 p.m. they wrote, “Didn’t expect this many people. Live and learn. Getting dinged by fire dept too for crowds. Oy.”
This event, co-sponsored by Seattle magazine, was the first of its kind, and was clearly a big hit with the hundreds of Mobile Chowdown-ers who showed up during the four hour event. Many of the vendors ran out of food before 3 p.m., which only means that next time it will be bigger and better. “Outta food. Too many peeps. Sorry if u waited and didn’t get anything. Guess we need more more more,” @mobilechowdown said.
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71 responses so far ↓
1 jill // Oct 10, 2009 at 3:19 pm
“Lines were 10 to 20 minutes long at every vendor.”
Are you kidding me? lines were 60-90 minutes long. that event was either over-advertised, under-staffed or both. we had to leave due to a combo of the longest lines i've ever seen AND the complete lack of any porta-potties, public restrooms etc. very poor planning
2 pjppjp // Oct 10, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Yeah, I gave up after a 45 minute wait in line for Skillet. Friend in line with me was more patient, took him more than a half-hour more. Skillet was slower than everyone else, though.
Thankfully, the QFC hot case managed to ease my hunger pains. I 'm sure Skillet would've been tastier.
3 skibum1175 // Oct 10, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Wow. I like mobile food, but I guess my ADD kicked in and I couldn't wait. I just drove over to Magnolia for some good gyros. Looks like no one was expecting it to be that crowded.
4 Name // Oct 11, 2009 at 10:20 am
We drove by at around 12:30pm. We didn't even stop; the scene was sheer agoraphobic hell. I was sorta looking forward to it, but when I saw the crowd, I knew better than to wade into that mess, and everything I anticipated about it came true: long waits, vendors running out, hassles. No thanks. I'm Done With Crowd Scenes.
5 Nidwaldner // Oct 11, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Shame, no lines at the Skillet at North Beach Elementary yesterday. Though, sorry to say I can't really recommend them. They used to have awesome options but now just overpriced burgers.
6 Computrav // Oct 11, 2009 at 1:38 pm
AGREED. I was just about to post this. The “Short” line was at the hot dog vendor, which was probably 15-20 mins (around 2pm at least).
This was a GREAT idea with POOR execution. There were about 2 trash cans for the entire place as well. Again, good idea, and I want to see more of it, but some basic crowd planning rules were grossly overlooked here. The event could have used 5-10 more trucks, easy. People will wait maybe 15-20 mins, but more than that gets really annoying…
7 kim // Oct 11, 2009 at 2:14 pm
agreed. nb was more negotiable but all skillet is serving now is burgers. they've lost my business.
8 kim // Oct 11, 2009 at 2:14 pm
agreed. nb was more negotiable but all skillet is serving now is burgers. they've lost my business.
9 Name // Oct 11, 2009 at 2:17 pm
We showed up at 1:45, got straight into the line for El Camion, finally ordered at 2:45 and got our food at 3:45. Very annoying, but dang, they make some amazing food! I'll just go to their usual outpost by the Home Depot on Aurora now instead.
10 Name // Oct 11, 2009 at 2:17 pm
We showed up at 1:45, got straight into the line for El Camion, finally ordered at 2:45 and got our food at 3:45. Very annoying, but dang, they make some amazing food! I'll just go to their usual outpost by the Home Depot on Aurora now instead.
11 keith44 // Oct 11, 2009 at 4:01 pm
i missed it ………will they do it again ?
12 nordnerd // Oct 11, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Great event idea, but either too many people or too little preparation. Next time, rent porta-potties for the crowds. I'm sure the vendors will be prepared for faster food delivery
13 Loki // Oct 12, 2009 at 10:31 am
From the pics its pretty clear that MyBallard showed up after Skillet and Marination Mobile either ran out of food or closed up for the day. I waiting in line for 90 minutes to order at Marination and then waited another 40-50 minutes to get my food.
After my friends and I got our orders in Marination quickly started running out of things… first the Kimchi Rice Bowls [delicious, btw], the the Spam Musubi, then the Sliders [I recommend the Spam]… it was great, not 2-3 hours great, but great.
Anyhoo, nice of MyBallard to cover the event but your coverage is a bit off this time… like several orders of magnitude off.
14 Guest // Oct 12, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Seattle has something to learn from PDX when it comes to food carts/trucks.
15 fortunecookie // Oct 12, 2009 at 1:53 pm
The event had mass quantity of people which wasn't expected. Made for long waits with vendors trying to fill orders as fast as they could, with most running out of food. Need port a potties and garbage cans. The two that were on site were owned by two of the mobile kitchens. I think its a great event, but now know theres a huge turn out must be ready for it. Thought only a couple hundred people.
16 JD // Oct 12, 2009 at 1:57 pm
We waited in line @ el Camion for over an hour and then it was another hour to get the food (tired feets!). I think the main problem was that many of these places were offering their full menu. If el Camion had scaled back their menu, for instance, to something simpler like tacos, quesadillas, and tostada's it probably would have been a lot quicker. I ordered 1 adobada taco and a carne asada quesadilla – the person in front of me had two breakfast burritos, spicy shrimp w/ beans/rics, etc., and a whole carne asada steak!
The food was good though! Just NOT worth the wait.
I mean, come on!
17 lorenleong // Oct 12, 2009 at 7:47 pm
20 minutes……right not! more to just order and longer to get you food at some of the places. maybe some que's from some of the other cities that have been doing this. LA/Portland? it can be come a great opportunity with a little more organization.
18 QueenAnneView // Oct 12, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Sorry you had to wait so long! We went to Gert's BBQ at around 12:30 and got through both the line and waiting for our food in about 30 minutes. Lines seemed to really stack up after that, though. Parfait was a 40-ish minute wait. I guess we were luckier than most!
19 fortunecookie // Oct 12, 2009 at 8:53 pm
The event had mass quantity of people which wasn't expected. Made for long waits with vendors trying to fill orders as fast as they could, with most running out of food. Need port a potties and garbage cans. The two that were on site were owned by two of the mobile kitchens. I think its a great event, but now know theres a huge turn out must be ready for it. Thought only a couple hundred people.
20 JD // Oct 12, 2009 at 8:57 pm
We waited in line @ el Camion for over an hour and then it was another hour to get the food (tired feets!). I think the main problem was that many of these places were offering their full menu. If el Camion had scaled back their menu, for instance, to something simpler like tacos, quesadillas, and tostada's it probably would have been a lot quicker. I ordered 1 adobada taco and a carne asada quesadilla – the person in front of me had two breakfast burritos, spicy shrimp w/ beans/rics, etc., and a whole carne asada steak!
The food was good though! Just NOT worth the wait.
I mean, come on!
21 lorenleong // Oct 13, 2009 at 2:47 am
20 minutes……right not! more to just order and longer to get you food at some of the places. maybe some que's from some of the other cities that have been doing this. LA/Portland? it can be come a great opportunity with a little more organization.
22 QueenAnneView // Oct 13, 2009 at 3:21 am
Sorry you had to wait so long! We went to Gert's BBQ at around 12:30 and got through both the line and waiting for our food in about 30 minutes. Lines seemed to really stack up after that, though. Parfait was a 40-ish minute wait. I guess we were luckier than most!
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