Monday 21 September 2015

Food trucks battle to be the best at Trenton's waterfront

Trenton's Capitol City Food Truck Battle, the second festival of the weekend held due to a dispute with organizers, was held at Rho Waterfront on Sunday.

TRENTON - The second day of the Trenton food truck battles wage on.

Joseph Kuzemka's Capitol City Food Truck Battle held on Sunday attracted many customers and vendors to Rho Waterfront in Trenton.

"I'm feeling good," Kuzemka said. "We have a good crowd, beautiful weather."

After TC Nelson organized the food truck battle with Kuzemka last year, conflict arose when Kuzemka wanted to expand the festival from its Trenton Social location.

Nelson, not wanting to move to Rho, created the Trenton Food Truck Festival held on Saturday at Trenton Social.

At Kuzemka's event, customers sampled from 18 vendors and then dropped a yellow token in a bin of the food truck they wished to win the battle.

Kuzemka said the winner, announced at 6 p.m., receives a trophy made by Trenton artist Wills Kinsley.


RELATED: Trenton to host competing food truck tests on same weekend after dispute


As of mid-afternoon, The Tot Cart, serving Gourmet tater tots, and Chewy's, serving fried chicken and sandwiches, were leading in the token count.

"I really want to take that trophy home," Julie Crist of The Tot Cart said.

Crist said she likes working with Kuzemka and recently vended at his Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market held in March.

"I'm fairly loyal to Joe," Crist said.

Ewing resident Sammie Ru, who voted for The Tot Cart on Sunday and who also worked with Kuzemka at the Punk Rock Flea Market, also praised the organizer.

"He's really nice," Ru said. "He is really organized and makes it fun."

As for why she voted for Crist's tots, she said "you can't beat tater tots."

Bill Wilson of Chewy's said he has had customers come back after ordering to buy more of his food to take home.

"It's a little exciting," Wilson said. "It's our first time out here (at Rho). It's been going really good."

Jim and Julie Jacobs from Hamilton said they too found Sunday's event to be exceptionally organized.

"It's very well put together with the tables and it's not too crowded. The layout is really good," Julie Jacobs said.

Julie Jacobs' favorite vendor was the Mac Cart which she said was good "comfort food."

As for her husband Jim Jacobs, he said he is voting for The Flying Deutchman because of their bratwurst.

Among the trucks, adults could also take a break from gorging to go inside the Rho Waterfront bar.

Located near the voting bins were also tables for local organizations such as the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids.

The festival is being held until 7 p.m. Admission is $5 ($1 is being donated to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen). There is no charge for children 12 and under.

Lindsay Rittenhouse may be reached at lrittenhouse@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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