We haven’t had the best luck with Westbank food festivals, and we only know of one food truck. I don’t think we even bothered covering the Bridge City Gumbo Festival, which had a total of ONE VENDOR serving gumbo. We thought it would be an event where we could sample hundreds of different gumbos, but the focus wasn’t the gumbo, despite being hosted by the self-proclaimed Gumbo Festival of the World. As a festival, it wasn’t terrible, but it certainly wasn’t a gumbo festival, or even a food festival for that matter.
On the Eastbank, we’ve had better luck with the Mac n’ Cheese Fest, Beignet Fest, etc, although we haven’t been blown away. Safe to say, our expectations were really low for Terrytown’s Annual Food Truck Festival. We live in Terrytown, which is about ten minutes from downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter. There isn’t much going on here and we’re pretty sure there aren’t any food trucks based out of here. We weren’t expecting anything close to Los Angeles’ weekly food truck nights, but we were pleasantly surprised by what we found!
As you can see from the images, there were plenty of food trucks. They closed down one of our main roads and parked around a dozen food trucks/trailers on the street. Police were there, both enjoying the festivities and providing some structure. There was a main stage where bands were providing entertainment. Tents filled with tables and chairs allowed people to eat while sitting and watching. It was busy. Nearly every seat was taken. The energy was great.
The real focus for us, however, was the food. We figured that most of these trucks drove over from the Eastbank for the event. Some were familiar; Kona Ice was at an event in Algiers and we’re pretty that they are based in Gretna or Harvey. Dirty Dishes was at the Mac n’ Cheese Fest in Louis Armstrong Park. There was no entry fee, like at the Gumbo Fest, so you could just walk through the town’s Rec Area and grab some grub. I think we ate at four different trucks. (Sorry, this was a while ago, before the pandemic.) The best value was the mashed potato, cheese and bbq meat bowl below. It was insanely inexpensive for the amount of flavor and portion size. The most exciting item was the mac n’ cheese/pulled pork “ice cream” in a waffle cone.
We really wanted to have a crepe, since there were only two sweet options but the line was long and it was probably a twenty minute wait. Overall, the event exceeded our expectations and we’d gladly return next time. I don’t know if it is necessarily worth a longer drive if you live in Kenner or Metairie, but it was certainly fun. Let us know what you all-time favorite food truck is in the comment section below. Stay hungry and fit!
