City to host Madera Eats
Tyler Takeda/The Madera Tribune
The 3 Meats Barbecue food trailer will be one of the ‘trucks’ at the Madera Eats event Saturday at Lions Town and Country Park. Operating the 3 Meats Barbecue trailer are Michael Garcia and Maribel Hunter. They are relatively new to Madera and can also be found at the corner of State Route 145 and Avenue 12.
For the first time in about a year-and-a-half, the City of Madera Parks and Community Services Department will host an event.
The Madera Eats! Food Truck event will be held at Lions Town and Country Park from 6-9 p.m. Saturday, with five different trucks offering a variety of food.
“It was something for us to do for Madera to get everyone out and showcasing the local food vendors,” said Adam Romero, Madera Parks and Community Services Recreation Programs Coordinator. “Instead of showcasing them in other cities and other spots in Madera, we would bring them together where a family can go for a one-stop shop. They can eat tacos and barbecue. We have live music coming and a lot of local vendors selling different items.”
Food trucks slated to attend the event are Pachecos Tacos, Taco Man, 3 Animals BBQ, Fury, Churros California and Kona Ice.
Romero hopes for 100-200 people to come out to enjoy the festivities, but is just happy to be able to give residents an option for a Saturday night.
“It’s tough to figure out how many people will come out with the COVID stuff,” he said. “This is our first event in a year-and-a-half. The food trucks are well known in Madera. They have a good following and they are thinking it’s going to be a good event.”
The event will head into Saturday night, but Romero hopes people will just come out to have a good time, rather than pick up their food and head home.
“We’re hoping they stay,” he said. “We have the vendors out so they can shop around a little bit. Maybe, there will be dancing. I know people will be out there to have a good time. The lights will be well-lit so people can have a picnic and relax for the rest of the night.”
Madera Parks and Community Services Department hopes this event will become popular to host events like this on a regular basis.
“We talked about doing this about once a month, especially around the summer times, weather permitting,” Romero said. “Our idea of Madera Eats is to do stuff around Madera, not strictly at Town and Country Park, but at other parks in Madera. Some events will be bigger than others, but we’re just trying to give people options to enjoy the local vendors.”
For the first event, Romero and his department reached out to specific food trucks, but hopes more will be available in the future.
“We have a list from the health department about who is licensed to serve in Madera,” he said. “We are getting phone calls from different trucks that want to do it. We just want to make sure they have the proper permits to sell in Madera.”
Romero just hopes people come to the event and have a great time.
“If you have good food, people will come,” he said.
