Melissa Eckhardt writes a menu on Poppy Topp's food truck in Kin Coulee Park in this May 2019 file photo.-NEWS FILE PHOTO
kking@medicinehatnews.com
Get ready to fuel up at Medicine Hat’s newest weekly food truck event, Wicked Wednesdays, which begins tonight and runs through the spring and summer months.
The event runs 4-8 p.m. in the parking lot adjacent to Medicine Hat’s CORE Association on Third Street downtown. Anywhere from six to a dozen local food trucks will be present each week.
Event founder Bill Woolmer, owner of Sugar Daddy Cheesecakes, hopes to incentivize Hatters to visit the downtown core.
“We’re trying to attract more people to the local shops which are downtown,” Woolmer told the News. “We want (the downtown) to be vibrant.”
Local food truck owners are also on board with the idea.
“We were looking for ways we could drum up some excitement downtown to leverage the community businesses which are down there and bring some of our following (to the core),” Justin Wright, co-owner of Fryer Tuck’s Food Truck, said.
Wright and the staff at Fryer Tuck’s believe supporting small, Medicine Hat-based businesses is key to a healthy local economy.
“Our business slogan is ‘local quality street food,” said Wright. “The local aspect is very important to us. We buy as much as we can for our food truck locally. Right now we support 13 different local businesses in regards to items we purchase.
“When you look at our downtown core, that’s the epitome of local. There are not too many big chain places which really call downtown home, so why not support as much as we can by throwing a little extra excitement down there?”
Wicked Wednesdays has already generated some excitement, with The Post Thrift Store announcing it will remain open until 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, so long as the food truck event is scheduled.
Wicked Wednesdays will run in conjunction with Alive After Five, a food truck event set in the riverside Veteran’s Memorial Park every Wednesday from 5-8 p.m., June 22 to Aug. 17.
