The Food Truck Round Up at Perkins Rowe returned this weekend, giving the Baton Rouge community local food, live music and even learning opportunities.
On Friday, Perkins Rowe’s annual event presented guests with 17 unique local food trucks to choose from. It ran from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., serving everything from classic Southern food and wings to Cuban cuisine and sweet treats, all at the disposal of the attendees.
Trucks of all shapes, sizes and colors dotted the blocked off street of Perkins Rowe, stretching two blocks from Caroline’s Cookies all the way to Kendra Scott.
Food trucks like Down Home Creole Cooking, Fat Elbows and Capitol Seafood provided Southern staples like fried catfish and shrimp. For less familiar flavors, Caribbean Express put a Cuban twist on nachos and quesadillas. To round out all of these savory dishes, Ninja Snowballs and Jeremiah’s Italian Ice offered sweet treats in the form of snowballs and shaved ice, respectively.
People were packed shoulder to shoulder whether they were waiting in lines, scanning the menus or just passing through to one of the shops. Even before the event officially started, lines were stacking up. Trinity Johnson, daughter of the owner of Vel’s Mobile Cafe, predicted that this was just the beginning.
“In about an hour, the line’s going to be wrapped,” Johnson said.
And wrapped it was. At the peak of the night, lines for Vel’s and other trucks reached adjacent trucks and wrapped back around onto the sidewalk.
One such customer who had the pleasure of waiting in these lines was recent LSU graduate and incoming master’s student Makaya Spears. Spears believes that events such as the Food Truck Round Up are important for the community for a few reasons, one being supporting local businesses compared to chains.
Spears also feels that local events like this provide a safe space for the community to congregate. With so many usual community spots such as the mall dying out or becoming unsafe, Spears is happy that there are still fun and affordable spaces for people to get together.
“Everybody here is good. You can tell they care. That’s the biggest thing– that they care,” Spears said.
Once guests got their food, they could take it to any number of tables set up in the town square.
Here, families and friend groups small and large could enjoy their food. Many people were so excited to dig into their food that the boxes were open before they even sat down. Mother and son shared a bite, old friends laughed heartily and children danced around to the live music being played just a few feet away.
Among the buzz of lively conversation and generators running, local artist Caitlyn Renée’s acoustic musical stylings floated through the air. On a stage in the town square, Renée performed covers of timeless songs, such as “Linger” by The Cranberries and “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman.
Directly in front of the Cinemark, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Bookmobile was parked among this sea of food trucks. The way Bookmobile manager Tameka Roby describes the role of the bus harkens back to Spears’ belief in bringing the community together.
“Bookmobiles exist to provide equitable access to library resources, material and information,” Roby said.
Roby said there are a variety of reasons why a person may not be able to make it to a library, so it is especially important to make the library experience more accessible for all people through ideas like the Bookmobile.
“Be they unhoused, be they elderly, be they the young child,” Roby said. “From the cradle to the grave, we are here to make sure that those patrons’ needs are being met.”
EBRPL was the lead sponsor of this past Food Truck Round Up event. The library has come to many events at Perkins Rowe before, but bringing the whole Bookmobile was only possible thanks to the street being blocked off.
The people at EBRPL are happy to be a part of Food Truck Round Up because they believe in their community. Roby wants people to know that the library is more than just a warehouse for books — it is a place that will reach out and provide for the community.
“We’re a community culture center,” Roby said. “So, anything that appeals to a patron, be it you’re interested in photography, or you’re interested in learning more about engineering or science or astronomy. We go to all types of events to provide equitable access and information.”
For updates on future events at Perkins Rowe, you can follow the development’s Instagram or visit its website.
