Winner picked in second annual 719 Battle of the Food Trucks

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Southern Colorado’s best food truck of 20-24 was officially crowned this weekend. The “7-1-9 battle of the food trucks” is not only an opportunity to enjoy delicious food but also aims to enhance the cultural richness of our community while supporting a worthy cause.

Every truck fired up its grills for the second annual event and served its best dishes for the community to taste.

“We love food trucks and yeah, we love this, and to just enjoy all the wonderful but different local businesses, we love that we can support in our cities,” said Jessica Slep a local who joined in on the competition.

More than fifty food trucks rolled their way into Sunday’s competition with two different categories ‘judges pick’, and ‘people’s choice’.

“We did a smoked beef cheek barbacoa taco and also smoked beef cheek barbacoa braised in a beef tower with pickled red onions, cilantro, queso, fresco, and all of apneas,” said Randy Hickey the owner of BC’s Barbeque.

The event featured all types of food, like tacos, gumbo, grilled cheese, Honduran, Mexican, and more.

“There’s like, no Honduran people here at all. There’s no Honduran food. Actually, I think we’re the only exclusively Honduran food truck in the city that we know of. I don’t know of any other Honduran food trucks. So, it’s very important for us, and it’s empowering to be the only family that brings Honduran culture to the scene,” said Diego Soso the manager of Sosa’s Pupuseria.

The judges picked Bowl in the City as the winner of the 2024 719 Battle of the Food Trucks, and in second place Colorado Native, winning for their smothered green chili burrito, and the Meltdown won in third place.

“There’s all the options. So many options, like 50 food trucks and a lot of them like we’ve tried before, but there’s so many new ones and all in one place,” Sheri Harden a local who also participated in the competition.

Each person who participated received meal sample cards to get free samples of the dishes, and three cards to vote.

Hundreds of foodies from across Southern Colorado attended the event while each food truck served sample sizes of their most delicious menu items.

“We’ve been getting a lot of good votes; everyone seems to really like the food,” said Sosa.

There were also family-friendly activities such as live music, games, face painting, and more.

“It’s pretty exciting and super fun and being able to get all the little sample tickets and try a little bit of everything is great, my husband has some too, so we can try to divide and conquer and do as much as we can,” said Slep.

The winner for the ‘people’s choice” category is Creole Roots!

Ten percent of ticket sales and a portion of vendor sales will go directly to support Angels Of America’s Fallen a charity whose mission is to encourage and fund health activities for children of fallen fighters.

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