“The best food events in the 559” came to Clovis as it has continued to do so for the past two years plus according to Event Manager Arturo Breceda. Arturo works with the Fresno Street Eats, officially listed as an “event” that hosts food trucks throughout the Valley.
These food trucks congregate and move towards breweries, festivals, street fairs, or even empty parking lots such as in Clovis behind the Sierra Vista Mall. The food trucks themselves are from all sorts of different cuisines for all sorts of different appetites.
In Clovis alone, there were trucks serving baked potatoes (Get Baked), donuts (Rolling Donut), or even philly cheesesteak sandwiches (Real Philly). And yes, of course, a main staple of food trucks and familiar to the minds of many Central Valley residents, tacos (Tacos Sinaloa, Mariscos Las Brisas, Yasss Fish Tacos) were also present.
Along with the trucks, Fresno Street Eats attracts paying customers to multiple other businesses such as Clovis vendors selling plants, minerals, and other gemstones.
On Saturday the 25th, Fresno Street Eats was also hosted at the Pride Market in Fresno at the “Illuminate Our Pride” Block Party as well as in Sanger at House of Pendragon Brewing Company. House of Pendragon Brewing Company housed five different food trucks and is no stranger to them, hosting trucks at their Sanger location throughout the summer almost every Friday and Saturday. House of Pendragon Brewing Company also has a location in Clovis.
One food truck operator was able to spare a few words in the middle of taking orders and fulfilling them.
Keith Felton, part-owner of Wing Your Bell, a one stop shop for chicken wings, sliders, chicken sandwiches and even burgers claimed that Fresno Street Eats asked Wing Your Bell to make the trip to Clovis that Saturday. “[The heat] does definitely affect it. [When] It’s a lot cooler temperatures, it’s a lot busier.”
Felton made the observation that people “coming and going” is about the norm for the summer business of Fresno Street Eats.
Keith Felton claims his wanting to own a food truck had always been a passion of his, having quit his day job to pursue the venture. You can read more about Wing Your Bell on the “FresYes” blog.
Event Manager for the Clovis area, Arturo Breceda was also asked about the heat and how that affects business in the summer. “The heat is always a deterrent for people coming to events, Usually they’ll start coming before peak hours. So it does slow business down, but it picks right up, people like coming outdoors and eating outdoors.”
Breceda mentions that “you still get the restaurant type of food” without having to actually go to a restaurant. And this of course is not to mention the variety of foods that would be beneficial for a family of “picky” eaters. “We try to get as many choices as possible…That way no one’s fighting ‘Well we wanna go to this restaurant.’ Basically we have twelve different restaurants in one spot.”
Breceda spoke about the types of partnerships that the Fresno Street Eats has with its vendors. “They reach out to us and we’ll try to see the best that we can to fill them in the lineup. We try to give them as many opportunities to come in and new vendors as well.”
He summarized the way that Fresno Street Eats has been gaining traction throughout the Valley, “We’re starting to grow to our sister cities like Clovis, expanding into Kingsburg and [Sanger]…I’ve been promoting the community for about twenty years, and this is just another thing to add on to our community which is exposed to a few things that individual mom and pops [food trucks] are doing.”
While Breceda explained that the local vendors have these events to go to throughout the year, the summer heat pushed people away from the asphalt parking lot.
However, it was difficult to not notice that different groups of friends and families kept piling in as the day went on, trying different foods or partaking in their favorites. No matter the temperatures or the different styles of events, these small-time vendors love the hustle and flow that is the busy food service industry. Sticking to a group such as Fresno Street Eats just makes them all the stronger.
You can follow Fresno Street Eats on their Instagram page @fresnostreeteats. Here you will be able to find pictures of their delicious eats, as well as future event dates and a link to their website.