If you cook it, they will come and the Emporia community came out in droves for the third rendition of Flint Hills Mall’s Food-A-Palooza Saturday morning.
While not the oldest event put on by the mall, Food-A-Palooza has quickly become one of its most popular community events since it began last year. Mall Manager Clarence Fry says they knew the event would likely be popular with the community when they launched it last September, however, the actual level of support it has seen over the past year is still a bit overwhelming.
Food-a-Palooza is a delicious event that sees several food trucks take over the mall parking lot through the afternoon hours serving up a wide selection of culinary options for hungry patrons. The list of participating food trucks for Saturday’s event included:
*Flint Hills Technical College Fusion
*Poppin 4 U Kettle Corn
*JD’s Woodfired Pizza
*Hogman’s Barbecue
*Daily Station
*Livin Good Holdings LLC
*Twisted Kitchen
*Lazy Butt BBQ
*Mis Antojitos
Fry says the mall has already circled its calendar for the fourth Food-a-Palooza next year which he hopes will be even bigger and better.
Not only were the food trucks on-site feeding the masses, they were also competing for one of two awards, the People’s Choice and Judge’s Choice.
The People’s Choice Award went to Lazy Butt Barbecue for the second consecutive year while Livin Good Holdings LLC was chosen as the Judge’s Choice winner.
Photos by Tagan Trahoon
