Food trucks tasting success at Museum of Aviation

In its third week, Food Truck Friday at the Museum of Aviation is gaining some traction.

Located in the parking lot near the covered pavilions, lunch-goers can choose from pizza, chicken wings or Southern-inspired South American fusion.

“It’s really picked up since the first week,” said Jenny Maas, chief financial officer at the museum.

With word-of-mouth advertising and messages on its Facebook page, the museum had 200-300 people for lunch each Friday for the past three weeks.

Each week, the museum has hosted seven or eight vendors.

“Typically we have six food vendors and two for dessert,” Maas said.

The first week was just two hours long, but the museum decided to extend the hours to 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Most of the food truck vendors are local, but the museum has had interest from Atlanta area food truck vendors.

“With the rising popularity of food truck festivals and events, we wanted to offer something different to the community as a lunch option,” Maas said.

A Warner Robins-based vendor, SoFrito’s slogan is “blending Southern with South American.” The blue and green truck was doing steady business in its third week.

“This is huge exposure for us,” owner Jada Smith said.

One of the signature dishes is pataco. For $5, the sandwich consists of shredded chicken, cheese, crunchy cabbage and sauce between two fried plantains.

“We are blessed to be able to share our food with military members, civilians and the community,” Smith said.

Last week, the business served 120 plates in two hours.

Let It Snow Creamery sold out of most of its ice cream before 1 p.m. this past Friday. The food truck, which has a store on Russell Parkway in Warner Robins, sells homemade ice cream, gelato, sorbet and fruit snow cones.

The museum is booked for food trucks through July, but if demand grows, there is a chance that Food Truck Friday could bring more businesses to the area.

If business continues to do well, Maas hopes to continue the Friday events through the fall.

This story was originally published June 28, 2016 at 9:23 AM with the headline "Food trucks tasting success at Museum of Aviation."