Dear Gencon, Please don't grant exclusive food licenses to the food trucks.
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Posted by brotherbock ploveking
#26

ploveking wrote:
 I didn't think hotbox was worth the time, especially with so many interesting food trucks nearby. The lines were rough at times, and bringing in more food trucks would be a good thing. is it possible for the food trucks to spread into the next block of georgia st?
  When the lines are long, it's time to walk. It's really odd that going one block reveals a bunch of empty restaurants. I racked up over 40 miles of walking at gencon last year, and maybe I cover more ground than most, but why does everyone stay in sight of the convention center, or only go to the food court at the mall?

I've only been able to eat at the food trucks two or three times, meaning two or three individual meals, in all the years they've been there. When I need food and have time to grab it, the lines are way too long. Plenty of faster options in the surrounding blocks.

Ninja edit: I support and like food trucks, and wish I could get to the ones at GC more. Just usually can't.

Posted by sfrazer
#27

The lines can be long, for sure, but I've had good luck hitting them up at non-peak times. Lunch at 11, dinner at 4:30 that kind of thing. As long as your event schedule works with it, obviously.

I don't go to a bunch of other conventions, so maybe the food truck thing is common now, but I really think it's something that sets GenCon apart and it bothers me that the con runners would essentially exercise editorial control over what kinds of food the trucks are allowed to serve.

I have zero issue with taking HotBox's money as a sponsor. Make them the "Official" pizza of GenCon, whatever. But let the other pizza vendors sell pizza as well. 

Posted by braewe
#28

I didn't hit the food trucks last year but for reals? A couple years ago we had some amazing pizza and I would be very very sad to see anything like an axclusive offered to ANY type of food. Terrible, horrible idea. If it is that way this year, I will NOT be getting any Hotbox. Boo. Terrible idea. 

I went and looked over the sponsorship thing though and I see nothing in writing about 'exclusive' anything. I mean seriously. There is an offical 'beer' for gen con but they don't have exclusivity, to my knowledge...do they? I don't drink beer, so didn't really look. But if there is, wouldn't it really be up to whoever organizes the food trucks to go along with it? Because I see /zero/ /zero/ /zero/ benefit to agreeing not to sell a gamer mainstay like pizza. Just plain dumb.

Posted by dream spawn
#29

The best way to show Gen Con (and Hot Box) that this is a bad idea is to vote with your $. If enough people boycott Hotbox, they will feel it where it hurts most.

Posted by brotherbock dream spawn
#30

dream spawn wrote:
The best way to show Gen Con (and Hot Box) that this is a bad idea is to vote with your $. If enough people boycott Hotbox, they will feel it where it hurts most.

You'd need way more people to boycott than will care about it. 

Hotbox won't be losing any money from a small boycott, just making less. And they'll already be making a mint off Gencon. If you got a lot of people to boycott, they'd still make more than they would if GC allowed other pizza sales, I bet. 

Posted by choriqueso
#31

Woosh!

Posted by brotherbock choriqueso
#32

shaven skaven wrote:
Good thing for me I am more interested in Mexican and Indian food! Pizza is good and all but it's rarely mind blowing no matter who makes it. As long as its hot, crispy, cheesy and meaty lol.
I guess I should clarify though. I am not in favor of companies that want to buy their way to exclusivity. Any company that believes in what they produce welcomes competition. Kind of embarrasing that they want to be the only slice of pizza at the con. hahaha
If they truly supported GC, it would be without the greedy schemey catches.  

A pizza place doesn't want to support Gencon. They want to make as much money as possible. 

Posted by craftyshafty
#33

I think exclusive deals for GenCon is a great idea that they should expand on. 

Maybe Mayfair can get Settlers of Catan billed as the exclusive game and no other boardgames can be sold. 

 

Posted by brotherbock craftyshafty
#34

craftyshafty wrote:
I think exclusive deals for GenCon is a great idea that they should expand on. 
Maybe Mayfair can get Settlers of Catan billed as the exclusive game and no other boardgames can be sold. 
 

The JW is now the official hotel of Gen Con...no attendees can stay in any other hotel.

Posted by del_grande craftyshafty
#35

craftyshafty wrote:
I think exclusive deals for GenCon is a great idea that they should expand on. 
Maybe Mayfair can get Settlers of Catan billed as the exclusive game and no other boardgames can be sold. 
 

Don't give them any ideas.  Decision Games has a deal with WBC where they are the only ones who can sell games for the first day or two.

Posted by kidlidar
#36

I actually wanted to eat at the food trucks last year, but the lines were very long and by the time I got to the front of the line, they were out of food. I then had to stand in another very long line, only to be told they were out of what I wanted.  This happened 2 times on 2 separate days.  (Hot Box was one of those.)  I did get to try their pizza, it was cold and not very good, definately not worth the price.  I won't be giving them my money this year.

Posted by fatherofone
#37

Great post, and I agree 100%.   I also like the conference, but the food trucks were not that good and now I know why.  My son and I went out to find some pizza and hate Hot Box pizza, so we were looking for anything else.  At least I realize now that we will have to walk over to the mall to eat again.  

I also can't fault Gencon for taking cash to have Hot Box be the defacto pizza. 

Posted by nordiskanc
#38

Relatively new to GenCon, where are these food trucks located? Last year only ate and the mall food court as I had to take stuff to the car, couldn't get into the housing block. Might try these food trucks, thanks in advance.

Posted by sfrazer nordiskanc
#39

nordiskanc wrote:
Relatively new to GenCon, where are these food trucks located? Last year only ate and the mall food court as I had to take stuff to the car, couldn't get into the housing block. Might try these food trucks, thanks in advance.

The food trucks are on Georgia Street, just east of the convention hall. This is also where the Sun King beer garden is located.

Posted by dreamitdoit
#40

We literally only came to Gen Con last year to eat two meals at the food trucks.  Ending up spending a few hours in the dealer hall and buying a bunch of stuff, but that was not why we made the trip.  The Hot Box tent looked uninspiring and out of place. Luckily there were lots of tasty options, so we didn't even notice the lack of interesting pizza.

Posted by brotherbock dreamitdoit
#41

dreamitdoit wrote:
We literally only came to Gen Con last year to eat two meals at the food trucks. 

Do you live in Indy...I hope?

Posted by bigfathairyguy
#42

The food trucks are awful. I would say average time between when you get in line and when you actually get your food is like 45 minutes to an hour and most of the time the food isn't anything special. I would actually limit what the trucks can sell for the ones closest to the convention center. If they just have to make one thing over and over they would get a lot more people through the line. I won't even try the food trucks anymore. It is faster to walk to the mall food court.

Posted by brotherbock bigfathairyguy
#43

franknbeans wrote:
The food trucks are awful. I would say average time between when you get in line and when you actually get your food is like 45 minutes to an hour and most of the time the food isn't anything special. I would actually limit what the trucks can sell for the ones closest to the convention center. If they just have to make one thing over and over they would get a lot more people through the line. I won't even try the food trucks anymore. It is faster to walk to the mall food court.

My buddy who owns a food truck definitely follows this advice for big events. He has two, maybe three items that he pares his regular menu down to, and when lunch or dinner time hits, he just starts cranking them out. No food is sitting around waiting for people, but he's also not waiting for people to order. You order your sandwich, it's in your hands a minute later because they started cooking it five minutes ago. I don't think the regular food truck people have figured out larger events in Indy yet, given the absolutely accurate picture above (except for the food quality--I've really enjoyed I'd say 75% of what I've gotten from the trucks, the other 25% was just okay). Regular downtown lunch, sure, open your full menu. But not for events.

Posted by thag13
#44

I ate at Island Noodles truck last year.  I think they had the right idea.  They had like 3 items batched made.  The longest time i was in line was like 10 mins.  I really liked it and it was priced decently well.

But that said, Noodles and Co  is fantastic.  Even with a line, I usually got my food in 15 mins.   Not bad considering the crowd

Posted by alans brotherbock
#45

brotherbock wrote:
franknbeans wrote:
The food trucks are awful. I would say average time between when you get in line and when you actually get your food is like 45 minutes to an hour and most of the time the food isn't anything special. I would actually limit what the trucks can sell for the ones closest to the convention center. If they just have to make one thing over and over they would get a lot more people through the line. I won't even try the food trucks anymore. It is faster to walk to the mall food court.

My buddy who owns a food truck definitely follows this advice for big events. He has two, maybe three items that he pares his regular menu down to, and when lunch or dinner time hits, he just starts cranking them out. No food is sitting around waiting for people, but he's also not waiting for people to order. You order your sandwich, it's in your hands a minute later because they started cooking it five minutes ago. I don't think the regular food truck people have figured out larger events in Indy yet, given the absolutely accurate picture above (except for the food quality--I've really enjoyed I'd say 75% of what I've gotten from the trucks, the other 25% was just okay). Regular downtown lunch, sure, open your full menu. But not for events.
This is how they should run it, absolutely...

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