The Food Truck Madness finale pits sweet and spicy in a showdown between the Indian food truck Twisted Tandoor and dessert truck Pin-Up Pastries.
Pin-Up Pastries squeaked past You Sly Dog last week by a dozen votes to advance to this week’s finals while Twisted Tandoor easily dispatched DC Jumbie Latin Caribbean in a landslide to make it to the final round.
“It’s taken so long to get through this and every week you breathe a sigh of relief and then on Thursday you go, ‘Oh crap, here we go again’,” said Pin-Up Pastries chef/owner Tracy Santa Cruz, who runs the operation with Tracey Nahrwold. “They are all excellent food trucks and it is tough as a dessert truck to stay up with these food trucks. We are thrilled we’ve come this far.”
Santa Cruz has operated her truck for nearly four years, serving a menu of sweet treats including whoopie pies, cupcakes, cookies and brownies.
Twisted Tandoor chef Mukhi Singh and his wife, Roop, have been serving traditional Indian cuisine since early 2013.
“It’s an ethnic cuisine. Who would have thought that Tucson would pull together and bring us here. It proves Tucson is a foodie town,” he said.
The journey to the finale included Pin-Up Pastries knocking off Lucky Girl Cafe in round one and fellow dessert truck Sarge’s Cheesecakes in round two. Its toughest competition was against You Sly Dog in last week’s round, a matchup that Santa Cruz said came down to partner Nahrwold working social media and talking to every customer who visited the window.
“Pin-Up in general is huge fans of social media. That’s basically how we built our brand,” she said.
After knocking off Tucson Fat Noodle in the first round and zipping past Bella’s Gelato Shoppe in round two, Twisted Tandoor’s toughest challenge was in round three against Hellfire Pizza Co.
Singh admitted his clientele is not as social-media savvy and many are not good when it comes to voting online.
“But they surprised us. Last week we really worked it,” he said. “When we found out we were against Hellfire ... we literally talked to every client. I was telling my wife I feel like a politician. ‘Please can I have your vote.’”
“We were a little nervous with You Sly Dog, but we are really nervous about Twisted Tandoor,” Pin-Up’s Santa Cruz confessed. “You have to have a good product, and I think we have a good product and Tandoor has a good product. But I think you have to let your customers know that without them we wouldn’t be in the final.”
“It’s up in the air for anyone. It’s sweet vs. spicy, what can I say. One can’t be without the other,” Singh said. “Out of 10 people, eight people will come to the food truck and eat an Indian meal. But out of 10, all 10 will go and have a dessert because we don’t serve dessert.
“I think the girls have a strong following, but don’t get me wrong: we are going to fight them until the end. We’ve come this far; we might as well try to win the whole thing,” he added.
Singh said that no matter who ends up with the most votes after this weekend’s balloting, the entire food truck community wins.
“What you guys have done is put the food trucks on the map at the slowest time of year,” he said. “Everywhere we go, we park and people go, ‘We voted for you,’ and it’s great. The whole hype is phenomenal. I think it’s great that you had this contest in May and June. It’s helped us businesswise.”
