NORTH PALM BEACH – The line at Little Snokyo was 10 people deep and John Salazar and his wife Nicole were up to their elbows in ice.
Conor Defreitas enjoys a blueberry snowcone.
Nearby, Lamborghinis, Ferraris and McLarens glistened in the glare of the mid-morning sun. The mercury topped 80 and the air was sticky and hot. Customers forked over $5 a scoop as fast as the Salazars could dish it out.
It was a broiling day at Cars and Coffee and business was blazing.
“Rainbow is the most popular: cherry, blue raspberry and lemon,” Salazar said. “It tastes good and looks pretty.”
So what’s the link between cool cars and fun food? Florida Fine Cars caught up with Salazar at Cars and Coffee Palm Beach to find out.
“It’s endless summer in Florida. It’s always hot, and people want to bring their families to the car scene and have family time,” Salazar said.
Salazar’s snow cone truck is a regular at the popular car show. He typically brings 100 pounds of ice and eight gallons of flavored syrup so he can serve 100-150 show cones to car enthusiasts looking for a break.
Little Snokyo serves up to 150 snowcones during the Cars and Coffee car show.
“I once had a buddy who drove all the way from Miami to West Palm Beach to get the snow cones. It’s a win-win,” Salazar said. “The kids love it and the adults like to relive their childhood with it.”
Conor Defreitas, 5, is one of those kids. His dad bought him a blueberry-flavored snow cone which promptly turned his tongue blue.
“It’s hot and it’s what kids enjoy. Why not?”said Ricardo Defreitas, of Hollywood.
The snow cone truck often causes some buzz itself.
It’s a 1992 Daihatsu Hijet micro van Salazar modified to serve as a food truck. The vehicle came with a three-cylinder engine which he replaced with a six cylinder motorcycle engine. Salazar, his wife and son Dominic, 10, have driven it as far north as Daytona Beach.
Waffles and chicken sells for $11 a plate, a popular favorite.
A short distance away, the Waffle Wagon was drawing crowds. Customers clamored for plates of chicken and waffles as quick as Loxahatchee residents Sal and Kelley Accardi could serve the $11 meals up.
“We usually do about 150-200 customers in that little time frame – that translates into 150-200 waffles, some with chicken and some without,” Sal Accardi said.
Other popular treats include waffles with Nutella or soft-serve ice cream flavored with carmelized bananas, at $7 a serving.
The Waffle Wagon opens for business at 8 a.m. and usually sells out by 11 a.m. And the line never ends.
That Accardi sets up shop at a car show is no surprise. He’s been building show cars himself for over 25 years, ranging from crazy hydraulic dancing cars to slammed lowrider trucks. But his daily driver IS his food truck, and it’s not a regular car. Inside is all chrome with custom everything.
Walk to the north end of the car show lot and you can’t miss the smokey smell of Meathead’s BBQ.
Shay Hicks and her husband Marcel serve BBQ from Meathead’s BBQ food truck.
Marcel and Shay Hicks cook up their mouth-watering magic.
Marcel, the pit master, might run through 36 pounds of brisket and a case of pulled pork at a single car show.
“I have a line from the time we open up to the time we close,” Marcel chuckled. “When you have car shows people come out and they are out for a few hours and they get hungry. Barbecue is just a hit. They go together.”
Meathead’s BBQ is a family-owned and operated small-business with the motto, ”Straight From The Grill To Your Plate.”
Marcel began barbecuing for fundraiser’s for high school events for his children and it took off from there. Now it’s the family business.
“I love what I do,” he said.
Want to blow smoke out your nose and mouth?
Naty and Ash Zariat serve Tornado potatoes, Dragon Breath cereal and lamb gyros.
Check out Tornado Food, home of the novelty cereal known as
Dragon Breath, a fruity delight soaked in liquid nitrogen. When you eat the super-crunchy cold treat, white “smoke” billows out your nose and mouth.
“A lot of people get it and they like to take pictures by the cars and blow the smoke out of mouth and nose,” said Naty Zariat, who runs Tornado food with her husband Ash. “It’s a lot of fun. They share the pictures on social media.”
She also serves the spiral-cut “tornado potato” on a stick, plain or loaded with cheese sauce, sour cream, green onions and bacon.
Gyros with lamb, and the hummus with chips are also big crowd pleasers.
Delray Beach resident Howard Jacobs and Fort Lauderdale resident Ira Horowitz tried the lamb gyros and swore they were perfection.
Howard Jacobs and Ira Horowitz dined on lamb gyros at Cars and Coffee.
Fresh vegetables, good aroma, the meat was tasty and the pita was soft, said Horowitz, event coordinator for the Ferrari Club of America.
“I’m a foodie. I love food and I even had a cigar afterwards,” Horowitz chuckled.
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#foodtrucks #carsandcoffee #dragonbreath
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