Food trucks HSV

Food trucks in Huntsville. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@AL.com)

The top three vote-getters were separated by only a few percentage points.

So Downtown Huntsville Inc. decided those three vendors from an online "people's choice" poll would move on to compete in their new Battle of the Food Truck All Stars event series. DHI had previously planned on just the top-two moving on. "The people spoke and we listened," says DHI CEO Chad Emerson.

The top three online Battle of the Food Truck All Stars vote-getters were, in descending order, Beast Mode, Southerland Sno Depot and Tim's Cajun Kitchen.

Those three are set to join 10 vendors that already made the All Stars cut via a Feb. 7 selection event, in which 23 food truck operators presented five-minute pitches to a panel of judges comprised of food and marketing pros. The 10 trucks judges chose from that selection event include: Back Alley Traveling Bistro; Bad Newz BBQ; Earth and Stone Wood Fired Pizza; Fire & Spice; Grumpy's; I Love Bacon; Manic Organic; Rollin Lobstah; Washington Square Catering; and Pearl Asian Cuisine.

Nearly 4,000 votes were cast in the people's choice online voting, held Wednesday. The top three easily outpaced the rest of the field, with the fourth-place finisher netting 15 percent the number of votes as the third-place finisher.

There were approximately 40 people's choice food truck options for online voters to choose from. "Since it was a people's choice poll, we let voters add write-ins," Emerson says. "Clearly some were serious but some were more tongue in cheek." Perhaps the online voting option "Truck Norris" fell into the latter category.

Application to the All Stars series was open to food trucks and food trailers, with valid business and health code licenses, based in Madison County or immediately adjacent counties.

Downtown Huntsville Inc. is a nonprofit development organization that's brought an array of diverse events to downtown over the past few years. Those events include the Street Food Gatherings, which attracted thousands of people and evolved into mini-festivals featuring more than 30 food trucks, live music and other entertainment. DHI retired the three-year-old Street Food Gathering brand in October, wanting to differentiate from numerous other local food truck events that had sprung up. And focus on quality rather than quantity, Emerson has said.

DHI will meet with the 13 Battle of the Food Truck All Stars competitors next week to finalize series schedule. There will be 12 total events, to be held from May to October: eight on Thursday or Friday evenings; two on Saturday morning; and two on Sunday afternoons. "The Sunday afternoon is important," Emerson says, "because it gives many of the food and beverage service industry workers a better chance to come enjoy the food trucks." DHI will host an online poll after each Battle of the Food Truck All Stars event. The vendor with the most cumulative votes at the end of the season wins the series.

DHI will supplement the competitors lineup at Battle of the Food Truck All Stars events with 10 tent vendors, such as tea-makers Piper & Leaf.