Weekly ROC Dine N’ Dash Acts as Drive-Thru for Food Trucks

The weekly ROC Dine N’ Dash at the Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex acts as a drive-thru for food trucks in Rochester.

Without festival season in Rochester, food truck businesses like the Eat Greek Food Truck have been hit hard.

“We had over 300 events booked already this year, and just built a second food truck over the winter, so we had a lot of big plans this summer,” Eat Greek owner Andrew Sundberg says. “And right now we probably only have 10 events that haven’t canceled.”

Sundberg says right now, it’s about survival.

“Expenses don’t really go away, but the income turned off. So at this point, we’re just trying to make ends meet here,” he says.

So he was more than glad to participate in the Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex’s first ROC Dine N’ Dash, a weekly drive-thru food truck series.

“There’s such a food truck community that we want to spotlight each food truck in Rochester,” Joe Dolce, with the Iceplex, says. “So we’re going to be rotating the food on a weekly basis so everybody gets a little fun.”

Customers drive around the complex into a designated lane. They either order in advance, or with a runner, and the food is brought out to them.

“If it’s raining or overcast like tonight, you don’t get wet. There’s runners, so it’s like we’ve gone back in time to the old carhop,” Sundberg says.

And for self-proclaimed food truck fanatics like Michael Mordenga, the event is a godsend.

“We go to every food truck event that we can,” Mordenga says. “When we heard about this event, we marked on our calendar and made sure to make time for it.”

And Sundberg hopes the event will help them to continue trucking on.

“We started actually going to neighborhoods. We’re here and we’re trying to promote on our social media. Anything we can do really to try and drum up some business,” Sundberg adds.

The event will happen every Thursday evening from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex parking lot.