SEMMES, Ala. — A Mobile-built app that helps hungry customers track down local food trucks is throwing its first in-person party. OpenTruck will host a free food truck movie night and vendor event at Loblolly Farms in Semmes on Saturday, Oct. 17, pairing 15 food and craft vendors with an outdoor showing of Toy Story 5.
No ticket is required. Vendors open at 5:30 p.m., giving families an hour to shop and eat before the movie starts at 6:30 p.m. The event is scheduled to wrap up at 9 p.m.
A family night out without an admission charge
OpenTruck co-founder and CEO Cole Howard said the idea was to create the kind of evening families look forward to.
“We wanted to put together the kind of night families get excited about — a movie the kids want to see, great local food and time together outside,” Howard said. “Bringing everyone out to Loblolly Farm is a way to celebrate the food trucks and small businesses that make this area special and give families a fun night without an admission charge.”
Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets and anything else they need to get comfortable for a relaxed evening of food and entertainment. Toy Story 5, the latest installment in Pixar’s long-running animated series, is a family-friendly pick that should appeal to children and parents alike.
Celebrating a new Order Ahead feature
The movie night also marks the launch of the app’s newest feature, Order Ahead. The option lets customers browse menus and order from participating trucks on their phones, then pick up their food without waiting in line.
For food truck customers, that can mean less time standing at a window during a busy lunch rush or a crowded event. For vendors, it offers a way to manage orders and keep lines moving.
How OpenTruck got started
OpenTruck was released in January and connects customers with local food trucks and community events. Howard said he created the app after noticing how hard it was to find reliable information about food trucks online.
“The idea for OpenTruck came from realizing that we had apps to discover almost everything around us, but food trucks were still surprisingly hard to find,” Howard said. “You could turn to Yelp for restaurants, Bandsintown for live music, or Eventbrite for events. But along the Gulf Coast, there wasn’t a reliable place to see which food trucks were operating nearby, where they were, or what they were serving.”
That is a familiar problem for anyone who has tried to track down a favorite truck. Unlike restaurants, food trucks move from day to day, set up at breweries, office parks, festivals and private events, and often announce their schedules only on social media. An app that pulls that information together in one place aims to make finding a truck as easy as finding a restaurant.
Helping vendors build regular customers
The app is designed to help both sides of the transaction. Customers get more local food options, and vendors get a way to get their names out and turn first-time buyers into regulars.
“Finding new customers is important, but so is making it easy for those customers to come back,” Howard said. “For owners, that means more opportunities to build a regular customer base. Our hope is that people across the Gulf Coast start seeing food trucks as an everyday option for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, instead of something they happen to stumble across at an event.”
Food trucks have become a larger part of the dining scene across Mobile and Baldwin counties in recent years, showing up at festivals, concerts, breweries and neighborhood gatherings. For many owners, a truck is a lower-cost way to start a food business than opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant, but it also means competing for attention without a fixed address.
The first of many events
Howard said the Semmes movie night is meant to be the start of a series.
“We intend for this to be the first of many OpenTruck events. Bringing trucks and customers together in person is something we want to keep doing, and a family movie night felt like a great place to start,” he said.
The company hopes to bring similar events to other parts of Mobile and is open to working with venues and community groups.
“We’d love to bring OpenTruck events to other parts of Mobile,” Howard said. “Hosting them in different locations would give more families something close to home and help our local food trucks reach customers in different neighborhoods. We’d also love to work with venues and community organizations that want to bring an event to their area.”
For now, the focus is on making the first event a success. “We’re focused on making our first event in Semmes a great experience. Feedback from attendees and vendors will help us decide where to go next and what future events could look like,” Howard said.
About Semmes
Semmes is a city in west Mobile County that incorporated in 2010 after years as an unincorporated community. Known for its family-oriented neighborhoods and rural character, it has grown steadily as families have moved to the area northwest of Mobile, making it a natural fit for a family movie night under the open sky.
If you go
- What: OpenTruck Family Movie Night and Vendor Event
- When: Saturday, Oct. 17; vendors open at 5:30 p.m., movie at 6:30 p.m., event ends at 9 p.m.
- Where: Loblolly Farms, Semmes
- Movie: Toy Story 5
- Vendors: 15 food and craft vendors
- Cost: Free admission; no ticket required. Bring money for food and vendor purchases.
- Bring: Lawn chairs and blankets
