First annual Native food truck festival coming to St. Paul
Trickster Tacos is a Minneapolis-based food truck owned by couple Mariah and Dakota Grant. To celebrate five years in business, Mariah Grant founded Minnesota's first Native American Food Truck Festival, which will take place Saturday, July 5 at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul.
Courtesy of Mariah Grant
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: This Saturday, about 20 Native American-owned food trucks will be parked at Harriet Island on the Mississippi River for a Native American Food Truck Festival. Organizers say it's the first-of-its-kind event in Minnesota. It's also a birthday celebration of sorts for one food truck called Trickster Tacos. That truck's co-owner and the founder of the festival, Mariah Grant, is on the line. Thanks so much for being with Minnesota Now today, Mariah.
MARIAH GRANT: Thank you for having me on.
NINA MOINI: I'm sure you're busy, busy today ahead of tomorrow. Would you tell us a little bit about what made you want to organize this festival? It seems like a lot of work.
MARIAH GRANT: Absolutely. So it is a lot of work, but I had three wonderful ladies who helped me co-organize it. Tara Perrin with The Hummingbird Woman helped me with the vendors, Brooke LaFleur helped me coordinate resources, and Kim Reid helped me with reaching out to news outlets, getting signs, helping with the weather contingency plan all of a sudden.
NINA MOINI: Awesome.
MARIAH GRANT: And kind of everything. So it's been an event that we had a lot of people working on, and we started planning in about November. So we spent a lot of time on it, which gave us the ability to kind of grow it to where it's at today.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. What made you say, this is the year? Because I bet you've had this idea for a while or this is so amazing that it's happening. What made it come together now?
MARIAH GRANT: So we started in business in 2020. And when we started, at that time, there was only two well-known Native food trucks in the Twin Cities, and it was Frybread Express. Which, you don't see them out at events, but they're at almost all the powwows here in Minnesota. And they're a pretty well-established truck. They opened up in 2013.
And then Tatanka truck from Sean Sherman. But when he opened up his restaurants and he started his other food endeavors, he closed Tatanka in order to do so. And so there was really only the one. Or at least that's what we thought, right?
NINA MOINI: Sure.
MARIAH GRANT: Then when we opened, throughout working in the community and along our journey, we found that, hey, there's a lot more Native-owned food trucks than what people think. And also a lot of biracial, Native-owned food trucks, so that we have afro-indigenous members in the Twin Cities. We have our Hmong relatives, our Hmong Native families. We have Hispanic Native families.
Even one gentleman, Tater Tots Temptations, he's Japanese, but his kids are Ojibwe. So they're Japanese-Ojibwe, and they work on his truck all the time. So we wanted to include all Natives of various backgrounds. And we wanted to help them be proud of their Native side as well, I guess.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
MARIAH GRANT: Because we are super proud of it. And it's been one of the best things about our food truck and working in the Twin Cities is our native community.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
MARIAH GRANT: So that was, like, the mission behind it, was to uplift all the Native-owned food trucks. But then through that, we also wanted to include our Native vendors, artists, entrepreneurs, and makers. And then we also wanted to make sure that we highlighted and uplifted our Native musicians and performers and things.
So that's how it got to be where it is now. We have 70-plus vendors. We did have a few food trucks back out due to mechanical issues, and some are traveling really far and the weather is iffy right now. So we are about-- we have 15 right now that are coming.
NINA MOINI: OK.
MARIAH GRANT: And we're hoping the weather just works with us for a couple days here.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. I hope so, too. And people can always come out and just prepare for the weather, right? Gotta be prepared. And I think that what is so neat about what you're talking about is seeing a need for something, to bring something into the light and share it with more people. And then doing that is all the hard work behind the scenes, right?
And everybody has these amazing services that they want to bring forth. But you're kind the one-- of the ones bringing that to fruition. And so I understand part of your experience has been with insuring food trucks and kind of getting people up and running in that form. Do you think that helps to lead to more brick and mortar businesses? Or what would you say is your goal with helping people get to where they need to be?
MARIAH GRANT: I don't think food trucks want brick and mortar. Not everybody, anyways.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
MARIAH GRANT: Brick and mortars right now are incredibly hard to sustain in the metro. Rent and overhead costs are outrageous. And so, unfortunately, I've seen a lot of food truck friends open brick and mortars and then end up closing them. And it actually hurts their food truck business.
I started out insurance in 2016. And in 2017, I had the idea of I wanted to insure food trucks. So I actually started the first-- well, I was part of a team that helped with food truck and food truck policy at Farm Bureau. And I had won awards for it there. So I kind of just fell in love with the atmosphere, the people, the lifestyle and all of that.
And so I don't do insurance too much nowadays. I kind dabble in it here and there, but I have clients that I've had for 10 years, and they usually just stay with me. So I take what I get, but I don't really look for it. But I love working with food trucks because being a food trucker and working in the environment every day, I'm able to help them understand what's necessary, what's not, why it's necessary. And I think that helps us-- I think that helps with the sustainability side of it, absolutely.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
MARIAH GRANT: And a lot of these trucks, specifically Steven D's, has been in business much longer than I have. And they taught me some things as well. So one of the biggest things I learned in business is consistency. And so I try to make sure that we're consistent on posting on our social medias and things like that.
And that's one of the best parts about not only the Native community, but the food truck community as well. Everyone is willing to help all the time. We give business advice. I give insurance advice. I have friends who are real estate agents who will give us real estate advice, like on the brick and mortar subject. We have tax friends.
NINA MOINI: I love that.
MARIAH GRANT: Kind of everybody has their niche and is willing to support each other.
NINA MOINI: I love that! I think that's just so wonderful. And that helps everybody to grow and to, like you said, be consistent and to be able to have longer-standing businesses and ideas. Before we go, Mariah, though, I do want to talk about the food. [LAUGHS] I want to make sure we get to the food. Tell me a little bit about some of the highlights for the festival, food-wise.
MARIAH GRANT: OK, I would love to shout them all out, but I'll never have enough time.
NINA MOINI: It's OK.
MARIAH GRANT: OK, if you've never been to a Native American powwow or celebration, definitely try the Indian tacos. Natives are known for Indian tacos. It's definitely a food that was born out of oppression. A lot of us modern Natives and people who do support it feel it's a food that brings back that sentimental value.
NINA MOINI: Tell me about it.
MARIAH GRANT: My truck, Trickster Tacos will have Indian tacos. Powwow Grounds will have Indian tacos. And Melissa's Frybread is coming from Rapid City with traditional Dakota fry bread tacos. Then we have Wanna Wotapi. Wanna Wotapi is an elder in our community. And he serves-- him and his wife, Anne, serve delicious honey chicken bowls. And they have this drink called the Barbie Lotus. It's pink and sparkly and perfect for the fairs.
NINA MOINI: OK.
MARIAH GRANT: Then we have The Slush Lab and Wild Harvest Lemonade are doing drinks for the day. The Slush Lab uses traditional syrups. So she's got the Ojibwe Kiss, which has elderflower in it. Then she's got a snagable one and all kinds of crazy concoctions. So we love her.
NINA MOINI: Amazing!
MARIAH GRANT: Wild Harvest Lemonade is going to be a tent.
NINA MOINI: Amazing. I love it all. We'll make sure that we have the information on our website to the food truck festival as well, so that people could go on there and look and see.
MARIAH GRANT: Absolutely.
NINA MOINI: That all sounds so amazing, Mariah. Congratulations. Thank you for your work and all the best this weekend.
MARIAH GRANT: Thank you. You have a wonderful 4th of July.
NINA MOINI: You too. Mariah Grant is co-owner of the Minneapolis-based food truck, Trickster Tacos, and founder of Minnesota's first Native American Food Truck Festival. The event, again, is happening this Saturday at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul.
MARIAH GRANT: Thank you for having me on.
NINA MOINI: I'm sure you're busy, busy today ahead of tomorrow. Would you tell us a little bit about what made you want to organize this festival? It seems like a lot of work.
MARIAH GRANT: Absolutely. So it is a lot of work, but I had three wonderful ladies who helped me co-organize it. Tara Perrin with The Hummingbird Woman helped me with the vendors, Brooke LaFleur helped me coordinate resources, and Kim Reid helped me with reaching out to news outlets, getting signs, helping with the weather contingency plan all of a sudden.
NINA MOINI: Awesome.
MARIAH GRANT: And kind of everything. So it's been an event that we had a lot of people working on, and we started planning in about November. So we spent a lot of time on it, which gave us the ability to kind of grow it to where it's at today.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. What made you say, this is the year? Because I bet you've had this idea for a while or this is so amazing that it's happening. What made it come together now?
MARIAH GRANT: So we started in business in 2020. And when we started, at that time, there was only two well-known Native food trucks in the Twin Cities, and it was Frybread Express. Which, you don't see them out at events, but they're at almost all the powwows here in Minnesota. And they're a pretty well-established truck. They opened up in 2013.
And then Tatanka truck from Sean Sherman. But when he opened up his restaurants and he started his other food endeavors, he closed Tatanka in order to do so. And so there was really only the one. Or at least that's what we thought, right?
NINA MOINI: Sure.
MARIAH GRANT: Then when we opened, throughout working in the community and along our journey, we found that, hey, there's a lot more Native-owned food trucks than what people think. And also a lot of biracial, Native-owned food trucks, so that we have afro-indigenous members in the Twin Cities. We have our Hmong relatives, our Hmong Native families. We have Hispanic Native families.
Even one gentleman, Tater Tots Temptations, he's Japanese, but his kids are Ojibwe. So they're Japanese-Ojibwe, and they work on his truck all the time. So we wanted to include all Natives of various backgrounds. And we wanted to help them be proud of their Native side as well, I guess.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
MARIAH GRANT: Because we are super proud of it. And it's been one of the best things about our food truck and working in the Twin Cities is our native community.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
MARIAH GRANT: So that was, like, the mission behind it, was to uplift all the Native-owned food trucks. But then through that, we also wanted to include our Native vendors, artists, entrepreneurs, and makers. And then we also wanted to make sure that we highlighted and uplifted our Native musicians and performers and things.
So that's how it got to be where it is now. We have 70-plus vendors. We did have a few food trucks back out due to mechanical issues, and some are traveling really far and the weather is iffy right now. So we are about-- we have 15 right now that are coming.
NINA MOINI: OK.
MARIAH GRANT: And we're hoping the weather just works with us for a couple days here.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. I hope so, too. And people can always come out and just prepare for the weather, right? Gotta be prepared. And I think that what is so neat about what you're talking about is seeing a need for something, to bring something into the light and share it with more people. And then doing that is all the hard work behind the scenes, right?
And everybody has these amazing services that they want to bring forth. But you're kind the one-- of the ones bringing that to fruition. And so I understand part of your experience has been with insuring food trucks and kind of getting people up and running in that form. Do you think that helps to lead to more brick and mortar businesses? Or what would you say is your goal with helping people get to where they need to be?
MARIAH GRANT: I don't think food trucks want brick and mortar. Not everybody, anyways.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
MARIAH GRANT: Brick and mortars right now are incredibly hard to sustain in the metro. Rent and overhead costs are outrageous. And so, unfortunately, I've seen a lot of food truck friends open brick and mortars and then end up closing them. And it actually hurts their food truck business.
I started out insurance in 2016. And in 2017, I had the idea of I wanted to insure food trucks. So I actually started the first-- well, I was part of a team that helped with food truck and food truck policy at Farm Bureau. And I had won awards for it there. So I kind of just fell in love with the atmosphere, the people, the lifestyle and all of that.
And so I don't do insurance too much nowadays. I kind dabble in it here and there, but I have clients that I've had for 10 years, and they usually just stay with me. So I take what I get, but I don't really look for it. But I love working with food trucks because being a food trucker and working in the environment every day, I'm able to help them understand what's necessary, what's not, why it's necessary. And I think that helps us-- I think that helps with the sustainability side of it, absolutely.
NINA MOINI: Yeah.
MARIAH GRANT: And a lot of these trucks, specifically Steven D's, has been in business much longer than I have. And they taught me some things as well. So one of the biggest things I learned in business is consistency. And so I try to make sure that we're consistent on posting on our social medias and things like that.
And that's one of the best parts about not only the Native community, but the food truck community as well. Everyone is willing to help all the time. We give business advice. I give insurance advice. I have friends who are real estate agents who will give us real estate advice, like on the brick and mortar subject. We have tax friends.
NINA MOINI: I love that.
MARIAH GRANT: Kind of everybody has their niche and is willing to support each other.
NINA MOINI: I love that! I think that's just so wonderful. And that helps everybody to grow and to, like you said, be consistent and to be able to have longer-standing businesses and ideas. Before we go, Mariah, though, I do want to talk about the food. [LAUGHS] I want to make sure we get to the food. Tell me a little bit about some of the highlights for the festival, food-wise.
MARIAH GRANT: OK, I would love to shout them all out, but I'll never have enough time.
NINA MOINI: It's OK.
MARIAH GRANT: OK, if you've never been to a Native American powwow or celebration, definitely try the Indian tacos. Natives are known for Indian tacos. It's definitely a food that was born out of oppression. A lot of us modern Natives and people who do support it feel it's a food that brings back that sentimental value.
NINA MOINI: Tell me about it.
MARIAH GRANT: My truck, Trickster Tacos will have Indian tacos. Powwow Grounds will have Indian tacos. And Melissa's Frybread is coming from Rapid City with traditional Dakota fry bread tacos. Then we have Wanna Wotapi. Wanna Wotapi is an elder in our community. And he serves-- him and his wife, Anne, serve delicious honey chicken bowls. And they have this drink called the Barbie Lotus. It's pink and sparkly and perfect for the fairs.
NINA MOINI: OK.
MARIAH GRANT: Then we have The Slush Lab and Wild Harvest Lemonade are doing drinks for the day. The Slush Lab uses traditional syrups. So she's got the Ojibwe Kiss, which has elderflower in it. Then she's got a snagable one and all kinds of crazy concoctions. So we love her.
NINA MOINI: Amazing!
MARIAH GRANT: Wild Harvest Lemonade is going to be a tent.
NINA MOINI: Amazing. I love it all. We'll make sure that we have the information on our website to the food truck festival as well, so that people could go on there and look and see.
MARIAH GRANT: Absolutely.
NINA MOINI: That all sounds so amazing, Mariah. Congratulations. Thank you for your work and all the best this weekend.
MARIAH GRANT: Thank you. You have a wonderful 4th of July.
NINA MOINI: You too. Mariah Grant is co-owner of the Minneapolis-based food truck, Trickster Tacos, and founder of Minnesota's first Native American Food Truck Festival. The event, again, is happening this Saturday at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul.
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