ACL is just 3 weeks away! I’ll be at the festival during weekend one this year, and I CAN’T WAIT to check out the ACL Eats part of the festival! They do a fantastic job of highlighting a wide variety of restaurants and food trucks from around the city. There are always a few new ones added in, a celebrity chef or two, and then lots of staples, like one of my favorites: Mighty Cone.
I stopped by their food truck at Barton Picnic to snap a few photos and get a behind-the-scenes look inside their food truck. (And sample a few cones…duh! I’m into food blogging for a reason! 😉
Here’s the story of Mighty Cone:
Back in 2002, when ACL festival was just getting started, the chefs at (the now closed) Hudsons on the Bend were asked to create a festival food. (‘Cause even back then, Austinites were snooty and wanted their own city’s food featured at the festival! I love it. ) They came up with something that you can hold in one hand…because when you’re at a festival, you need your other phone free for a beer, snapping pictures, or just jamming out to the music!
The result was a piece of deep-fried chicken, wrapped in a tortilla, and served in a cone (similar to a paper sno cone), all topped with mango-jalapeno slaw and ancho sauce. This popular food item returned to ACL Fest year after year, and in 2009 the food truck made The Mighty Cone available year round. Praises.
Why is The Mighty Cone good festival food?
It’s delicious, filling, and easy to hold while you’re walking from stage to stage. You know that moment when you’re trying to take the perfect boomerang for your instastory AND stealing a sip of your husband’s craft beer AND jamming out to Foster The People? Well, you need a one-hand meal for that moment. So…Mighty Cone.
A few Mighty Cone favorites….
The Chicken Cone: Alrighty, everyone has to start with the Chicken Cone…this is the cone that started it all! Chicken tender in almonds, sesame seeds, chili flakes, corn flakes and seasonings in atortilla cone with a mango-jalapeno slaw, topped with ancho sauce.
The Shrimp-Avocado Cone: This one is my personal fave! It combines the Shrimp Cone + Avocado Cone to get the best of both worlds! Ooh, and that mango-jalapeno slaw, y’all…
One more quick thing that I learned: the Mighty Cone food truck is available for events, like weddings and office parties. (Nate and I had a food truck cater our south Austin wedding, and it was so much fun!). I think it would be pretty cool to have the “original food truck from Austin City Limits” cater an event!
Mighty Cone Food Truck
1720 Barton Springs Road Austin, TX. 78704
[…] Festival food should be able to be held in one hand (like the original festival vendor, Mighty Cone), so it’s not surprise that this was a hit at the […]