Nuit Blanche is big business for Food Trucks – that’s no surprise perhaps, what with 1 million people wandering through the city streets all night long. But what is big business exactly? I talked to some of the trucks who attended to get an idea of just how many fries were blanched and fish were fried to feed the throngs of hungry art lovers who took to Toronto’s streets on October 5.

Susan Rucchin from the Sweetness Bakery team says that by 3am, the Sweetness truck sold 1500 cupcakes. That’s more than 180 cupcakes per hour.  To give you an idea, Susan says a sales rate of 100 cupcakes per hour is considered to be “great.” Last year, the truck underestimated the crowds and sold out (900 cupcakes) before midnight. This year, they were ready.

Scott Fraser at Hogtown Smoke says over the course of the 12 hour night, his truck sold about 10 times the food they’d normally do during a busy lunch service, keeping in mind that a normal lunch service is only 3-4 hours long.  ” We restocked the truck seven times,”  he says. Did he get to check out any art? Not a chance.

“I was in the prep kitchen. I never even got to the truck,” says Scott. “I never even got out of the kitchen. Our  prep started Saturday morning at 5am. We got out of prep kitchen at 9am. The next day.”

The rain in the middle of the night slowed things down a bit at Buster’s Sea Cove, says owner Tom Antonarakis. Even still,  his truck was selling at least double the product it would on a normal service.

“It started off really well, says Tom. “Then at 3am the rain came down. Up until then, it was our best night ever. And it still turned out to be a really great night. It always is.”

Photo by Natta Summerky