People living in the area of Flagler Street and NW 37th Avenue hung out of their windows in disbelief as a parade of 62 colorful food trucks -- flanked by a police escort -- rolled through their neighborhood.
The trucks were part of caravan to set a Guinness World Record for "largest food truck parade."
According to Susy Ampuero, director of marketing for Magic City Casino, an adjudicator for the famed records company was flown in to officiate the event. She told Short Order: "We had to have a minimum of 50 food trucks. We had a record number of 62."
To set the record, the food trucks were required to parade for two miles around the casino, heading out of the parking lot around 4:30 p.m. onto Flagler, turning onto Le Jeune, and then back to the casino to set up for the evening's food truck roundup. Burger Beast Sef Gonzalez, who coordinated the event with Magic City Casino, said the parade was quite a sight. "We had a helicopter hovering over to film the event. People were running outside of buildings to stop and watch. It was amazing."
Gonazlez said he had been planning the event for years, but the timing was never right until now.
"I wanted to do this a couple of years ago when there were about 50 to 60 trucks in Miami. Everyone told me it was impossible to get that many trucks together at one time, but I couldn't believe that it wouldn't work. We actually had 52 trucks at the Burger Beast app-release party, but it wasn't officially recorded."
Gonzalez said he approached Magic City Casino execs about setting the record, and they were all for it. After months of planning, the event went off without a hitch, even raising $1,000 for the St. Baldrick's Foundation, which assists children with cancer. "Even though we got rained out in the first hour, we still had about 8,000 people there enjoying the evening and the food trucks."
Asked how he feels about someone else trying to break the record, Gonzalez said, "The record was set in Miami, and it will stay in Miami. We'll make sure of that."
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