Pop-A-Waffle Says Goodbye — The Great Food Truck Race

By: Sarah De Heer
food trucks

This week, the top three teams conquered Cleveland, but not without some difficulties. With just $100 of seed money, a juicy Truck Stop and a Speed Bump that took the teams out of their trucks for the first time, these teams were pushed and tested to the limit. With a grand prize of $50,000 on the line and the chance to keep their truck, each team tries to pull out all their tricks to stay in the game, but ultimately one truck must go each week. Every Sunday night, FN Dish will bring you exclusive exit interviews with the latest Food Truck contestants to get the boot.

Back in the game this week is Seoul Sausage with an impressive first-place win that brought in their highest earnings of the competition. In the end, Tyler reports that Nonna's Kitchenette is the other team to advance to next week's finale, which meant that it was the end of the road for Pop-A-Waffle. Despite the guys' Truck Stop advantage, they did not make enough money to stay in the race, and Scott, Bobaloo and Anthony were asked to turn in their keys.

You don’t make it this far in the race unless you’ve got what it takes. Driving into Cleveland after capturing your first victory, what was the team feeling?

leg of lamb

Team Pop-A-Waffle Bobaloo Koenig, Anthony Travers, Scott Stanley, as seen on Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race, Season 3.

Photo by: Roger Mastroianni / Getty ImagesCommissioned Photographer ©2012, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved

Roger Mastroianni / Getty ImagesCommissioned Photographer, 2012, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved

We felt great — that victory gave us such momentum coming into Cleveland. It was such a high for the team because we felt like we finally caught our stride. Chef Anthony was overjoyed as well, because the two wins really gave him a confidence boost.

The team won the Truck Stop, which gave you an advantage over the other teams. Do you think the Speed Bump was your ultimate downfall since you couldn’t sell your trademark waffles, or was it moving to the concert?

I think it was a combination of both. The Speed Bump didn't hurt us as bad as we thought it would, because hungry people still wanted to eat. We wanted to get to the concert area earlier, however, and by being stuck with that cart until a certain time hurt us because we couldn't get over there at the peak time for customers.

Fill in the blanks: The hardest part of owning a food truck is _______________. The best part is __________________.

The hardest part of owning a food truck is making sure you learn to use every minute of the day to maximum the truck's success. Oh, and not having air conditioning. The best part is meeting so many different and wonderful customers, the creative freedom you have and a daily change of your environment.

You traveled through some great towns. If you had to create your ultimate road trip with the truck, what five towns/cities would you hit?

Five cities we would love to hit with a food truck would be Milwaukee, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Maine. Milwaukee is my home town, Anthony's from Boston and Scott's from Maine. It would have been our game had we made it to the finale with Boston and Maine involved.

Can the great people of Los Angeles expect a Pop-A-Waffle truck anytime soon? Bobaloo, I can’t imagine you’d go back to working “for the man.”

The Waffle Boys are working hard to open the Pop-A-Waffle truck as soon as possible in Los Angeles. We are writing up the business plan, shopping for trucks and talking to investors. After taking such an amazing experience as far as we did, we'd be fools to go back. Upward and onward!

Next Up

Pop-A-Waffle — Truck-a-Day

Their sweet and savory menu offers waffle-based takes on strawberry shortcake, fajitas and more, proving waffles are perfect for way more than just breakfast and dessert.