Calling all food truck lovers, soccer fans, area residents and workers, northwest side neighbors and anyone else: Uihlein Soccer Park is hosting Food Truck Friday next month.
The Milwaukee Kickers Soccer Club announced today that the park, 7101 W. Good Hope Rd., will be the site of its first Food Truck Friday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on July 7, to celebrate and become more involved in the local community with good eats and great people.
Six trucks are scheduled to participate, offering food and drink for purchase – Cupcake-A-Rhee, Marco Pollo, The Rolling Cones, Hidden Kitchen MKE, Blue Cow Creperie and Denson’s – and attendees are encouraged to bring their appetite, a friend and their community spirit.
"We are hosting to play more of a part in our local community," said Tammy Gilpin-Ripp, MKSC director of marketing and sponsorship. "We’re hoping to draw anyone and everyone for a community-bonding, casual outdoor-dining experience."
Uihlein Soccer Park, considered Wisconsin's premier indoor/outdoor soccer complex, was built in 1994 as a joint venture between the Milwaukee Kickers Soccer Club and the City of Milwaukee. The park comprises 69 acres and features 13 outdoor fields, two lighted stadium turf fields, three indoor fields with AstroPlay surfacing, full food and beverage facilities, locker rooms and more.
A part of the Milwaukee County Parks System, Uihlein hosts year-round Open Play hours when field space is available – part of its founding mission to provide opportunities to and serve the community in which it’s located – and the Kickers, Gilpin-Ripp noted, are a nonprofit organization "that believes in giving back."
"We realized that we had all this space and we’re surrounded by so many businesses – commercial, industrial, educational – who it would be nice to get to know and to show our capabilities," she said, adding that it’s "eye-opening" for many people unfamiliar with the park to see how large it is. "Like many people, we’re food trucks fans and have ample space to host the trucks, as well as anyone who wants to drive over, so we thought why not?"
Gilpin-Ripp emphasized that the event was not soccer-related. There’s no pressure to register or play, and there aren’t even any soccer activities scheduled for that two-hour timeframe, though she said MKSC would be happy to provide information on its program options to anyone who was interested.
She’s hoping to attract a mix of the usual Uihlein crowd and new faces, though Kickers – which, in addition to its youth and adult indoor and outdoor leagues, also hosts birthday parties, field trips, company outings and other events – isn’t trying to convert fans into customers.
"We are not using this as a sales event; it truly is a community event," Gilpin-Ripp said, adding that July 7 was chosen because it happened to be the Friday during the summer when Uihlein could secure the most food trucks.
Food Truck Friday, MKSC hopes, will be a fun event that brings the community together and allows visitors to try new food, meet new people and enjoy the Park.
"Everyone is welcome from all over the Milwaukee area," Gilpin-Ripp said. "Walk, run, bike or drive – just come!"
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
