With just minutes to go before the gates officially opened at Big Carol’s Big Dinner, the Big Carol team had a lot on their plate—literally. For her (un)official debut into Palmetto Bluff society, Big Carol and this culinary cotillion was joined by a handful of fellow food trucks around the Wilson Village treehouse in an atmosphere kept rocking by the leisure-suited stylings of Yacht Rock Revue.

Once the crowds started filing in, the Big Carol crew worked their magic with seamless grace inside. Two fryers saw hand-crafted gourmet corn dogs flying out the window as fast as they could be cooked to golden deliciousness. The griddle sizzled and popped with mouth-watering chorizo and ground beef, ready to be transformed into succulent sliders. Throughout the night, Big Carol’s chefs kept crowds fed even as the line stretched four deep, then eight deep, then back to the fire pit, then nearly all the way to the doughnut truck. And as the night wore on, the band played on and the line for Big Carol ebbed and swelled. Palmetto Bluff’s resident food truck was given a proper introduction. Just as the original Big Carol had kept her mama’s Jay Baby fed, her namesake food truck is giving Palmetto Bluff a quick, delicious bite to enjoy before heading out afield. Written by Barry Kaufman