By james art Surco’s Peruvian food carts on State Street Mall and in Capitol Square took first and second place in the annual Madison Food Cart Review announced this week.
Owner Wilfredo Dexter said the news surprised him and was humble when he explained why the carts he runs with his son Wilfredo Dexter came out on top.
“Mainly because we make the food from scratch fresh every day,” he said. “We are proud of it. We serve using the highest quality ingredients to make our food.’
UW-Madison economics professor Marek Veretka grabs lunch Monday from the Surco food cart on the State Street Mall. The establishment earned top honors in the annual Madison Food Cart Review.
AMBER ARNOLD, STATE LIST
Surco’s menu has eight items, most centered around chicken, and priced between $12 and $13.
The most popular are arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) with coriander-infused jasmine rice, marinated chicken and salad; aji de gallina with pulled chicken breast in aji amarillo pepper sauce, jasmine rice, boiled potatoes, hard-boiled egg and salad; and the chicken adobo, chicken breast in aji panka sauce, with a side of brown lentils, jasmine rice and salad. The included salad has a passion fruit dressing.
Surco is in its 13th year selling, according to Madison Street Sales Coordinator Megan Blake-Horst. It’s the seventh year for the second cart, she said.
Surco’s two food carts take first and second place in the annual food cart review. The photo above is the State Street Mall cart.
AMBER ARNOLD, STATE LIST
The Dexters are from Lima, Peru, and have lived in Madison for 23 years. From 2013 to 2016, they operated Surco Peruvian Cuisine, a sit-down restaurant on Cottage Grove Road.
The annual food cart review, conducted between Sept. 9 and Oct. 5 by city-hired volunteers, helps determine where vendors will be next selling season.
Rounding out the top 20 are Braisin’ Hussies, Bulgogi Korean Taco, Dairy Godmother, Common Pasta, Ernie’s Kettle Korn, Natural Juice, Curt’s Gourmet Popcorn, Taquitos Marimar, El Burrito Loco, Caracas Arepas, Toast, Pagoda Smoothie, Fresh Cool Drinks, Caracas Empanadas, Bombay Fast Cafe, Hibachi Hut, The Roost and Teriyaki Samurai.
Blake-Horst said Surco does so well because it is not only consistent with its product, but also consistent with being in the same place at the same time, Monday through Friday.
“They’re very regular in their schedule, which helps build a customer base,” Blake-Horst said. “They just have a consistently phenomenal product and they’re just very sweet and have a very clean cart. They are great people to represent Madison.”
Surco on the Square is usually at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and West Main Street, on the BMO Harris Bank side of the block.
Blake-Horst typically extends an invitation for reviewers to about 3,000 city officials, neighborhood resource teams and groups such as the Madison Black Chamber of Commerce, the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce and the Latino Chamber of Commerce.
But this year, the city put out a call in July for anyone who could apply.
“This is the perfect opportunity for anyone who considers themselves a foodie,” James Langrere, spokesman for the city’s Department of Planning, Community and Economic Development, said at the time.
Although reviewers receive free food from food carts, volunteer work is serious business and defines the livelihood of many food cart operators, Blake-Horst said. “It’s work,” she said. “It might be unpaid work, volunteer work where you get free food, but it’s not for fun.”
To call the response overwhelming “would be an understatement,” she said. She received 976 applications.
Using a rubric that assigns point values to various questions, Blake-Horst selects a panel of 30, including one member of the sales oversight committee.
She likes to have an equal number of previous reviewers and new reviewers, and reviewers can work for five years before being required to take time off to open up opportunities for others. Reviewers can reapply 10 years later.
She also aims for a broad demographic and mix and chooses some people for their culinary and design expertise. However, some of her chosen people change their plans and are unable to complete the training or assess the required 80% of the carts involved.
This year, she had only 22 reviewers, after starting with 30. People dropped out for various reasons or were unable to complete the process, she said. There were several judges who participated, but they didn’t have the required number of carts reviewed, so she couldn’t count their scores.
Thirty-eight merchants applied for this year’s review, which is required if they want a spot next year on the State Street Mall or Capitol Square. Only 33 sellers made it through the entire review.
That’s the same number of providers who completed the process as last year, and those numbers have declined since the pandemic. In 2019, 51 carts applied, with 43 completing the review process, she said.
Next year, the vending season starts on April 15.
In 2018, the city began allowing full-size food trucks and larger vehicles outside of its high-density areas.
