April 27, 2013: Mad Munch's Debut in San Diego

With my truck all loaded, I picked up Kris & drove through light Saturday morning traffic over to Golden Hill in about twenty minutes.  There were a few tents set up & vans already unloading in the middle of B Street.  I quickly spotted Brian carrying a coffee & wearing his signature newsboy cap.

"Your spot is over here," he pointed to a large square marked in chalk.  "Just pull your truck in parallel & park behind your tent."

I got the truck situated, then Kris & I began to take out the tent, grill & big cooler, a ritual I would become very familiar with over the years to come.  On this sunny morning I'm sure I looked every part the newbie, with a starch white tent canopy & with Kris & I unloading & moving stuff around several times trying to figure it out.  

I even brought a couple of lawn chairs, & my Milwaukee brand work radio as if we were setting up for a kid's birthday party or a soccer game.

It was a good thing we showed up an hour before the "official" start of the market at eight.  I say "official" because some weeks customers show up before start time & other weeks nobody's around until close to nine.  

I have to say our setup looked pretty official to me & more importantly it wasn't windy & lighting the grill was not an issue.  I imagine Kate would have been happy with our work, though she was 2,000 miles away, probably brunching hard in Music City U.S.A. 

I don't remember what our first sale was, but selling $1 cans of soda out of my Grandpa Heinz's green metal Coleman was popular.  When someone ordered one of the five Cheezers on the menu, Kris would take their money & holler their order to me.  I would then butter the two slices of bread (Sourdough, Whole Wheat, or Thick Egg Bread) & assemble the sandwich on the griddle.  If they ordered Tomato Soup, Kris would heat it up in a small pot on the open range.  

We sure thought we had a slick operation going.  That was until our friend, Fran stopped by to say hello & grab a Cheezer.

"Where's your sign at?" she asked.

I laughed- we didn't have one!  "Good eye, Fran," I said.  "We were so caught up in everything else, I totally forgot about a sign."  I tried to give her a free drink, but she just laughed it off.  When I offered her a chair to eat her Cheezer, she took me up on it.

Customers would come in waves.  The best thing you can have at a market is a line, because everyone wants to stand in line for some reason.  I don't know why this is, but check it out the next time you're out & about.   

Kate's co-worker, Tammi, & her husband stopped by for lunch.  "Hey, your guy's booth looks great!  We can't wait to try some of this grilled cheese I keep hearing all about," she said.  They ordered a couple different Cheezers & tomato soup.  At that time, our tomato soup was nothing more than a can of Campbell's with a dash of milk & a shake or two of Italian seasoning.  

We've come a long way.

By the end of the market I saw other vendors starting to slowly break down their booths.  The lady who sold tamales must have sold out because at almost 12:30 on the dot, her tent was gone & her van was running.  

It would take Kris & I quite a while longer.  I counted the cash from my U.S. Bank bag at least five times in the cab of my truck.  Mad Munch didn't accept credit cards (I still had a flip phone at that time) but I wanted to make sure I paid the correct 10% booth fee to Brian's Farmers Markets.  

Though I had nothing else to compare it to, I think we did pretty well that day.  The Cheezers looked good & people seemed to enjoy them.  It felt good when I finally padlocked the back of my truck, each popped an A&W Root Beer & drove back to OB.  

We later met up with some friends at Kris' place, rode bikes to his girlfriend, Emily's office in Old Town & took the trolley to a Padres game at Petco Park.  It was the perfect ending to a beautiful & successful day in San Diego.