The Best Michigan Street Food Vendor I’ve Seen Yet Is …

A plate of fresh-made potato chips under the keep-warm lamp at Roller Concessions. Click this and the other two food pics for larger versions.

Roller Concessions doesn’t skimp on the potato chips. When you order a plate of chips, a whole deep-fryer basket-full is what you end up with.

You’d better have friends. That’s a lot of chips.

This past weekend, Roller Concessions out of Lapeer, Michigan, brought their full-kitchen setup to Tecumseh’s Appleumpkin Festival, and the line of customers for those chips and the concssions other offerings went right down the sidewalk.

I saw families carting away two-and-three platefuls of those chips.

The folks at Roller had set up a Tiki-style setup within one of those ubiquitous white tents used everywhere now for festivals and such. But what they had set up in there was a full-blown kitchen worthy of a standard diner.

The grill itself was used for keeping food hot in cast iron skillets and for the grilling of buns. The array of food on the grill was amazing, with pieces of chicken, pulled pork, sausage and vegetables all finding their place in the ironware.

I was standing in the customer line when I shot this photo and the one above it.

The food itself was cooked on a flat steel griddle before heading to one of the skillets on the grill to keep warm. This griddle, and the grill next to it, were right there where the customer line formed. Part of the allure of good street food around the world is being able to watch the food being cooked. This is something Roller Concessions does better than anyone in Michigan I’ve yet seen.

There’s enough call for those massive plates of chips that Roller has two standard dual-basket deep fryers running in the back end of their exhibition kitchen, out of harm’s way for the customers.

I think part of the most important aspect of this operation was the friendlieness of the staff. This was reflected in the customers’ immense patience in waiting for their food. The line was so intent on watching the staff cook and chat with them that people didn’t mind waiting for what was truly a nice meal. I look forward to finding this vendor at another festival somewhere so I can enjoy what they do all over again.