This week’s episode of the Great Food Truck Race brought the five remaining food truck contestants to Fayetteville, Arkansas. This season is using a new format where instead of the contestants being established food truck owners, each of the eight sets of contestants are novices with absolutely no food truck experience. In fact, some of the competitors have no professional cooking experience at all. Consequently, along with a $50,000 prize, the winning team of this season will be given a brand new food truck to help them start their business.

Spoiler Alert!!!

When arriving in Fayetteville, the trucks met Tyler at Razorback Stadium. Due to the fact this is a small college town, and truck owners would need to adjust their menus and the prices of their menu items, each team was only given $300 in seed money.

The Truck Stop

At the time of the Truck Stop, Tyler called each team and had them to shut their trucks down immediately. They told that would have to be up very early to sell during a breakfast shift. The following morning (bright eyed and bushy tailed) the teams were informed that they would have to make a custom breakfast dish using the student favorite breakfast meal of pop tarts in this dish. Being in a college town, the teams would be judged by a notable teen chef. The winner would receive a $750 token to be added to their till.

Seoul Sausage chose to make a sandwich using pop tarts and fried egg, while Pop-A-Waffle would add the pop tarts and berries to their waffle batter. Nonna’s Kitchenette used their pop tarts to create French toast. Coast of Atlanta created a unique pop tart hash and Momma’s Grizzly made a simple dish by just adding a few toppings to the pop tarts.

At the judging, Jeremy Salamon (the guest judge) preferred Nonna’s Kitchenette and Seoul Sausage. However, he chose Nonna’s Kitchenette as the winner of this Truck Stop.

The Breakfast Crowd

For the morning service, Seoul Sausage and Nonna’s Kitchenette would team together at the local farmer’s market. However, all the teams had the same idea. Pop-a-Waffle is accepted along with Seoul Sausage and Nonna’s Kitchen, but Coast of Atlanta and Momma’s Grizzly Grub had to park outside of the event due to a lack of space. While Momma’s Grizzly Grub was setting up their parking location, they tipped over a lamppost which would require that they take the cost of repair taken out of their till.

By mid-morning, the trucks were once again shut down by Tyler. The teams were told to get some rest so they could open their truck’s back up at 1 a.m. (the graveyard shift).

At 1 a.m., all the teams headed to a local street filled with bars to serve the starving college aged bar goers. Coast of Atlanta ran out of food quickly and had to shut down to make a grocery run. Nonna’s Kitchenette and Momma’s Grizzly Grub battled over a single parking space. Immediately, Seoul Sausage and Pop-a-Waffle had long lines full of college students. Nonna’s Kitchenette was able to draw a crowd with their menu of fried donuts and quesadillas. After opening, Coast of Atlanta decided to drop their prices and offer a simple fish basket. Nonetheless, the bar crowd died out around 3 a.m. With only a few hours remaining, Coast of Atlanta planned for the morning and moved to the farmer’s market very early. Nonna’s Kitchenette thinking the same thing, showed up to the market soon after.

Elimination Day

Last night’s episode was the fourth elimination of this season. Nonna’s Kitchenette came out on top and in first place. In second place was Seoul Sausage (the first episode they didn’t win) followed by Momma’s Grizzly Grub. In fourth place is Pop-a-Waffle and at the very bottom Coast of Atlanta. Because of the accident however, Momma’s Grizzly Grub had to deduct $250 from their till. By a narrow margin of just $24, Coast of Atlanta was sent home.

The final four contestants will move on next week to Nashville, TN.