New management is raising the standards for food at many of Pensacola's biggest festivals

If you’ve been to the last Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival, Fiesta Seafood Festival, Pensacola Jazz Fest, Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show, or Fiesta Crawfish Festival, you may have unknowingly witnessed the work of Michael “Big Mike” Windhorst.

Windhorst, former owner of Tex-Mex food truck Lone Star Kitchens 2 Go, has purchased exclusive food rights for multiple years from many of the festivals’ organizers. With his nonprofit organization Pcola Events, he’s looking to “elevate” the food that is being offered at some of Pensacola’s most popular festivals and create a more gourmet experience.

“I love this city and just want to represent the best food to the visitors, tourists, citizens that we have here,” Windhorst said. “… I’m raising the festival food bar, and if you sell substandard food - I stand firm in inviting the best vendors I can find.”

Since Windhorst got started with his first festival in fall of 2022, he has uninvited about two dozen vendors from future festivals and is operating on a by-invitation basis. His vendors must meet his criteria, which are broken down into 12 categories.

Some are essential to him, like having proper certifications from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, passing health inspections, and background checks on employees. Others are preferred, like having positive online ratings and the owner present on the food truck at the time of the festival.

The approach has both won him fans and ruffled some feathers, but Windhorst is steadfast that the changes create a better experience for event vendors, operators and attendees.

"We're moving away from 'legacy vendors,'" Windhorst said. "We have so much to offer."

Festivals are running stronger under Big Mike, vendors say

Windhorst has mustered up the reputation amongst his repeat vendors as someone who will go to bat for them and fix any problems that arise so that they can focus on the food.

As Simply Brats Owner Sandy Carlton’s custom-made T-shirt says: “If Mike can’t fix it, we’re all screwed.”

Being a food truck owner himself, Windhorst understands the needs of vendors and advocates for them. If they aren’t getting enough attention because their spot isn't lit up, he’ll hang string lights. If they don’t have easy enough access to power, he’ll install a power strip. If they’re low on ice, he’ll make the run. But one of the highest points of praise amongst his vendors is he knows how to select diverse enough vendors that they aren’t in direct competition with one another.

Melissa Weber, owner of the trendy western-themed mobile beverage trailer The Thirsty Ranch, said that overbooking the same style of vendor can be the difference maker in whether you leave with a profit or barely break even.

“I don’t think they (organizers) realize what an impact that has, how much money we’ve invested in being there,” Weber said. “They don’t realize what a strain that puts on us small businesses.”

Not only is it a hard position for businesses, but less attractive for festival guests.

“Nobody wants to go to a food truck festival and see four food trucks doing the same thing,” Weber said.

She has seen a real difference in Windhorst’s planning and organization, making his festivals among the only ones she’ll say yes to when she isn’t committed to catering a private event.

“He has been excellent at running interference, if there any kind of issues, he handles it for us,” she said. “He’s there to really support us and make sure we have everything we need to be successful.”

Related: Looking forward to 2024: Here are Pensacola's biggest events of the year

Jackie DelliColli, owner of popular wood-fired pizza truck Rolling Embers, said the “family” that Windhorst created within the vendors was a saving grace when she was brand-new to the food truck world two years ago.

“People said, ‘If you get ahold of Mike, he can help you,’” DelliColli said. “He has been nothing but helpful through the whole process, even if it has nothing to do with any of the events he’s doing … It’s a very great community we fell into, we came in by luck of the draw.”

Some longtime vendors barred from future festivals

Windhorst set out to be more intentional about selecting food vendors, especially when organizations like Fiesta Pensacola were being flooded with applications. Since food and beverage selections for Fiesta festivals were previously handles by volunteers, there was little time to do thorough vetting Windhorst felt was necessary to take the food to the next level.

“We were kind of getting to the point where we didn’t know how to handle so many in the best way possible,” said Margaret-Anne West, director of events for Fiesta Pensacola. “He (Mike) has helped us grow our festivals exponentially in the past year with his help. ... We know that Big Mike has our best interest in mind.”

While Windhorst has played a role in achieving record-attendance for Fiesta and recruiting enticing new restaurants and food trucks to get more involved, he hasn’t done it without leaving a few vendors behind.

One of the food truck vendors asked not to return was FunTime Concessions, a fair-favorite concessions stand that have been a core vendor at many of Pensacola’s festivals since the beginning.

Brenda “Tensy” and Dewey Godwin were sought after for their food, particularly their funnel cakes dipped in homemade batter and the corn dogs doused in “Brenda’s corn dog mix,” a secret recipe crafted in her kitchen and perfected over time. It was the Godwins’ care for the community that contributed toward their legacy. Customers would come to order, then sit and talk like family.

“My mother has quite a legacy being in the business this long,” said Lisa Godwin, the couple’s daughter. “We were some of the first concessioners ever in Pensacola.”

Brenda lost her husband in 2021 and has been inching toward retirement since. Lisa hoped her mother would at least be able to finish out the year in the business where it all started.

“He was the right hand to the business, he was the other half,” Lisa said of her father. “He was the visionary of the business.”

The news they weren’t invited to work Windhorst's slate of events was especially disheartening after her family spent thousands of dollars in improvements to meet Windhorst’s requirements, Lisa Godwin said.

“I just feel like my mother has been disrespected. I just want her to finish out what her and my dad started,” she said. “At least this year to finish working the shows and to say goodbye.”

While Windhorst’s expectations are admittedly high, his local vendors are saying they prefer it that way.

Weber, of The Thirsty Ranch, said that the closeness and symmetry among the vendors in Windhorst’s circle only makes for a better experience for guests, even if they don’t realize it.

“That group that he (Big Mike) has - we all care about each other and want to see each other succeed. I was kind of taken aback by that. I love them,” Weber said.

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This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola festivals 2024: How the food scene is changing