Although it wasn’t all that late in the afternoon, a line of customers stretched across the Bethel Park Community Center playground parking lot, ready to order their dinners.

“I had heard that when you bring Cousins Maine Lobster, you are going to have a crowd,” community center director Cathy Muscato said. “I’ve also heard that about Emporio Meatballs, so I did expect a nice crowd today.”

The pair of vendors brought their food trucks to Bethel Park for the second week of No-Cook Tuesdays, which resumed March 8 following a winter hiatus. True to its name, the event provides an opportunity for folks to take a night off from the kitchen and sample a variety of cuisine.

“I like that they have two different trucks every week,” Bethel Park Public Library executive director Christine McIntosh said as she waited in the Cousins line. “My husband wants lobster, and I want meatballs. So it’s perfect.”

Bethel Park Recreation launched No-Cook Tuesdays in November 2020 as a spiritual successor to its annual farmers’ market, which experienced a fine season despite numerous covid-related limitations.

“We saw a need for people to be able to come out and do something, and we figured, add food with that,” Muscato said. “And it was wildly successful enough that it is now part of our regular programming. In the spring, it leads right up to the start of the farmers’ market, and in the fall, the farmers’ market ends one Tuesday and then No-Cook Tuesdays starts right up the following week.”

The 2022 market season begins May 3, with events from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays in the parking lot off Corrigan Drive near the South Park Ice Rink.

“We try to have different vendors at No-Cook Tuesdays than we have at the farmers’ market, to, again, promote variety,” Muscato said. “Every vendor this spring for No-Cook Tuesdays is here two times. So if you miss them or they sell out, you’ll have a second opportunity to see that same vendor.”

No-Cook Tuesdays continues from 4 to 7 p.m. at the community center through April 26. Food trucks on the remaining schedule are Two and a Half Greeks and Pittsburgh Pierogi, March 22; Cilantro & Ajo and Bad Azz BBQ, March 29; Two and a Half Greeks and Emporio Meatballs, April 5; Hoshi Food Truck and Cousins Maine Lobster, April 12; Bad Azz BBQ and Revival Chili, April 19; and Cilantro & Ajo and Pittsburgh Pierogi, April 26.

For more information, visit www.bethelparkfarmersmarket.com.

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