COLUMBUS, Ohio — Adam Wallace was around the corner from North High Street in the Short North. The bars and restaurants were emptying into the street as the Saturday night crowd started to go home.
“I heard a boom,” said Wallace. “I thought, man, somebody has just got into an accident. Then I got a call 15 minutes later saying, ‘Hey Adam, there’s been an accident, and your cart’s been hit.’”
Wallace owns the Feed the Need food carts and the Adam’s Eden food truck. He said he immediately thought of his cook that was stationed outside of Union Café that night.
“My first question is, ‘is Smidtty OK?,'” said Wallace. “You kind of take a deep breath and you process things and when I found out he was okay, the rest doesn’t really matter. As long as no one was killed or injured.”
A head-on crash sent one of the vehicles spinning into the food cart. Wallace was told Smidtty was able to dodge the car, but the cart was heavily damaged.
“It was like a hurricane went through and scattered food all over the place,” said Wallace. “The pans, the grill literally came apart. It was just everywhere.”
Nick Elkovitch is a service manager at Union Café. He says he and others came running after they heard the collision and saw the chaos that ensued.
“There was a small fire that happened with the food truck,” said Elkovitch. “We immediately detached the gas and made sure there was a fire extinguisher present.”
No one waiting in line for their food was hurt either, according to Elkovitch.
The next day he started a GoFundMe page in case the food cart or vehicles involved were not covered by insurance.
“With them taking care of us like they do it just felt like the proper thing to do. Give back just in case.”
When Wallace heard the Short North community was raising money to help get the cart back on the street, he was overjoyed.
“Just the support from the community. I appreciate you guys,” said Wallace. “You have no idea how much that means to me. I know you all love my food but that is just love on top of love.”
Wallace says his cart is fully insured and will be going through the process of filing a claim. He is thankful though that without hesitation, other establishments and patrons came to the rescue so quickly after the incident.