Makiel’s Lobster Rolls makes it to Pig Out in the Park a week after burglary, vandalism

Months after opening his food trailer, Makiel’s Lobster Rolls, Makiel Duncan was thrilled to be making his premiere at Pig Out in the Park as a food vendor.

Just more than a week out from the massive food and music festival over Labor Day weekend, Makiel arrived at his food prep space to find the small black trailer he had put so much work into over the last year vandalized.

The windows were broken in, equipment was stolen, and the trailer’s exterior was gashed, dented and cracked.

“It was obviously, definitely a shock,” Duncan said. “Definitely felt unfair.”

Duncan, 25, grew up in Spokane and went to Lewis and Clark High School. He always had a love of cooking.

“I’ve just been cooking my whole life,” Duncan said.

He rolled sushi for three years then managed a kitchen before deciding it was time to step out on his own. Duncan liked working with seafood and wanted to bring something new and unique to the Inland Northwest.

Duncan launched in April after spending months working on his little teardrop black trailer.

The menu is simple, with two soups and his signature lobster roll. He posts a weekly schedule of where he parks, typically serving from the lunch hour to the end of the work day.

“I do weekly schedule, so I’m all over,” Duncan said. “Try to get around the city as much as I can.”

He quickly built a following with dozens of comments on his Facebook posts. Getting to be a part of Pig Out was an exciting step for more exposure, he said.

“They all make me feel welcome,” Duncan said of other vendors. “They’re all pretty cool.”

For a few days, Duncan wasn’t sure if he’d make it to Pig Out, though. With his generator and system to run credit cards stolen, he was going to have to adapt.

Duncan posted a GoFundMe hoping his customers would help him repair the damage. He has raised just more than $3,000 toward his $5,000 goal.

In the meantime, he’s making it work for Pig Out. He’s taking cash only and just selling lobster rolls, eliminating the soups from his menu.

“I feel like it was one of those things where a lot of good things going on – so you kind of have to take the good with the bad,” Duncan said. “I try to be optimistic.”