Makiel’s Lobster Rolls Arrive at Pig Out in the Park One Week After Burglary and Vandalism

Months after opening his food trailer, Makiel’s Lobster Rolls, Makiel Duncan was excited to make his debut at Pig Out in the Park as a food vendor.

With just over a week to go until the big Labor Day weekend food and music festival, Makiel arrived at his food prep space to find the little black trailer he’d put so much work into over the past year vandalized.

Windows were broken, equipment was stolen and the exterior of the trailer was nicked, dented and cracked.

“It was obviously a shock, a real shock,” Duncan said. “I felt really unfair.”

Duncan, 25, grew up in Spokane and attended Lewis and Clark High School. He always loved cooking.

“I’ve been cooking forever,” Duncan said.

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

Duncan launched in April after spending months working on its small, black, teardrop-shaped trailer.

The menu is simple, with two soups and his famous lobster roll. He posts a weekly schedule of where he parks, usually serving from lunchtime until the end of the workday.

“I have a weekly schedule, so I’m all over the place,” Duncan said. “I try to get around the city as much as possible.”

He quickly built a following with dozens of comments on his Facebook posts. Being part of Pig Out was an exciting step toward more visibility, he said.

“They all made me feel welcome,” Duncan said of the other vendors. “They’re all pretty nice.”

For a few days, Duncan wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it to Pig Out. With his generator and credit card system stolen, he’d have to adapt.

Duncan started a GoFundMe campaign in hopes that his customers would help him repair the damage. He has raised just over $3,000 of his $5,000 goal.

In the meantime, he keeps Pig Out working. He takes only cash and sells only lobster rolls, eliminating soups from his menu.

“I feel like it’s one of those things where there’s a lot of good things happening, so you have to accept the good and the bad,” Duncan said. “I try to be optimistic.”